We’ve talked quite a bit about statistics for photographers’ websites, but what about those readers that are subscribed via RSS? Should you care about your RSS subscriber numbers? If you’re not sure what this RSS talk is about, check out RSS in Plain English.
How to Measure RSS Subscriber Numbers
The most popular way to measure RSS subscribers is Feedburner, which is now owned by Google. You “burn” your feed with Feedburner then all feed traffic flows through Feedburner which allows them to provide metrics (and optionally do things like add footers to your feed or allow for email subscriptions).
If you’re using WordPress on your own server, there’s a plugin that allows Feedburner to integrate seamlessly with your site. Read more about How to Setup Feedburner and WordPress.
Look for Trends, Not Numbers
Now that you have your feed being measured, what do the numbers mean? Don’t worry about the specific numbers. Instead look more for trends. Here’s an image of the Feedburner stats for Social Photo Talk:
Feedburner measures two numbers: the number of subscribers, and reach, which represents the number of subscribers that are actually clicking through or taking action on your posts. I generally recommend that you don’t worry about specific numbers, but rather look at trends over time.
You’ll want to have a trend of increasing readership as time passes. RSS stats can be a bit imprecise, so don’t worry about the occasional upward or downward movement in your subscriber numbers. It is worth looking at the time of notable spikes to see what might have led to an increase in subscribers.
RSS Subscribers vs. Web Visitors
The amount of RSS subscribers compared to web visitors will vary depending on the audience of your blog. For a photographer who is blogging for his clients, you probably will see a relatively small number of RSS subscribers vs. web visitors. If you’re blogging for your peers and other web-savvy photographers, you can expect to see a significant portion of your readership to arrive via feed readers.
Photo by Rafa[EU] | Flicker interativo, used under Creative Commons licensing
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