Since most of you guys won’t be reading until the end of this post, I’m finishing up the entry counts for DatMoney’s "Get Traffic" contest and I will be announcing winners via my Feed footer so make sure you check your RSS Feeds to see if you won! Update: Feedburner is currently not displaying my e-mail subscribers so I will have to postpone the drawing until Feedburner gets their act together!
I’m sure many of us use Feedburner as a way of keeping track of our RSS Feeds but lately, it hasn’t been that reliable. Should we all consider switching to a new RSS Feed service?
So, I’ve noticed that Feedburner tends to not include some of our subscribers, on more than one occasion. The very first time I noticed this was a few months ago when I dropped like 75 subscribers within one day. I panicked a little bit and hit up a couple of forums to see if I was the only one. I wasn’t. Luckily, it was just Feedburner not including Google Reader subscribers or e-mail subscribers.
But aren’t we all relying on that number, a little bit? I mean, especially for those of who work hard to get that number up and display it for our visitors to see.
This past week it happened twice. And honestly, that’s twice too many times.
The first time, they didn’t include my Google subscribers and my RSS Feeds went from 311 and dropped to 226, and this time (today) they didn’t include any of my e-mail subscribers so it dropped from 309 to 193.
I know that isn’t as bad as most but I do value my subscribers. And the more Feedburner miscounts my stats, the more I could possibly be losing more subscribers, or even advertisers and sponsors.
How?
Well, besides the content, a lot of people tend to view the daily subscribers as a blog’s loyal readership. And when new visitors come to my site, they would see my subscribers and probably think "wow, that many people are subscribed? I come here pretty often, maybe I should subscribe as well!"
I mean, there is a reason why we all flaunt our reader counts, right?
Also, a lot of advertisers will stop by your blog to see that number and determine if they want to advertise with you or not. Because that feed count is determined on the minimum amount of people who would view your content every single day .
So, I said it once and I’ll say it again "what in the hell is up with Feedburner?" and "Should we all consider switching to a new RSS Feed service?"
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If FeedBurner is acting like you say it is, is there another RSS feed service that is just as good as FeedBurner used to be? Do you have any recommendations in this area, or is this fodder for a future post? Thanks for the tip, regardless
- Dave
I have the same issues. The problem is how their system works. My subscribers drop in 1/2 on Sunday and then raise back up by Tuesday. I read a post that Chow made about understanding feedburner. If your subscribers don’t check your reader within 2 days.. they stop counting the subscriber. Strange way, but it happens to me on a weekly basis. If you find another reliable feed service, let me know! My podcast count has never been correct. That’s a whole different issue for me. haha
Hey Jay,
I’m definitely with you here. Feedburner frequently tends to screw up the subscribers count by not reporting significant chunks of readers.
All that is fine once in a while but it’s reported in the all time subscriber graph so it doesn’t look pretty.
Hope your contest went well. Let me know who the winner of my prize is.
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Feedburner blows.
Badly.
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Having a large FeedBurner number has been a badge of honor for many bloggers, but it is just a stat. If FB isn’t reporting stats properly that only means the stat is incorrect, you still have the readers.
But what is the alternative? If you leave FB for another service you will likely lose a goodly number of your regular readers who won’t switch over. That’s a problem that truly affects the bottom line.
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Yes I have been totally thinking about giving up on feedburner. My subscriber count goes up, then down, a couple of day later it’s back up! Have to disagree with Eathons comment about the reader not reading for a few days that they take them off as a reader. This I know is not true for a fact because I am subscribed to my own reader with another email and I never look at that reader email so that theory doesn’t work!
I am truly feed up with it!! I want a true count.
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I’m going to keep a closer eye on this. I was wondering why my number was swinging like a yo-yo from day to day.
Tameras last blog post..Bloggers Unite for Human Rights!
Yeah I had a similar problem recently where they dropped half of my readers. Really pissed me off, here was my post about it: http://egonitron.com/2008/04/30/feedburner-glitch-or-just-me/
I’m having the same problem! Yesterday I had 20 subscribers, but this morning when I looked I had only 12! And right now it’s 25! What should I believe!?
