Every 2nd blog about blogging today seems to be writing about a video showing how to get 2500 subscribers overnight using a Netvibes accounts and an OPML file with thousands of copies of your own feed in it.
I’ve had a lot of people email me to ask what I think about the technique. My response:
1. It’s not surprising to see that it’s Possible – I’ve seen a few bloggers play with this type of technique over the years.
2. It’s an empty Achievement – so your feedburner button is a few thousand more tomorrow than it is today – but ultimately all it means is that you hacked it – no one new is reading your blog.
3. Do something that Matters – Expend the energy doing something that draws in real new readers. Network with other bloggers, write some quality content, write a guest post for another blog, make your blog stickier…. do something that matters
4. Social Proof? – Yes, having more numbers in your feedburner counter might convince a few extra people to subscribe (social proof) but what happens next week when feedburner closes the loophole and suddenly your regular readers see that you’ve just lost a couple of thousand readers? Is there such a thing as reverse social proof?
5. Risk? – I’ve never really been into ‘evil’ tactics – partly because I just don’t get into them but partly because when you deliberately do something to abuse a service that is provided to you by a company – sometimes things come back to bite you. I’m not sure if Feedburner (owned by Google) would take action against people trying to inflate their numbers – but do you really want to find out?
Want to know how to really build the number of subscribers to your blog?
- 11 Ways to Find New RSS Subscribers for your Blog
- A Secret to Finding New Subscribers for Your Blog (the start of a 3 part series)
OK – lets get back to blogging shall we?
