Tracking RSS Subscriptions

[CaffinePhil]

Is there anyway to tell who has subscribed to your RSS?

In the last week my numbers have declined from 10 to 6?

[sukosaki]

If you are using Feedburner you can easily see the email subscribers, but I am not sure if you are able to see WHO is subscribed through a reader.

You can set up a notification from feedburner everytime someone unsubscribes their email though, that might help?

[The University Kid]

You can see email subscribers, and compare numbers at the end of every week.

As for through a reader, you can compare how many subscribed through which reader... there's no way to find out specifics though

[geekriddles]

FeedBurner just aggregates some statistics to figure out those numbers. It is possible that you've actually had 8 subscribers all along and FeedBurner showed sometimes 10, sometimes 6. If a subscribed user doesn't open their RSS client one day, FeedBurner won't count that user for the day, but it doesn't mean they unsubscribed.

Look at the FeedBurner RSS numbers as an "approximate average" thing more than an exact number.

Hope this helps.

[WhoJayBe]

Also, it doesn't necessarily mean anyone UNsubscribed. The feed count is based on who actually checks out your blog or article on a daily basis. Plus, 6-10, that's not a huge loss anyways... if it was something like 60 from 1,000 or something, then I would definitely worry!

[sukosaki]

that's why email subscribers are better (when activated), that number never changes unless they actually unsubscribe

[rhyswynne]

I wrote an article a while back to track who actually clicks on your rss link using google analytics, if I may shameless plug, you can read it here.

How To Track New RSS Subscribers Google Analytics in 3 Easy Steps | The Gospel According To Rhys

It's not completely accurate, but I found that by combining the total number of "clicks" to your starting point, you get a better idea.

[Strongbow]

Originally Posted by geekriddles

FeedBurner just aggregates some statistics to figure out those numbers. It is possible that you've actually had 8 subscribers all along and FeedBurner showed sometimes 10, sometimes 6. If a subscribed user doesn't open their RSS client one day, FeedBurner won't count that user for the day, but it doesn't mean they unsubscribed.

Look at the FeedBurner RSS numbers as an "approximate average" thing more than an exact number.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for clearing that up i use feedburner and was wondering the same thing myself.

[WillT]

Thanks for that! I often wondered about that very thing. I understand how if someone did not open their RSS for a day they won't be counted. So to use your example if one did not open RSS on a day the total would be 7. But how would the total show as "10" if you have 8 subscribers? What would make the Feedburner count be too high?

Originally Posted by geekriddles

FeedBurner just aggregates some statistics to figure out those numbers. It is possible that you've actually had 8 subscribers all along and FeedBurner showed sometimes 10, sometimes 6. If a subscribed user doesn't open their RSS client one day, FeedBurner won't count that user for the day, but it doesn't mean they unsubscribed.

Look at the FeedBurner RSS numbers as an "approximate average" thing more than an exact number.

Hope this helps.

[WhoJayBe]

Originally Posted by geekriddles

FeedBurner just aggregates some statistics to figure out those numbers. It is possible that you've actually had 8 subscribers all along and FeedBurner showed sometimes 10, sometimes 6. If a subscribed user doesn't open their RSS client one day, FeedBurner won't count that user for the day, but it doesn't mean they unsubscribed.

Look at the FeedBurner RSS numbers as an "approximate average" thing more than an exact number.

Hope this helps.

Just a heads up, it IS based on a daily basis on how many people will open their RSS Feeds or actually read your content for the day. That helps determine the number of people viewing your feeds EACH day...