As I write this, my Feedburner account says that I have 396 subscribers. This is a significant difference from the “about 100″ subscribers I had around 3 months ago, and I really don’t have a clue how my subscriber numbers have jumped so quickly. Regardless though, I’d like to say thank you for subscribing!
A little while ago, I noticed one or two significant jumps in the subscriber number. Enough to cause a little concern in fact. One day I jumped up 50 new subscribers, and the second jump was about 75 subscribers in a day. These happened a few days after I announced that I was going to migrate my blog to WordPress.
Could it be that some of those are actual people that are interested in what I write, or could they be people who are simply subscribing to re-post a snippet of my writing on their own blogs? I have noticed that my posts are now showing up regularly on certain blogs who’s only purpose is to regurgitate the posts that others have written.
I don’t mean to say that I’m flattered since they didn’t even communicate with me prior to doing so, nor do I approve of them doing it. They just do it for whatever reason, and it isn’t always to make money since I see that some of them don’t have any way to make money from their sites. So why would they do it? An attempt to create more traffic for themselves by showing Google they have more content? I’m not sure.
I’m not terribly concerned about it as sites like these usually don’t have a long lifespan. They eventually get the boot one way or another. It’s also the reason that I don’t advertise my subscriber numbers like I used to. Even though I’m quite happy to see the increase, I believe a good percentage of that number to be from suspect sources. I don’t believe in false advertising nor blowing a horn that isn’t in tune, and with the regular ups and downs of Feedburner subscriber stats, I don’t have a high confidence in the accuracy anymore.
In any case, I’d like to say “Hello and thank you” to all humans who have decided to subscribe to what I write. Also, thank you for hanging in there during my periods of Pink Floyd fascination.
Insight: As part of this thank you, I’d like to point your attention to those three recent posts I did on Pink Floyd. If you take a look at each one, you’ll see that I did those a little differently than my normal posts. There’s a reason for that. I have been inactively looking for those movies in real life for a number of years, only to come up empty handed in the end. I’m so excited to see that they are up on YouTube that perhaps I went a little crazy with them and wanted to have them on this site.
The posts themselves however were structured to target certain keywords, as well as put in place a nice way to maybe make a little money for myself down the road and help out fellow Floydians find a great treasure that I had such a hard time finding.
Everything about those pages is completely within the guidelines and perfectly legal. You too could create posts like those and perhaps draw a little search traffic your way. If there is any interest, I’d be happy to break those posts down for you. You only need ask as that is something I won’t do, unless I’m asked. The three movies I found are La Vallée that was released in 1972 and that Pink Floyd did the soundtrack for, called Obscured by Clouds. The second post More is another soundtrack that was released in 1969. Finally, there is Zabriskie Point that was released in 1970. Pink Floyd participated in this with several other well known artists.
I’m using these posts as examples. Did you skip them, or did you notice what I was doing on them. Did you watch any of the movies? Sometimes a “monkey see, monkey do” post is nice to have as an example.
You might not notice, and I should explain to you, that I don’t always explain what I do. I leave many things open for interpretation, as well as holes that you yourself would need to fill. I do this for two reasons:
- To make you think – Life is nothing when everything is handed to you. Thinking and deductive reasoning are great skills to develop, and I try to encourage everyone to think outside the box, and within it when necessary.
- Leaves more for me to talk about later. If I blew my entire load in one post, I’d have nothing to write about later. I really don’t converse much and tend to be the quiet type. Same is true for writing.
The rabbit hole that is programming is vast and contains many corners, off-shoots and dead-ends. Sometimes you need to find these on your own and can never be told. Some things just need to be experienced.
This is one of those moments where I felt that explaining myself would be better for the overall good. Plus, I think this is something that everyone who is trying to make a little money can benefit from.
If you have subscribed to my blog, I’d like to invite you to leave a comment to let me know who you are. If there is anything you’d like to ask of me, please feel free to do so any time. Perhaps you have an idea for a web site or blog and would like to know my opinions. Maybe you’re a co-worker or friend who is simply keeping up with me and what I write about. Maybe you’re banging your head on some issue.
Regardless of who you might be, I’d love to know who you are. It’s a rather empty feeling seeing nearly 400 subscribers and only seeing comments from a handful of “regulars” and the occasional new commentator.
