No I Did Not Lose 1006 RSS Readers Overnight
Yesterday, my Feedburner RSS showed 4,444 readers. Today, it showed 3,438 readers. While my RSS readership does go up and down by over 100 per day, a 1,000+ drop is very unusual and requires further investigation, especially when yesterday was one of my bigger traffic days.
I was not the only one affected by a huge drop in RSS subscribers. Both David Lithman and Matt of Net Business Blog were hit as well. It turns out the problem was a glitch in Google’s Feedfetcher.
Here was the breakdown of RSS readers from yesterday.
This is how the picture looks today.
Notice that all the numbers are pretty close to each other except for Google Feedfetcher, which went from 2,081 down to 928. It turns out there’s a hiccup in the system with either FeedBurner not fully reporting RSS numbers from Google Feedfetcher or Google not fully reporting all its Google Reader numbers to FeedBurner.
On the good news side, this appears to a one-day glitch. Having an under reported feed count doesn’t really mean anything in terms of dollars. Matt said it might affect his FeedBurner Ad income since that is paid on a CPM basis. However, the ads are still being served to the RSS subscribers so he does get credit for them. It’s just the feed count that is messed up. I expect the feed count to return to normal tomorrow.
- Posted in The Net
- 39 comments what's your take?
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another example of google controlling the internet
Reply to this commenti don’t think it’s google’s fault
Reply to this commentAbsolutely right!
Reply to this commentIt’s just a stats reporting problem… Hardly them controlling the planet…
Reply to this commentanother example of google controlling the internet
Really, what does this have to do with Google’s internet domination?
Reply to this commentI experienced a similar drop. Since I’m no inspector gadget, I appreciate the info…puts things in better perspective
That’s why I visit this blog!!! And the free toys of course
Reply to this commentI had the same problem with feedburner about a month ago, when all of my email subscribers were dropped (I believe the same happened to you then).
Reply to this commentsame here
but over 1000 rsscribe, it seems a bit too much
Reply to this commentya gotta give it to John….Mr. Sherlock …investigates everything an dthe writes about it and makes it look so simple..
Reply to this commentYea, down from 123 to 74, It might be google, or it might be that someone has been ddosing my blog for the past 2 days.
I know how you feel now John.
Reply to this commentI was just wondering about that. Feedburner has reported odd results like that for me before. Now I just let things lie for a few days. Usually it pops back up plus some.
Reply to this commentIt’s happened on quite a few occasions. It always seems to correct itself the next day though.
Reply to this commentI see lots of fluctuations in my stats, but I don’t really have a big enough base of users yet to tell what is normal and what isn’t. I just figured feedburner was a little wonky, guess it’s to be expected?
Reply to this commentI was wondering what happened!
Reply to this commentThis problem happen to me yesterday! Maybe it’s Google’s problem!
Reply to this commentThis problem happen to me yesterday. The feedburner number change from 185 to 124; but it is up to 185 now~
Reply to this commentJohn, do people who read your blog via RSS still come to your site?
Reply to this commentI am not sure. There is no way to truly measure that. But blog traffic has been trending up.
Reply to this commentSometimes when i advertise I go on how big the RSS number is, but of course those people get an ad-free version don’t they?
I still think its a good indicator
Reply to this commenthowever, for example I read your blog every single day but I have never signed up to any RSS feed.
I am subscribed to the RSS feed and generally view every post on this site to comment. Also, subscribing also helps me view the headlines at about 20 sites and is MUCH easier to manage than physically going to each site. Like Johnchow.com, I usually visit those sites as well (every to every other day) to comment.
Reply to this commentnot really huge news to report or bother about, doesnt seem matter much
Reply to this commentit does matter!
i think that’s why john is so successful now, cos he can dig things up and give a well-researched, well written post
Reply to this commentMan, it looks like you’re getting too many views for Google to handle. Don’t break it!
Reply to this commentI’ve always seen John’s feedburner in the 4,000’s. There have been several dips in the past though. One time I remember seeing it go down to around 2,000+. Well, anything more than 1,000 has always seemed a lot to me anyway. And regardless what the feedburner says, there’s been a constant surge of traffic coming in this one.
Reply to this commentya it definitely seemed like a system glitch, 1000 people cannot dream of unsubscibing the same day no matter how dry the posts get:)
Reply to this commentI looks like your comments are back to normal and it also looks like because you blogged about your RSS feed you picked up a few hundred more subscribers.
Reply to this commentYeah, seems everything is back to normal now, John. 4,695 and definitely rising — looking good.
Reply to this commentYEA I THINK EVERY IS NORMAL NOW
AND ITS BETTER THEN B4
Reply to this commentgoing up and up
Reply to this commentI experienced a similar drop, I went from 90 to 0!
Reply to this commentI didn’t really get hit infact my numbers went up!
Reply to this commentSomething is really wrong nowadays
dunno why
Reply to this commentThat happend to me last week. I normally get 100 - 200 unique visitors a day, then it suddenly dropped to 50 a day for a few days, then sprouted back up again.
Reply to this commentAhh, post explains everything. I knew it wasn’t a mass exodus from JC’s blog!
Reply to this commentLooks like the glitch was fixed. Plus, you’re 250 subs richer!
Reply to this commentI’m sorry, it’s my fault. I forgot to login to a Google reader accounts.
Reply to this commentYou guys really care so much on the figure? For me, it is not reliable. I only believe on the Traffic Analytic tools for my .
Reply to this commentThat’s nearly 5000 subscribers…
Reply to this comment