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New Blog Milestone – 15,000 RSS Subscribers

written by John Chow on January 17, 2008

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Feedburner RSS count

Yesterday, this blog showed a RSS count of 10,685 because Feedburner forgot to show the number of RSS by email subscribers. Today, that oversight has been corrected and this blog broke 15,000 RSS readers. It took the blog 20 months to go from zero to 6,000 RSS readers and just six months to go from 6,000 to 15,000.

As I’ve stated in my BlogOnExpo video, your RSS subscription base is your blog foundation. RSS is the main thing I work on because it’s the only thing that I can control. As hard as I tried, I can’t control Google (if anything, Google controls you) so I don’t worry about it. However, RSS is something within my control. I know that if my RSS base is big enough, then nothing can take me down. I have wrote several articles on how to increase RSS subscription. For those who missed them, here they are again:

You want people to add your feed to their RSS reader because it serves the same purpose as a bookmark. Remember how hard web publishers used to encourage readers to bookmark their sites? RSS is the new bookmark – having 15K RSS readers is the same as having 15K bookmarks.

RSS Number Double, RSS Ad Price Stay The Same

I opened RSS text ads back in August when the FeedBurner reader showed 7,727 RSS. Back then the price was $200 per month. Today, the RSS numbers have more than double but the price is still $200 per month. If you haven’t taken advantage of this advertising opportunity, then now would be the time to do so.

RSS text ads can have a full 80 character title and 150 letter description. It’s a great value and a fantastic way to reach over 15,000 readers everyday. If you’re interested in buying a RSS text ad, send the text and URL to johnchow@johnchow.com and pay with the PayPal link below.

Buy a RSS Text Ads

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Congrats John. You're neck in neck with Shoemoney. Not that it's a competition. :smile:

Interesting comment, "RSS is the new bookmark." Hadn't thought of it that way before. Thanks (and congrats). -bill

First of all, congratulations on the fine result... :mrgreen:

That being said, do your four articles dwell on the subject of creating an interest among many hundreds of actual READERS who have READ what you wrote and who are still looking for who actually WON the ruff pc?

Just wondering.... ;-)

Congratulations on reaching a new milestone! Just read about you in Entrepreneur magazine and couldn't wait to check out your site. I registered today as well. My goal is to get moving and get to that level of subscribers quicker than you. I know that is a big challenge but you have provided great info on your site. Best wishes. Go for 20,000! Debbie

I just got my 12th subscriber! This is the highest it has ever been! Considering that the other day it was at 7, I've almost doubled the amount of subscribers I have.

Sheff

I saw the sudden increase the other day and it is outstanding!!! :mrgreen:

Congrats on hitting 15k. Hopefully the RSS problems won't make it go back down.

John, did you check to see if your feed count was hit by the FeedBlitz increase today? Search Engine Land had a post about it and apparently some people gained thousands of extra subscribers over night.

Either way, congrats on 15k. I'm on a push to hit the 1k mark with my blog (currently in the 820 range).

No, I didn't get hit but it looks like Problogger did. He's showing 100K RSS readers!

Congratulations John, because you are blogging very early very much useful informations. Early bird gets its prey. So you are..Very nice. Keep it up for ever.

I've started liking you :D
I used to visit Shoemoney's blogs for a long-time (not any more)... but you've worked for me... last night i read your e-book... was great!
I've also hided my RSS-Subscribers as you said it to hide until i have minimum 50 readers... but its a hard job...
You did a fantastic job, 15000+ is huge.... congratulation :)

Hi John. Nice to see your blog. I have just subscribed to your news letter and will read your new ebook after this. How is our agloco.com. Have you been paid any by agloco? I haven't displayed the viewbar this month. Share the news with me if you know more than I do.

Congratulation John. Nice work and nice blog you have. :mrgreen:

Actually, I was talking about the sudden fall of your subscriber with one of my fellow blogger and here you are with a nice article. Hey, John, I think you read peoples mind or what?

I was awed by the subscriber number when I first visited your blog some 1 month ago. and thanks..seeing you on YouTube, giving interviews,sharing tips, hah?

You hit when it mattered. Now, I suspect If anyone could reach your status. Do we have any chance??

Of course you have a chance, all blogs start with no RSS subscribers, a PR of 0 and 1 visitor (yourself). In the end, it's entirely up to you: if you are able to give it 110% even when all goals seem out of reach, you might just stand a chance. If not, then I'm afraid that a 9-5 job is the way to go.

Alan Johnson

At this moment I am reading your free make money online book which I downloaded after I become your subscriber, aside from your tutorial of making money, I am curious and wonder (out of my naive as a newbie) is how many email address you have to manage and run all of your blog site and how many passwords you have now? are you using same email for all or each email or each project has it's own email account? and...how to manage that? I look forward to have a response from you,

have a great day..cheers
bali dream home

Your post is good and the number of subscribe readers is a lot, mine only a small amount, still trying to get more feed readers. :mrgreen:

ah unfortunately many people do that 4th tip :)
it's your fault john! your fault! :kidding:

Google controls you for sure. Nice work on the increase

Those are just some great numbers there John. I think you should start another contest with another big name blogger (it could help reach 20k? :P).

