Why You Shouldn’t Display Your Feedcount until you have 100 Subscribers
INFORMATIONAL BLOG POST ALERT. The following article is written for my fellow bloggers. Like most Dead Rooster posts, it’s incredibly interesting, but many of my humor readers may find it confusing and alarming and might even suspect I’ve been eating way too much sugar.
Many of you are thinking, “hey, what’s this rooster character trying to pull here? Doesn’t he realize most of us don’t care about feedcounts? By the way, what’s a feedcount?”
I’m glad you asked. A feedcount is the number displayed in that little orange box you see in the upper right-hand side of my blog. In my case, it reveals how many people have gone against all sense of logic and opted to receive Dead Rooster in their RSS feedreader, email box or, in the case of a certain sexy redhead, on her doorstep.
A lot of bloggers display that number no matter what it is; in fact, I’ve seen blogs displaying feedcounts totaling ZERO subscribers! This is a terrible idea and I’ll tell you why: It sends a message to your readers that your blog is unpopular.
You want your blog to look popular, and the first step in achieving that is to remove anything that makes it look unpopular.
What I’m talking about here is known in marketing as, “social proof.”
Social proof in blogging is extremely important. People want to be a part of something that’s popular and well-received by others. If readers see there are a lot of people subscribing to your feed, they will be more apt to subscribe themselves thinking there must be something great about it if all those other people have already subscribed.
On the other hand, if you have a feedcount of 3, people will assume your feed is something to be avoided and possibly even project the idea to your entire blog!
It’s hard to gage where positive social proof takes place in a feed display, but I remember when I first started blogging that I envied every blogger that had a count higher than 100; so that’s where I’m putting it.
I hope I didn’t bore too many of my regular readers looking for humor, but I’ve had a few recent inquiries about this topic and I like to post blogging tips every once-in-a-while for my fellow bloggers. Not to mention I usually get a lot of new subscribers when I do this. 
Next time, I’ll be funny. I promise!
Dead Rooster is the online home of 
This was horribly shameless. I am so proud of you!!!
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 5:57 am:
Maybe if I had the enormous swell of subscribers YOU have, I wouldn’t have to pull this type of stunt!
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Clean stuff? Do laundry?
You extremist.
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 6:01 am:
Chris — have you been drinking? I think you obviously meant to post your comment in my previous article.
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Funny, I didn’t even look at your feet count. I have ten toes, but only two feet and I have been told they are both left ones. You know you can inflate the number to make it look better. I did on mine. I added a ten. Woo hoo! I am up to 12
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 6:04 am:
Thank you for humiliating me in front of millions of viewers. I was able to correct it early, though, and at the same time make your comment look silly. Who’s humiliated now! LOL
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You suckered me in. Good tactic: open, with a just a fine hint of pathos. I have duly subscribed.
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 8:17 am:
Pathos, when used properly, can be a great motivator.
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Well, a bit shameless but also a totally good point. I often wonder too about folks who put their Blogger followers out there for everyone to see, and they have, like, five.
It makes me weep a little.
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 8:51 am:
Thanks, Jenn. There’s nothing wrong with a feedcount of five — especially for a newer blog — but I think displaying it works against them.
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I admit on my first (now extinct) blog, I had all those stats up and I worked on ‘em too. I slaved and begged and salivated for the numbers, mostly, I admit, to get the links and the high PR. Because I mistakenly thought I could make some money off my blog. *snort, giggle* On this new one, I’ve gone in a little different direction, probably due to the new medication. I’ve got The Flying Spaghetti Monster, The Animal Rescue Site, and Entrecard (I was one of their first blogs with the old blog, and I found a lot of great blogs with them, so I decided to go back). But no feed button, no technorati button, and no social networking sites’ buttons (although I do belong to some). THIS time, I’m writing for me and the three people who like to read what I have to say, and I figure they don’t need all that stuff to find me. And so I will die, unrecognized for my genius writing skills, just because I’m insane and lazy. Works for me!
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 9:45 am:
I enjoy reading your blog. I wouldn’t change a thing.
I don’t do much promoting either — I am on all the social networks, but I really don’t put much effort into promoting my blog that way. I do use entrecard though for the reason you wrote: I like to find great new blogs!
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I took my Feedreader off my blog once it hit 535,864 readers as it just looked like showing off. Heh.
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 10:51 am:
I’m shocked! I would think a sexy blog like yours would bring in over 1 million!
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I’m proud to count myself as one of your subscribers! I always feel sad when I see one of those displays with just a few subscribers. But I had like 9 for about the entire first year of my blog.
