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 ;)
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