RSS Subscribers: Social Proof or Social Fake?

Posted by on Jan 15, 2009 in RSS & Subscription | 4 comments

Bloggers care about their metrics. For majority, the number of RSS subscribers is one of the biggest indications as to whether your blog is worth reading or not. However, due to a special deal with Feedburner and Aweber email autoresponder, Feedburner counts email subscribers as RSS subscribers.

Hire a few people, let them create fake email accounts from various email services, and ask them to subscribe your blog via email form. I guarantee 1000 RSS subscribers in a month with this technique.

Last summer Aweber launched pop-up email sign up functionality. Every time a user visits your blog, a pop-up appears and asks you to subscribe. Quite a lot of bloggers, including the very popular ones, liked these pop-ups.  A few months later I noticed significant increases in their RSS subscribers.

Do you think it is ethical or unethical? Assuming you did not aware of this before, do you feel cheated by these bloggers?

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4 Comments

  1. rampantheart
    January 15, 2009

    Honestly speaking, I wouldnt want to do something like this. But niches vary and I guess it’s very important to carve one’s niche particularly in blogs about blogging. But even if I were to start a blog on blogging,I am afraid I wouldnt choose this methodology. And yes, this is the first time I am hearing about this and it shocks me!

    reply
  2. Tom - StandOutBlogger.com
    January 15, 2009

    I don’t think we really need to be focusing on these numbers. RSS subscribers dont really mean that much. Aweber subscribers are worth a lot more, but to be honest I would prefer an increase in my unique traffic over an increase in RSS anyday.

    reply
  3. Miguel Wickert
    January 15, 2009

    Hey Mert

    You know where I stand on this issue! :) I DISLIKE POP-UPS! Yeah, I said it, even if your a popular blogger, I could care less. I’m with Tom, also, I’d rather have an interactive community centered around my site than being worried about RSS stats.

    -Mig

    If anyone wants more details about my position. Come drop by SB. Cheers!

    reply
  4. Bloghology Social Network
    January 16, 2009

    Congrats for the Article Mert. we where talking about it a week ago with a common freind of ours.

    ProBloggers are they true/real or just using scam technics to influence their readers/subscribers and create a brand name of themselfs?

    reply

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