John when are you going to put out some quality posts? No offense, but your latest posts has all been about CES, and food, videos, and nonsense. This isn't a bad RSS post but it's not so much of a good post either. Looks like Michael Kwan is the one writing for this blog now.

Read the tag line: The miscellaneous Ramblings of a Dot Com Mogul. If you want to apply and write for the blog, then send your a post you consider quality and I'll take a read.

Congragulations... its a bit of a challenge, especially when somebody like me is receiving almost 75-80 unique visitors in the first 2 weeks I've been open and only 2 subscribers.

I'm apparently doing something wrong :roll: :razz:

75-80 in total? Thats not horrible. Not everyone is going to subscribe. I get about 1000 visitors a day and only have 30-40 subscribers.

That is good it means you have a good blog. :grin:

You may consider strengthening your call to action for the subscription but overall I wouldn't worry too much about those numbers just yet. Right now it's all about establishing a base of your content and then promoting it a bit. Worry about the subscription numbers later.

I agree, publishing quality content on a regular basis should be your main concern since, in the end, that's what will convince people that your blog is worth it in the first place. If your blog is actually worth it, it's only a matter of time until results start kicking, having a solid foundation upon which you can build is always a must.

Alan Johnson

Well John, I'm no dummy, I know you've had your RSS #'s rigged for awhile...(just joking ;)) Thanks for the links to all of your previous helpful RSS posts :!: :cool:

It was never rigged. I just never showed the count until it was over 1,000.

Thats a great tip all by itself. If someone sees that you have 4 subscribers they'll leave fast (like eeewww!!). New blogs have it TOUGH now unless they know someone. (or tickle John in the right spots)

Exactly, there is little point in showing your RSS count until you have something impressive to show, just like sharing your trafic details when you're not receiving numbers which are that great is a bad idea as well.

Alan Johnson

wow!... great news john! :)

Congrats men, keep it up, :oops: Icons gets it all

I don't recall feedburner having any problems yesterday John. Similar to your blog, I also get mainly e-mail subscribers, but I didn't see any such drop yesterday.

Is this a global thing or ONLY your RSS dropped? I just want to make sure

-Mike

I know it affect some. Blog Storm made a post about it.

Wow, 15000 subscribers. Congrats on a job well done..

Congrats John! To help you celebrate, how about giving away some free RAM you picked up at CES to one or two lucky readers of this post?

We know how generous you are. :mrgreen:

Congratulation John for yet another milestone. I am proud to be one of the subscriber (via email) of Johnchow.com .................. :lol:

Good job, that's a BIG number. What's the next milestone? 30000?

Well, I guess my blog stayed behind, but it's running to catch you! Will i be able to overrun you?

Congratulations John, thats for the links to those RSS help posts to. I keep going between 0 and 10 subscribers, its hard to get going.

Anyway next up 20k Subscribers, good luck! :razz:

OOOPS - John you broke 15,000 last week, your count hit 15007 I believe. I even made an off topic "CONGRATS!!" comment. You were at the expo at the time. Was everyone else sleeping it off too? :cool:

It doesn't count until he's actually blogged about it. :wink:

Heh, thats very true DCR :lol:

With the right time, resources and commitment I dare say anyone can get to where John is. Sure it takes a lot of skill and determination but probloggers do tell you how they're doing a lot of things. Congrats to John for reaching 15k subscribers - very impressive.

It's all about offering value and shameless self promotion - it's a simple formula. However the time, skill and (dare I say it) luck that is required means most people fail to get there.

The biggest mistake people make is that they give up once they start losing momentum. Sure, it's great when your project is hot off the stove and you feel excited but you will eventually lose momentum and that's when a lot of people start giving up on a project with some more than decent potential.

Alan Johnson

On the flip side, you can stick to it day after day and still not get anywhere. Building the audience is the toughest part. There are certain milestones to reach, and they only seem easy to reach once you have surpassed them.

Back when I started blogging, I thought it would take a long time to build up my Technorati rank. I was at around 4 or so when I changed domain names, so I had to start all over and worried how long before I'd have 4 again. Then, 10 seemed an impossibility. 100 an improbability. But, I eventually surpassed both of those. Then 150 was much more difficult to reach, but I broke that too. Now, it's a struggle to even reach 200!

If I were to start a new blog, reaching that 10 ranking would be almost a breeze the second time around!

Now, if only I could break the pennies per month monetization barrier... ;-)

Alan, that's a very good observation and I think until my latest blog that's been my mistake. I haven't had the discipline to stick to it and push through that barrier. However, I will say that making money off a project is a BIG help to me in making sure I stick with it.

Discipline is always a must since, let's face it, none of the A-list bloggers have had it easy when starting out. You have to let people know you're out there on the one hand and let them know that you're in it for the long haul on the other.

Sure, sometimes you simply don't feel like writing and on other occasions, you seem to be able to come up with great content like there's no tomorrow. Maximizing results on days when inspiration is on your side is the name of the game and the biggest mistake a lot of bloggers make is the fact that they don't write or at least plan their posts in advance. As a result, they can find themselves staring at their screen and wondering what on earth they should write about on a day when they simply can't come up with anything :)

Alan Johnson

Wow you beat me of 15k rss readers.. Congratulations John! :cool: