5,000 RSS Subscribers

I noticed my FeedBurner RSS counter broke 5,000 readers today. What that means is 5,071 people read this blog with the full feed RSS yesterday. Today’s figure will be available tomorrow. I wrote several articles on increasing RSS subscriptions. In case you miss them, here’s a recap:
- How To Increase RSS Subscriptions
- How To Get RSS Readers To Visit Your Blog
- Evil Way To Increase RSS Subscriptions (Not serious)
While, the above articles show how to increase RSS subscriptions, it doesn’t address a very important issue: why would a reader want to subscribe to your RSS? Once you answer that question, you’ll be a in a lot better position to getting more RSS subscribers.
The answer to the question is nearly the same as the answer to, “why should I visit your blog?” It all comes back to your content. If your content isn’t unique or compelling, there’s no reason for anyone to read your blog, much less sign up for the RRS. Good content drives not only traffic, but RSS subscriptions.
- Posted in The Net
- 42 comments what's your take?
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W00t!
Way to go John. If you update 4 times a day like yourself Im sure that also helps. Im only at 122 but it goes up everyday, because I am posting regularly.
I have a question though. If you post twice, and a person uses their rss reader twice to check your blog does that count as 2 or 1?
Reply to this commentI believe it counts as one because FeedBurner tracks IP.
Reply to this commentYep. Only counts as one.
btw, i broke 100 today
Reply to this commentCongrats
I am also > 100 now
Reply to this commentHow do you drive your traffic Chow? Posting ReviewMe and expensive Chinese food?
Reply to this commentThat’s exactly it! And it brings in five figures a month!
Reply to this commentNot to mention the tax deductions by claiming the meals as a business expense. It’s a beautiful circle of evil
Reply to this commentJohn’s just pure evil genius, isn’t he?
Reply to this commentCongrats John…from the humble days of 300 to 5000 ..great work
Reply to this commentJohn, did you notice that your feedburner dropped below 5000?
Take a break from life.
Reply to this commentCONGRATULATIONS on the achievement John!
Through many hours of work and providing great content it was only a matter of time. I just broke the 10 mark….. LOL
Looking forward to seeing you hit the 6000 mark!
Stephen
Reply to this commentI think that the last comment about how good content is important is the key to this post.
I’ve noticed that post regularity greatly improves the number of subscribers to my feed. When people see the same story for a number of days, or boring stories repeatedly, they’ll unsubscribe from the feed, and probably won’t bother to come back.
Free Advertising
Reply to this commentTrue that, true that. John has always stressed the importance of high-quality content and it’s safe to say that we all agree. I guess I can’t say it enough either — fresh and regular posts are essential to a blog’s success.
Reply to this commentCongratulations !

Reply to this commentCongratulations!
One of my favourite ways to increase raw numbers is a bit sneaky, and I’ve done it on this comment. Can you figure it out?

Reply to this commentway to go.
Maybe you can teach us how to get from 0 to 50 feeds first.
Reply to this commentThat’s an excellent point
That probably would help more people than getting from 4K to 5K 
Reply to this commentCongratuilations John !! Wish I had 5000 subscribers
Personally I love RSS feeds, I get to most of the blogs I read through my Netvibes home.
Reply to this commentDon’t forget about personality. I could get all of the same info you give from someone else, no offense, but I choose to subscribe to your feed because I like how you write as much as what you write.
It also helps that you have a better grasp on writing proper English than many native english speakers that blog or write for newspapers today.
Reply to this commentGood point. I, too, got hooked on John’s site because of his personal tone and style. After all, these factors differentiate your blog from the rest so having distinct qualities that are your own do help.
Reply to this commentWay to go John. I like the way you are tuned to the station WIIFM - What’s In It For Me. Good to see it’s broadcasting loud and clear from Van.
Reply to this commentwell done john
next target 10,000
Reply to this commentCongratulations. I had 82 unique visitors yesterday, so HA. I’m getting there, don’t worry.
Reply to this commentWell, maybe it’d take a boost. But JohnChow.com has sent me a few visitors here and there.
Reply to this commentHmm 5,000 seems like a nice round number. I think I want one too
Congrats on breaking 5,000! Only 5,000 more to go right?
Reply to this commentCongrats John…onwards to 7500 now !!
Reply to this commentcongrats JC
Reply to this commentcongrats..
I will try for rss readers

Reply to this commentI tried to build my readership via RSS, then realised. Why do i want people to read via that? Surely its better to get people back on your site as much as possible
Reply to this commentI’m one out of 5000…that sucks
Reply to this commentCongratulations on reaching the 5K milestone. Divide that by 1,000 to determine my RSS readership
Reply to this commentI think that’s pretty much where I am as well
Good to know I’m not alone.
Reply to this commentCONGRATULATIONS on the achievement..
Reply to this commentCongratulations on that awesome achievement. Someday I hope to have a fraction of that
Reply to this commentYou are truly a dot com mogul. If I can only get more than 2 subscribers
Reply to this comment….but then I am only 5 days old.
Visit my Debt Free Blog
John,
On one of your tips you suggested to not publish the number of feed count if it is less than 50 or so. I will have to disagree because given that same token, it’s not hard to estimate one’s feed count if you have the RSS button there but no count.
I also think that sometimes it can actually help you to post your count regardless of how small because new subscribers will know that by subscribing, they are that much more important to the blogger as opposed to subscribing to techcrunch with its 400K count.
I proudly posted mine when it was a lonely 6. That way new readers can take comfort in knowing they helped build the readers base from the ground up
Reply to this commentThis might be true, but it is still a wee bit embarassing.
Reply to this commentI’ve always loved that third post about the evil way to increase RSS.
5,000 subscriptions…wow, John, you must feel all frothy inside!
Reply to this commentCongrats! Do we get some treat? (But no live lobsters please
)
Reply to this commentHa, I learned my lesson about live lobsters when I went to Morton’s in Chicago.
Reply to this comment