I’m highly thankful to you for subscribing, and I hope that I help you in some way with your technology and education, or simply put a smile on your face because I’ve done something completely random and out of place from what you might expect from me.
Thank you for subscribing!
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Heh…Wayne it’s b/c you have totally made this site rock, more content less pictures always a plus I hear and you are link friendly and a good dude.
Stop by sometime….http://riddledphantasms.com
I got some music you might enjoy, just covered 311 with Ziggy Marley and have some OLDE re-worked Bob Marley tracks for kids that I think people will like…and Sting’s daughter Coco…HAWT…with a sultry cool voice.
Bohemian Love should be a hit song…I assume in time being part of Island Records it won’t be too long before you know Coco.
I did put up some HD Phoenix stuff I know you love too
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Hey Ross, how ya been? I’m buried up to my eyeballs in projects at the moment, and will hopefully be able to complete another post for here soon. Weekends are my catch-up periods, so I’ll see what I can do. I need to stay focused though if I want to get everything done.
Cheers!
Hi, this is Ben. I’ve been subscribed to your blog for a few months now. At first, I subscribed for the make money online/blog tips. Of course, now, those are helpful, but mostly– I love your writing style. I get excited whenever my feed reader says Wayne John has a new post.
Love your blog, good luck.
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Well that’s really cool of you to share that, thanks Ben, that means a lot to me!
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I would never part with my Floyd. I love my Floyd. hahaha
I am proud to have you and everyone on my list. I’m amazed and feel quite humbled.
Cheers Carolyn!
Hi Wayne, Here I am late (as usual)! I am a subscriber, so you should be proud to have me on your list, lol.
Keep it coming, I like your variety.
By the way, you never know.. All that Floyd memorabilia may bail you out of a tight spot someday!
Carolyn´s last blog ..Cheapskate?
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Say 13 hail mary’s and 4 howdy doo’s for that one, lol
When I as around 13 years old, I loved playing my dads vinyl collection! Pink Floyd – The Wall was one that always got a listen… and I hate to think about it… but I’m certain I scratched it! (sorry dad!)
Manz´s last blog ..WADRICK’S THIRTY SECOND FILM REVIEWS (the 1980s)
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All this time you haven’t been a subscriber? Now I’m doubly impressed and flattered, you’ve been one consistent aussie on my blog! hahaha
What I do is subscribe by email, so at least I can keep up with what’s going on. I may not always get to a site to comment, but I do from time to time. I found readers to be a bit of a pain…
Heh, Pink Floyd. I have everything you can buy commercially, and several things that you cannot. In fact, all I do now is collect bootlegs of past concerts. My stack of PF CD’s stands over half my height alone, and that includes all solo works as well. Then there are all the movies and videos, books, knick-knacks, you get the idea.
Told ya I’m a freak for their music. Unfortunately, I was too young to get any of the original vinyl, so my collection is all CD’s.
Can you believe that I’m not one of your subscribers!?
I was going to email subscribe, but after doing so on one of my favorite art blogs, I found I didn’t visit the blog anymore and therefore ended up not commenting… and then missing that interaction! But I doubt I’m the “norm” when it comes to that kind of thing
Going to do it now and then make sure I still visit!!!!!
As for Pink Floyd… I’ve actually been wondering – you must have the entire album collection – right? CD or vinyl?
Manz´s last blog ..WADRICK’S THIRTY SECOND FILM REVIEWS (the 1980s)
Thanks Wayne
Holte Ender´s last blog ..This just in – Politicians not very smart
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Of course, even when I do it they don’t show. It figures huh…lol
meh, the link explains them well enough I think.
I’m not entirely familiar with Sitemeter, and that seems to be a tool that captures the count of users coming to your site. I don’t believe it has anything at all to do with feedburner, but depending upon how it’s implemented, it MAY interfere, but I doubt it. Sitemeter is just an indicator of traffic levels per day or hour, however they break it down.
Does the same thing as Google analytics, but is instant, whereas Analytics you need to wait a day to see yesterday’s traffic levels and detail.
Wayne – Forget my previous post, I think I have it figured out. What I would like to know now is: Would Feedburner interfere with Sitemeter? I have Sitemeter (the cheap version – FREE). How does one differ from the other? Could I have them both? Sitemeter doesn’t tell me exactly what I want to know i.e. how many subscribers I have.
