A Question About Feeds
I am not out to win any popularity contests (if I was then I am clearly losing), but I do have one question about the FeedBurner feed count. Is there any sort of systematic fluctuation linked to RSS (e.g., the reader somone might use), or when it drops does that essentially mean I have been unsubscribed? It was ‘4′ about an hour ago and now it is ‘2.’ Granted, any fluctuation is always going to seem extreme because of my low feed count, but what sorts of variances do others who track this stat see?
I found some information here.
I saw this frequently, so you aren’t alone. The funny thing is, when my site was down and I watched subscribers slowly disappear, some days they’d go back to full strength. So, I don’t know.
I thought it meant how many people accessed your site via a feed. Obviously I have something to learn.
@Abhigit: Thanks! I was thinking exactly what the article said:
After all, the count dropped right after I posted a somewhat pro-Colts post. It is good to know that it probably has nothing to do with that.
@Kyle: Glad to see that you’re back online. I like your new domain name.
@mrscrumley: The feed produced by WordPress is actually “transformatum.com/feed”, but by setting up an account with FeedBurner the feed changes to “feed.feedburner.com/transformatum”–thus the ability to track your subscriber count. I may have some readers who subscribe to the standard feed (i.e., those who subscribed prior to the creation of my “burned” feed), but I have since replaced the feed icons with the enhanced feed…oops, I just realized that the footer still has the old feed!
[quote comment="13864"]I thought it meant how many people accessed your site via a feed. Obviously I have something to learn.[/quote]
I think you’re actually pretty correct. I don’t display my feedcount anymore but I still keep track of it and anyone can see it (openswitch.org/mint). If you look at my feedcount it goes up and down dramatically day by day. Are you using the feedburner redirect plugin? It will give you a much more accurate view of how many subscribers you have. I have a hard time believing only 4 people subscribe to your blog. I know that I do, and you probably do and since you’re in 9rules I’ll bet at least 10 other people do too.
Oh, there’s a FeedBurner redirect plugin? I definitely need to look into that. BTW, have you upgraded to the new version of Mint? I keep putting it off.
@Ben: You were right. There are more than 2 subs. Of course, displaying the count might be the equivalent of putting your GPA on your resume. If it isn’t an A then you are better off leaving it out.
Yeah, I upgraded Mint. There are some new features that are pretty nice. It’s definitely not a necessary upgrade but I had some spare cash so I went for it.
$19 for the upgrade…and I just bought it for $30 back in November.
Had I only waited until 1/1 then I would have received a free upgrade. Maybe when my PayPal account has some spare change I’ll do it…thanks!