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While surfing I found this on Google/Feedburner Help center:
“FeedBurner’s subscriber count is based on an approximation of how many times your feed has been requested in a 24-hour period. Subscribers is inferred from an analysis of the many different feed readers and aggregators that retrieve this feed daily. Subscribers is not computed for browsers and bots that access your feed.”
So maybe it’s got something to do with that!? I don’t know..
BioTecKs last blog post..How Small We Are…
David – I do have some other options but personally, I have not tested them out before. But let me do some research and see what I can find.
Eathan – That’s not the case for me. They did not include my e-mail subscribers, like the list just isn’t there because they didn’t include it. So, about 125 e-mail subscribers are not being shown and I can’t access that list.
Gyutae – Yeah, Feedburner didn’t count ANY of my Google subscribers a couple days ago and now I can’t access my e-mail subscribers. With that said, I have to wait till I get my e-mail list so I can do my contest drawing. So, I’ll let you know, thanks!
Jason – Agreed. It was great in the beginning, but more recently it’s been sucking like crazy!
Aaron – You do have a very valid point but I’m sure there’s a way around it without losing subscribers. At least let’s hope…
Danandmarsh – I know the feed count flactuates each day but when your feed count does NOT include ANY of your e-mail subscribers or doesn’t let you have access to the e-mail list, that’s the problem.
Tamera – I can see if you’re missing a few subscribers on any given day but when you lose 120-150 e-mail subscribers because Feedburner decided not to include it, that sucks.
Egonitron – Well, this has happened on more than one occasion. But it’s currently holding me back from drawing the winners for my contest!
BiotecK – Nah, I already knew that, the feed count flactuates but they did NOT include ANY of my e-mail subscribers and right now I can’t access my e-mail list… which is delaying my drawing for my contest. But luckily, some people are helping out by UNsubscribing lol…
Jay
Jays last blog post..Seriously, What the Hell is Up with Feedburner?
I am so new at all of this rss stuff, that I will give them a bit more of a chance. I do understand your position though, especially since you depend on the ads.
I am beginning to thing you “suckered us in” to your contest
This IS the second postponement … haha!
LOL! Barry, ask anyone that knows me since I’ve been blogging, I’m not like that. And no, I didn’t sucker you guys in, it’s a real contest lol… I mean, look at Gyutae from winningtheweb.com’s comment, he’s anxiously waiting for the winner of his ad spot! LOL!
Jay
Jays last blog post..Seriously, What the Hell is Up with Feedburner?
Jay said “I’m sure there’s a way around it without losing subscribers.”
Consider something we all probably should have considered before signing up with FB: Our subscribers are not subscribing to OUR feed, they are subscribing to FB’s feed. Otherwise there is no way to move them away from FB without each of them changing the feed URL.
I am NOT concerned about the reporting issues with FB because they are just that–reporting issues. If the report is wrong we still have the same number of readers, FB just isn’t showing it. If your ad sales are dependent upon the number of feed readers, over time you can demonstrate stats by using other methods–like adding an open rate counter gif to your feed to see how many times the feed is actually opened.
It is just as hard to get someone to sign up for FB as it is for our “actual” feeds–which makes me think the little widget on our websites isn’t as important as having the readers signed up for OUR feed, not FB’s.
I think I’ll reconsider whether I will use FB in the future.
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Perhaps that is why I haven’t been able to get a feed burned for my new blog.
Course it is has lots of other problems as well. Like not being able to comment.
Wow to I have a lot of stuff fix.
You can stop by unfortunately you won’t be able to post a comment
Ready to pull out my already thinning hair!!!
Is there actually another reliable feed burner out there?
First timer here and enjoying all the information…way to much to go through tonight.
I can’t really comment much on Feedburner even though I do have it on my site it isn’t something that right now I pay much attention to.
Keep up the great content.
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I would be very interested to see what other alternatives there are. As a small blogger, I have not experienced many issues with them, but I guess if you grow much larger that could change.
Please post what you find after testing the other options you mentioned.
Thanks for the info.
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