Holte Ender´s last blog ..I see DC
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Those are HTML formatting tags.
BoldItalics
Here’s a complete list of them: http://www.w3schools.com/HTML/html_formatting.asp
I typed an: a i and d, with greater than and less than enclosing them?
Holte Ender´s last blog ..I see DC
Hmm – I see what I typed in turned into italics.
Perhaps that answers my question. Sorry to bother you.
Holte Ender´s last blog ..I see DC
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@Demeur, Hell, they only need ask, lol. I’d like to meet them too!
@Holte – seems your comment was fudged by the powers that be. What are you looking for?
Wayne´s last blog ..Thank You For Subscribing!
Wayne – Can you explain, or direct me to an explanation, of what , , means. Thanks.
Holte Ender´s last blog ..I see DC
Sorry Wayne I’m just getting too far behind the tech curve to keep up with feeds and twitters, rss and xyz’s.
Maybe people were looking for naked pics of John Wayne and landed up here
I’d like to meet those gals.
Demeur´s last blog ..Tin foil hat time
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@Roger, that’s a great way to keep up to date with others. Never thought of that, nicely done!
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I guess I’m not much into subscribing. I like to see on my page when you (and others) have new posts; good enough for my purposes.
Roger Green´s last blog ..Z is for ZIP Codes
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@Tena – You are set up correctly, and in fact, you have 287 subscribers via Google Reader alone. I’m unsure how many in total you have, and I’m not sure that having a total number is necessary except for your own satisfaction.
I’m not sure that you’ll be able to get a total number from Blogger. If you were using Feedburner, they would tell you how many subscribers you have in total. Blogger doesn’t do that.
DO NOT switch to Feedburner to get those numbers. You’ll drop all your existing subscribers, perhaps tick them off a bit and lose many of them, and have to start all over again.
I’m curious why Blogger doesn’t provide these numbers to you. It’s good information. Seems a bad oversight on Blogger’s part.
But, you are set up correctly and everything seems to be working fine.
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@Rich – There’s a subscribe via email in the top right corner, the “Daily Email” thingy. Albeit, sometimes we aren’t so “daily” around here…lol
@DeadRooster – Interesting. Didn’t think of that. Hell, I don’t even know how to use FriendFeed effectively, nor what the big deal about it is. I should find some posts that explain it a bit. Thanks for the kudos!!! I totally appreciate that.
@Virginia, ah my friend, you are the best. One of these days we’ll hook up in good old Idaho and take a trip down some random river. Snake river is up there, and I’ve been down that one before long, long time ago.
@Tena – I’ll check things out and get in touch with you
I could really use your help then. Turns out that even though I’ve done this for a year, I didn’t catch on to the “subscriber” business. Now that I’m trying to make a serious go of it- I don’t know if I’m doing it right, wrong, or if I’ll ever get anyone to subscribe. Advice?
tena´s last blog ..Get to know a little bit about me before it comes as a shock at BlogHer
Hi Wayne! Dutifully sending my notice of ‘friend hanging along with you’ per your request. I love reading your posts, since over the years we have been close and far, sometimes not talking much and sometimes not so. But you’re a gem, one of those true friends who fill one hand full of fingers on the true friend hand. Throw in your Floydian posts. Add the kittie posts and random others, variety is good and refreshing and your unique personage gives a certain special quality to your posts. Most of your techie posts I scan and end up wtih that huh? feeling, but that’s okay, ’tis not my forte and ’tis yours. March on, good Wango!
Feedburner integrates FriendFeed subscribers, so if you’ve been getting a lot of those lately, that’s probably where they’re coming from.
You can check your Feedburner subscriber list and see what percentage are FF subs.
Glad to see you climbing the charts, Wayne! You deserve it, buddy!
DeadRooster´s last blog ..An Edible Cake: Probably
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Hi Wayne,
Your move to WordPress will likely help to improve your subscribers I believe. Most people use RSS because they do not want to be hit with direct marketing and the idea that they do not have to be known is appealing to some. They just want to read what you have to say. You might want to consider adding a ‘Subscribe via Email’ widget which will help you build an email list. As for Pink Floyd keep it up!
You Blog is looking great to me.
Rich
Rich Hill´s last blog ..Linkmoney is About Links, Right? Free eBook Download