What is a Subscriber via Feedburner?

The content below the asterisks (* * *) was first published in January 2015.  It was not written with the intent to be misleading or to misinform.  It was just my understanding and my experience. 

UPDATE:  It's 2020 and I have continued using this fabulous Feedburner tool!  It serves many purposes and has proven to an invaluable tool in my Webmasters Tool Kit.  Lately, I discovered that there is a way to view the "Subscribers".  Actual eMails of subscribers who signed up to receive updates.  So!  Everything that I said in this post (below) ... I TAKE IT ALL BACK!! I can not tell you how gratifying it is to see a valid eMail address and to know that my updates are being distributed.  YAY!!  Woo Hoo!!!  If you have not been using the Feedburner tool to gain subscribers for your blog, then the question is:  WHY NOT?

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What is a Subscriber?  The question is rhetorical.  Everybody knows a subscriber is someone who subscribes to sumthin!

Do you use the Google FeedBurner tool to burn feeds for your blog or blogs? There are several ways to get people to subscribe to your blog feed.

Do you see the little chicklet with the heart?

This little chicklet is just one of the ways.  

I'm okay with the chicklet and I really really love the Feedburner. But I noticed something interesting about My Feeds almost right from the very start. The Subscriber count. Yeah. (???) The number looks questionable? ... UM?  unreasonable? ... mysterious? I'm going to settle on the word squirrelly. Even though my spellchecker indicates that it's not a word.  

The numbers don't seem to make sense! So I'm thinking, they must be some sort of secret code and I've always had my theory about Rocky and Bullwinkle. So that's why I decided squirrelly was the best way to describe my subscriber count. Anyway I found the answer to my puzzle, as to why the numbers look undecipherable.

• This is the Google Support Team's explanation to: What is a Subscriber? How does FeedBurner tally them?

I am so glad that I read the response, because it clarifies everything!!   I love the Feedburner tool.  It is a valuable helpful tool and I will continue to use it until Google tells me it's no longer free OR for whatever reason OR for no reason at all, I just won't be allowed to use it.  It's theirs.  They own it.  They can tell me to take a hike!  

But I don't think I'm going to rely on the number of subscribers who supposedly hold their breath and wake up each morning checking their eMail messages or waiting to receive notifications that I've published another blog post!!

WHY?  Because based on the response I read, my non-geek reaction is: 

Oh!  That's why the number looks so funky?
IT'S BOGUS??  (O.o)

Who cares?  Love that feedburner!  
Alternative are available.  But it serves my purposes!

 

 

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Blogging Tip : Mix and Burn

Used to write for a website called Squidoo. One of the fews sites where my online income earned was consistent. Seth Godin, the site owner decided to move on to other business adventures and the site was acquired by HUBPages, which is another excellent site for freelance writers, bloggers, work at home moms, and anybody else who wants to be a part of an online writing community and earn residual income.

Make a long story short. Squidoo used to have widgets provided to the users to enable them to enhance their content with additional material. One of my favorite widgets was the “RSS Mashup”. You could take several feeds, combine them and create one feed. Loved it!

HUBPages, for whatever reason, chose to discontinue allowing RSS feeds. So even though Squidoo is now under the HP umbrella, those nifty widgets evidently were not included in the acquisition deal.
Been searching for something similar and … Behold! Seek and Ye Shall Find!

Funny thing is a while back had tested this tool and then forgot about it. But since me and my bookmarks are BFFs (best friends forever), found my old “test mix”. The light bulbs in my brain started going off!

BLOGGING TIP:
Harness the power of two RSS tools:

• RSS Mix ( rssmix.com ) and
• Google Feedburner ( feedburner.google.com )

Step 1: Create the “RSS Mix” ( rssmix.com ). Gather the URLS for the feeds you want to combine together. In my example, it's all of my Tumblr blogs. Just go to the site and follow the extremely simple directions. Put the feed URLs in the box and click Create. No kidding. That's it!

Step 2: Use the URL of the mix feed that is generated and then burn a feed using the Google Feedburner ( feedburner.google.com ). If you have a Google account you have access to this tool. You may have never used it because you didn't know about it. But now you do, so … go for it! For those familiar with this tool, you know that once the feed is burned, there are many different ways to optimize / publicize the content. You choose what to do with it. 

* * *
Sharing my “feed mix /feed burn” below as an example.

Blogs I Like ~ Mix and Mash

 

* * *

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What is a Subscriber?

See the little chicklet with the red heart? I use the Google FeedBurner tool to burn feeds for my various blogs. There are several ways to get people to subscribe to your blog feed. This little chicklet is just one of them.

I'm okay with the chicklet and I really really love the Feedburner. But I noticed something interesting about "My Feeds" almost right from the very start. The Subscriber count.


Yeah. (???) The number looks ... questionable? ... unreasonable? ... mysterious?


I'm going to settle on the word "squirrelly". Even though my spellchecker indicates that it's not a word.


The numbers don't make sense! So I'm thinking, they must be some sort of secret code and I've always had my theory about Rocky and Bullwinkle. So that's why I decided "squirrelly" was the best way to describe my subscriber count.


Anyway I found the answer to my puzzle, as to why the numbers look unreal.

• This is the Google Support Team's explanation to: What is a Subscriber? How does FeedBurner tally them?

I am so glad that I read the response, because it clarifies everything!!


Love the Feedburner tool. It is a valuable helpful tool and I will continue to use it until Google tells me it's no longer free or for whatever reason or for no reason at all, I just won't be allowed to use it. It's theirs. They own it. They can tell me to take a hike!


But I don't think I'm going to rely on the number of subscribers who supposedly hold their breath and wake up each morning checking their eMail messages or waiting to receive notifications that I've published another blog post!!


WHY? Because based on the response I read.

THE NUMBER IS BOGUS!!