I recently visited a blog (when I was doing some Entrecard drops) and saw that the blog had 28,259 feedburner subscribers. I’m not saying that I don’t believe a blog can get that many subscribers (because many great blogs really do), but seeing the blog’s number of comments and the layout of the blog, I had this disbelief spark in my eyes.
So I decided to do some googling to find out how to verify a feed’s subscriber number (a Feedburner count, especially).
To validate or verify a Feedburner feed subscriber’s number, simply use this URL:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/[the_feed_name]
So for example, if you want to verify my feed subscriber’s number, use this URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/michaelaulia. You’ll find that the count is the same as the one that I’m displaying on my header.
I’m not going to disclose the blog’s URL here, but I found out that the blog that I was talking about on the first paragraph only has 7 subscribers, instead of 28,259.
Fake (displayed on the blog):
Real:
I’m not going to judge the blogger, because he/she may not know about it (as some free themes actually come with a sample feedburner count image). Or he/she may do it on purpose. Again, it’s not me to judge.
What I want to stress here is that if you are planning to advertise on a blog, don’t forget to validate its subscribers’ count (especially if the counter is the main reason you are going to advertise on it).
If you are a blogger who cheats and thinks that you can get away with putting a fake subscriber count, think again 
{ 44 comments… read them below or add one }
Good point – fake subscriber counts! Urghh, as if that’s going to make me read more of its posts!
Hey, now I have to type a 5 instead of a 2 whenever I comment!
lol.. yeah some annoying bots managed to get through my difficult & awesome question! Spam bots nowadays are pretty smart
Good detective work. I’ve long wondered about the feedcount of many of these blogs. Now I know how to verify it.
Some blogs actually put a link to verify/validate the count next to the counter. Some can’t be bothered (like me lol). I know some advertisers rely on those feed counts to advertise and it’s sad if they don’t know that it’s fake
Nice work…..
Thanks for sharing it with us…
Thanks. Hope it can be useful to you one day!
Yup, 28259 Feed but there is no comment on their blog.
Which makes you wonder, isn’t it
It is sad when people go to those extremes to cheat like that. I don’t have many feedburner readers, but won’t cheat doing things like that.
I will just continue with improving my content and some time down the road the traffic will get better and the Feedburner count will increase as well.
Well I hope that the blogger on my post doesn’t do it intentionally. My feedburner readers are not that many too, but I solely blame it on this mixed bag niche blog!
Wow.. that is.. too much.
And, this validation thingie is so cool!
Maybe one day we all here can have that many subscriber numbers for real…. amen!
strange?
i couldnt do it with my feed at
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/Hardian ,
anyway imho never share feed count until it reaches a minimum 100 subscriber
Hm according to Deimos’ comment, it seems that you need to activate it on your Feedburner account somewhere
yup i’ve seen some websites that fake their subscriber, this is nice info gonna try it someday thx
Now just can one gain by lying about things like this. Any Net-savvy advertiser will know the stats are inflated. What will these guys think of next? Thanks for the tip on how to verify the funny looking claims.
The blogger may also forget to remove the image from his/her theme but at least we all know now to check the numbers whenever we have our doubts!
Awesome. I had no idea you could do this. Discovered this to SU; thank you for the useful tip.
I have never worried about feedcount.
How many blogs have large number of subscribers who
have only gained these counts through competitions
giving away stuff.
How many of their subscribers who actually read them
should be counted.
P.S I did hear of a fake script getting around that allowed
you do display this image.
True. I guess some people even subscribed and not bother reading any of the site’s feed at all after the competition
this is a great info. thanks for sharing.
a lot of bloggers today do such trick to gain more readers or encourage them to subscribe. but that will not work because later on they unsubscribe when they found out that it is a feed count.
that only thing to gain large audience and subscribers is to provide the readers with quality contents.
Yup and I guess a focused niche blog too…
Thats funny I though i was going to learn how to boost my feed do you know any way to do that
Nice tip!
But how come it cannot show mine? -_-
Never mind, I figured it out.
It was not activated in the first place. -_-
And I typed in the wrong name as well. -_-;;;
Ah I guess this answer Dian’s problem with not being able to see his as well
Amazing! What a fake. Trying to make people believe that they have 28,259 readers as against 7 which is the real number! Good bit of investigative blogging there!
Well maybe the blogger doesn’t do intentionally (some themes come with a feed count sample image)
Hey Michael, thats a cool tip. I have read however that sometimes Feedburners do malfunction due to whatever the reason maybe and a lot of people are switching to Feedproxy but I don’t think this guy did malfunction. Great tip!
Oh really? I’ve never heard of any problems with Feedburners (or I guess I never pay attention to it)
Hey dude probably you talking about my template, I apologize for it and i have not put it intentionally , its because of the template and I’m very new to wordpress so I’m learning how to remove it , obviously i need trust based readers even if its only 100 I’m happy with it!
Its only because of the template and i will remove it by this weekend because right now i don’t know how to edit wordpress template completely.
Why i’m writing all this because i didn’t do it intentionally!
Anyways thanx for pointing else i would have not taken it seriously.
P@r@noid!
Hi buddy, I’m not sure if it was you (I didn’t remember the blog). Maybe not, because I couldn’t validate your feed reader when I tried after reading your comment. It’s probably another blog that is using the LightBreaker theme (which comes with the feed sample image).
As mentioned on my post, I didn’t make a judgement on the blogger in case he/she doesn’t know about it. Good that you take the kind of thing seriously, though!
If the blog owner really wanna cheat the readers, he/she should put a realistic feedburner count. Do it smartly and don’t put too large number. LOL!
I came across a free service to boost feed count, Feedboostr. But I’m not trying it because it is illegal and unethical.
Problem is, that image comes with the theme, which is the reason why
As much as I want to boost my feed count, I guess I’ll skip the unethical method hehe
sometimes i’m amaze when saw a web with thousand subscriber and with this i hope not trapped again with fake subscriber count
Wow! Quite the discrepancy. Ive heard of bloggers faking amounts on checks and affiliate numbers but never subscribers. Ill have to police some blogs to see whos lying.
I saw that feedcount from a Pinoy blogger..hehehe
I think everyone who is using the LightBreaker theme will get that by default. It’s up to the blogger when he/she is going to replace it with the real one
Thanks for the tip Michael. Looking at the huge difference (7 & 28259), I believe the user might not have changed the theme settings, as you rightly pointed out.
Nice find
some may mean it as a joke, or some bragging thing with other newbie bloggers. advertisers will find ways to validate the displayed numbers. experienced bloggers favor content over displayed widgets.
Sure hope so!
sounds like a cool little tool. ive been skeptical about some of the blogs i have come across and now i can see if they are legit or not
-jack
Yeah, the faking number of subscribers seems kinda dumb to me. If you want that to be a measure of how successful you are, it just seems counter productive to pay to fake that, imo. Really instructive post, I like how you handled the subject. Cheers.
Well it’s probably more like impressing people than measuring how successful you are
Sometimes to verify feedburner’s counter you have to use this url:
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/~fc/MichaelAulia
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