My FeedBurner Feed Count Experiment
Several weeks ago, I read Matt’s “How I Got 283k Feed Subscribers in 1 Day.” The way he did it was to take TechCrunch‘s FeedBurner FeedCount chicklet and put it on his own site. By changing the link on the image to point to his own RSS feed, though, few would realize that he didn’t actually have that many subscribers. I found it very interesting, but that was about it since I knew I’d never have any reason to fake my feed count.
Over the next few weeks, though, I found myself repeatedly coming back to this statement:
I can see the logic behind someone wanting to use a more popular feed image. Showing a larger subscriber count than what your blog has naturally makes your site seem more popular which unfortunately makes new visitors more likely to stick.
That seemed like a given to me. I know the more subscribers a blog has, the more likely I am to both subscribe and to give its writings more weight. So I figured that the same must be true for most other people, too.
I decided to put it to the test, though. If I selected a blog with a feed count in the thousands and showed that count here, would that make a difference in the rate that people subscribed?
So, I started showing a FeedCount chicklet like this one in the Subscribe box in the sidebar (with a count from one of my other sites) and emailed Chris to let him know what I was up to so that someone independent would know that it was all just a test.
Then I waited.
What I found really surprised me. Over the next few days, my traffic was consistent with the days before it, but so was the subscription rate. Advertising a huge subscriber base apparently had absolutely zero effect on how likely new visitors were to subscribe.
Now, granted, the results could vary widely on your site, so take these results with a grain of salt. However, I did think they were interesting. I also think there were probably other positive effects of a high feed count that wouldn’t be apparent.
So should you fake it? Absolutely not. Your credibility would be absolutely destroyed if you ever got caught — and remember, they can usually tell if you’re faking it.
However, I definitely would recommend showing your count if it’s impressive. It lends great credibility and undoubtedly has benefits that aren’t readily apparent. I haven’t quite been around long enough to show mine off yet, though 
Chris Stark
April 27, 2007
at 4:47 pm
Interesting results Shane. I’m actually surprised that it didn’t result in more of a quick influx of subscribers.
What would be an interesting follow up to this would be to try putting the 2800 subscriber widget up, then get one of your articles on the front page of Digg and see how many of those new “random” readers subscribe. I think the majority of people who really take subscriber numbers to heart when deciding to subscribe to a new blog are the ones that visit because of a single article (on digg, through google, from del.icio.us) and aren’t taking the time to read the rest of your content. They’re the ones that need a number to tell them whether your site is good or not.
You probably didn’t get many new subscribers in this experiment because most of your readers throughout the test were regulars and/or came in smaller numbers (smaller then digg would bring) from your content showing up on other sites or through google.
That’s just my thinking out loud though. I think this matter requires further study at AskShane.org
Shane
April 27, 2007
at 4:55 pm
That’s a great point, Chris. Not only would the particular reader demographics make a huge difference here, but so would whether they had been to the site before or not. Funny thing is, I actually took it down right before a huge influx of new visitors. Missed my chance to have tested that, too.
Of course, I’m glad to have tested it on a smaller scale. I wouldn’t have been comfortable signing up a significant number under false pretense.
Reasons Why NOT to FAKE your Feedburner Count | Ian Fernando
September 12, 2007
at 9:25 am
[...] AskShane.com did an experiment on this issue to see if more readers would join his feed if he faked his feed count. His conclusion: What I found really surprised me. Over the next few days, my traffic was consistent with the days before it, but so was the subscription rate. Advertising a huge subscriber base apparently had absolutely zero effect on how likely new visitors were to subscribe. [...]
You’re faking it and we can tell, Bloated RSS Feed numbers
January 9, 2008
at 4:47 pm
[...] How did that ugly little site get so many RSS subscriptions you say? Well its easy, they faked it. Many people believe readers will only subscribe to blogs they think are popular, thus the [...]