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 2:19 pm:
Even 9 is good for a cat; but, now look at you! Supercat!
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Wait, wait … was this … an informational post?! Are you … wait, how much sugar have you had today?
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 2:22 pm:
LOL
Maybe I need MORE sugar…
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Get back to the funny. Or that subscription count might be one less.
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 2:23 pm:
Yipes! Don’t want to upset the Rambler — unfinished or otherwise…
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Yeah, I’ve seen other Feed Counts and have thought the same thing.
Another way to “social proof” is to see how many comments you get on a particular post. What I’ve noticed is the humor blogs as well as the mommy social blogs all get a lot of comments on their posts, regardless of whether it’s any good content or not.
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 2:25 pm:
Haha! Are you trying to tell me something? Me? Mr. HUMOR blogger?
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I immediately took mine down. It was pretty much annoying me anyway. Made me feel even more inadequate than usual.
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 2:27 pm:
Ha! And, what did you put in it’s place… a HUMOR BLOGGER OF THE YEAR award?
Bastard…
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You’re right. I can’t help but notice how large yours is. I have feed envy. Until it grows, mine is going under wraps.
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 2:36 pm:
You wrote: “I can’t help but notice how large yours is…”
I could really run with that, but I won’t, ’cause I’m nice like that. LOL
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Don’t tell people who only have 3 subscribers to take it down. It makes me feel better about how many I secretly know I have!!!
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 9:18 pm:
Those people don’t read this blog anyway. They’ll never know…
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No, we understand what ettarose was saying.
I did the same thing, except I waited until I reached beyond 50 to put mine up.
Nothing wrong with a little shameless post now and then. Hell, you might consider starting a second blog (if you haven’t already). I think you might be too busy though.
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 9:25 pm:
For me, these types of posts are a lot easier to write than humor posts. Truth be told, I was having trouble finishing off a humor piece, so I threw this up.
I’ve thought about starting another blog. I have no real plans to do it, but I haven’t ruled it out.
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“Next time, I’ll be funny. I promise!”
Oh sure, you say that now…
I am so reader poor I don’t even have a feed counter on my blog.
Anyway, thanks for the bloggy tips. Now I know the proper way to display the feed counter should I ever need one. 
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William McCamment
reply on January 12th, 2009 9:29 pm:
You will need one soon enough. When I have time, I’ll email you some tips on gaining readers.
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THAT is right.
Just like readers have ADD so you need succinct posts and a fast loading page
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William McCamment
reply on January 15th, 2009 8:27 am:
Agreed.
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Funny stuff.
I found you through Humor Bloggers. I dig your blog and will be back for more.
IB
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William McCamment
reply on January 15th, 2009 8:28 am:
Thanks, IB!
I appreciate that.
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ok so now i’m being fed by a dead rooster. nice.
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William McCamment
reply on January 16th, 2009 6:08 pm:
Never thought you’d see THAT, huh? LOL
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Having over 100 readers on your FeedCount display may be impressive but using FeedBurner’s API on a custom FeedCount banner is even more impressive. Naturally, I’m awesome and have both. Booyah!
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William McCamment
reply on January 16th, 2009 9:11 pm:
I have to admit, that’s pretty impressive. I would be really jealous if Greenland wasn’t lighting up like a Christmas tree in my Google Analytics.
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Pwn Greenland
reply on January 16th, 2009 9:13 pm:
Greenland? Psh. That’s old skool mister. Try getting Saturn. I dare you. I double dare you.
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Very interesting post. I read a post that said that you should put your feed count up no matter what the number. The reason they gave was because if it’s low and you have a quality site, then people are going to want to sign up in order to be at the ground floor of something special. If your feed has a high count, then they will want to hop on the bandwagon as well. So I’m not too sure what to do. I’m thinking I’ll just take mine down for now until I get the feed count higher as it is only gravitating in the low to mid 20′s everyday. I’ll see if this works better than displaying it. Thanks for the info!
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William McCamment
reply on January 18th, 2009 6:03 pm:
No question you should hide it if you have a low feed count. Look up “social proof” or read any good marketing book. Don’t forget to promote it though!
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Very interesting illustration..Thanks
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William McCamment
reply on February 2nd, 2009 7:24 am:
You are welcome.
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Good post as I’m into getting more subscribers I’m at 30 now and am displaying my count.
i’m confident I can get 5 new readers amount. will let you know my progress.
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Guilty of having my followers with less than 100…I am vainthat way lol.
I use it to see who follows me but your right it does make it look unpopular.
Great tip
Best
Garret
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Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon……
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William McCamment
reply on May 15th, 2010 4:27 am:
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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