Comments

1. It may be seen as a show off feature, to be honest.

   Less visited blogs are not necessary less worth checking. Personally, the content is what matters the most. Let people “guess” how many hits you get and concentrate on providing good content.

   Tim Sanders (one of the big guys from Yahoo) wrote a book called “Love is The Killer App.” He writes about 3 important points:

   - Knowledge: Know your field well. Read as much as you can.
   - Network: Share that knowledge with your network. Be a connections “match maker” without having a hidden agenda.
   - Compassion: Do all this with a genuine interest on those contacts.

   When you blog with this things in mind, number of hits and subscriptins don’t really matter anymore. You just do it ’cause you love it and ’cause you want to contribute to the community.

   He says: ” Love is the selfless promoton of the growth of the other. When you are able to help others to become the best they can be, you are being loving - and you, too, gro.”

   — Josue, March 13, 2006

2. Ego badge. Definitely (imho).

   — HandySolo, March 13, 2006

3. Josue, thanks so much for your comment - it’s one of the best I’ve read in a long time and I really like Tim’s ethos. It’s so genuine and it’s a great reminder to me of the things I’d like to aspire to in my work - and as a blogger.

   — Rachel, March 13, 2006

4. good points Josue - although I’ve actually found that quite a few of my readers seem to like watching the feed counter on my blog. I can’t quite work out why this is.

   Perhaps people like to feel that they belong to something that is bigger than themselves - perhaps it taps into the voyeuristic nature in us - or perhaps people just like statistics….

   I can’t work it out. I can’t remember why I started using the button on my blog but I’m yet to hear anyone say anything negative about it (to my face anyway )

   — Darren, March 13, 2006

5. I keep my badge up for my readers. I have had a few comment on its movement and their look has gotten better recently.

   — Dennis Bullock, March 13, 2006

6. I just hate it when “they” and “them” come out to meddle in our blogging affairs again .. Sorry - but for the people out there who judge me and my content of my sites by my display of a feedcounter or statistics counter - :Ptfffttftftftft

   I put my feedcounters and statistic numbers on every site for a good reason. With the 20 odd sites I have, it’s too cumbersome to login to every ‘project’ or ‘account’ at sitemeter or statscounter or feedcounter … I can’t even get real stats from my server urchin figures because of my many domain aliases and pointers to subfolders of my main hosted site. It’ just easier to see the numbers every day in the sidebar or at the bottom of my site. I pretty much will know if there is a significant difference, or jump in viewers immediately just from familiarity with figures everyday for the last 9 months.

   On a side note however, I secretly hope the feedcounter numbers do increase every day, because it keeps me focused .. thinking people, gosh darn it, actually like me (my Stuart Smalley impression) .. and reminds me not to put some crap personal stuff in my business blog, or make fake blog entries like “Oh, I’ve got Writer’s Block” ..

   — HART (1-800-HART), March 13, 2006

7. I think it’s pretty neat showing off your Subs count. I mean , when people show off a lot more, there’s no harm in this.

   And Yes, Subscriber counts are important for determining the value of a blog.. Usually people subscribe to a blog only if they are interested in many of it’s items and want to continue reading it, so hell yeah!!

   — Chrono Cr@cker, March 13, 2006

8. personally, i find no value in public stats or feedburner subscriber badges. if i’m visiting a site, i’m there for a reason. either a) i found the site by clicking on an intriguing / interesting link, b) i have the site already bookmarked, or c) someone else referred me to the page.

   if i check the actual frontpage on techcrunch (rather than reading it from feedlounge), the fact that feedburner is spitting out 27000+ subscribers means nothing more than hey..! 27000+ other readers are subscribed just as i am. there is no difference [personally] if i find myself reading a site displaying 3 subscribers vs. a site displaying 500+. it’s about content.

   you must also take into consideration that generally speaking, rss is still misunderstood by the majority of internet users.

   — derek, March 13, 2006

9. Thanks top the psychological concept of “social proof,” people look for signs that what they have stumbled upon (a blog) is “good” in the eyes of others. Maybe it shouldn’t be that way, but it is. It’s human nature.

   So essentially, people with large subscriber counts displayed on their blog will likely see their subscriber counts grow even faster than if they hadn’t displayed the count.

   — Brian Clark, March 14, 2006

10. In my opinion, they do not add anything when publicly visible. I’d rather read the blog than look at the hit counter.

    It’s interesting to monitor feed subscribers yourself as part of your feed stats. It’s more interesting to get comments from interested readers of your blog though!

    — Clive Walker, March 14, 2006

11. I’ve always wanted to have a FeedBurner-type counter on my blog. I totally agree with you about just normal website counters. Those need to go. But I enjoy seeing the subscriber count in the blogs i keep up with. At the same time, everytime I see a normal pageview counter, my respect for the website drops. I don’t know what it is about rss feed counters. Do you know of any subscriber counters that do not rely on feedburner? I refuse to use their service!

    — The Information Bank, March 14, 2006

12. Interesting topic. I post my Feedburner count. So far I haven’t had any complaints. I don’t see what the big deal is. If people don’t want to look at it, they don’t have to. I have advertisements up and somehow lots of people don’t have a problem ignoring them!

    I have been blogging a year and a half now and I have to say it has been fun watching my subscriber base grow.

    — JLP at AllThingsFinancial, March 14, 2006

13. 세계�으로 화제가 �고 있는 세�활성 �료입니다.
    �� �세�� 소�� 발�합니다.
    현재 국내 극소수 밖� 모르는 초특급정보입니다.
    샘플만 보내줘� �니다.
    샘플� �본 사람� 반� 구입하는 제품입니다.
    매� 카드로 커미션� 들어옵니다.
    �해 볼 것� 없고 누구�게 피해 갈 것� 없습니다.
    �� 한 거 절대 아닙니다.
    � �� 긴� 하지 않겠습니다.
    � 벌고 싶� 분� 아래 메�로 연�주시면 �세한 정보를 알려드리겠습니다.
    pkroman@hanmail.net

    관리ìž?님! í??를 ë?¼ì³? 죄송합니다.
    게시� 주소를 알려주시면 다시 올리지 않겠습니다.
    삭제비번�1111입니다.

    — ë?„우미, May 15, 2006