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Dosh Dosh has a great collection of posts on whether you should display the feed count for your blog.
Whenever I find myself on a new blog, I quickly check the blog’s Technorati rank and feed count to get a sense of the blog’s popularity.
If it is a desi blog, and I like the two or three posts I have read on the blog, I subscribe to it anyway, because popularity metrics aren’t really an indication of the quality of writing on personal or opinion blogs. However, if it is a blog in a saturated niche like blogging tips, personal development, marketing or technology, I do use these popularity metrics as a proxy for how influential the blog is in its niche and rarely subscribe to any blog which has less than a few hundred links or subs.
A lot of blog readers also use these popularity metrics as a filter before subscribing to a new blog and you need to be aware of it before you decide to display your feed count on your blog.
In my opinion, you should display your feed count if -
- it is higher than what a first time readers would have presumed it to be.
- it is higher than the number of blogs linking back to you in Technorati.
- it is higher than the feed count for other blogs in your niche.
I have been displaying my feed count in my sidebar ever since I set up this blog almost three months back. For the first few weeks, my feed count was in low double digits and I still displayed it because it was higher than the number of blogs linking back to me on Technorati. My feed count has slowly increased over time and, at 150+ subs now, it is still higher than the number of blogs linking back to me on Technorati.
Every niche has a different tipping point at which a blog becomes influential. For a desi personal blog, the tipping point is about 100 linkbacks or subscribers. For a blog in the marketing, technology, personal development and blogging tips niches, the tipping point is probably at 500, or even 1000, linkbacks or subscribers. Therefore, my present feed count is reasonably high for a desi personal blog, but very low for a blog in the niches I’m increasingly moving towards. I’m presuming that most of my present subscribers are desis, so this isn’t an issue as of now.
Finally, given that my blog is only three months old, I think that a first time reader would probably estimate my feed count to be less than 150 subs, or even 100 subs. If you are a first time reader, do let me know if that’s true, because, if it isn’t, I’m probably underselling my blog by displaying my feed count.
And yes, if you haven’t already subscribed to my feed, why don’t you subscribe now?
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[…] Gaura - Gauravonomics However, if it is a blog in a saturated niche like blogging tips, personal development, marketing or technology, I do use these popularity metrics as a proxy for how influential the blog is in its niche and rarely subscribe to any blog which has less than a few hundred links or subs. […]