You make a very good point about the rss count as being sort of an “authority” meter. Mostly a psychological effect true, but nonetheless it’s there. I think you may be right by not displaying a low RSS count, I’m going to think about that one for a bit and maybe remove my counter. Although seeing new readers is a nice little self esteem boost ^^

The rest of your points are also very true. I don’t think I’ll ever use adsense, but the higher trust from an rss subscriber is a huge plus.

Thank you very much Mert, I really appreciate your input. You’ve taught me a little something, as well as my readers I’m sure!

Let me tell you why it is so important. First of all, when you find a blog with 5000 RSS subscribers, you are naturally affected. You start to see that site as an authority site. Let’s turn things up and down now and imagine that you see a blog with 5 RSS readers. What will you think? Thus it is not a good idea to represent the number of RSS readers unless you have 100+ number of subscribers.

Second, you can monetize your RSS feeds with a feature of http://www.feedburner.com. Feedburner is owned by Google and Google let you put Adsense ads into RSS feeds.

Third, if you are going to do affiliate marketing, it is proven that your RSS readers are willing to buy from you.

Fourth, it is also proven by my own experience that your RSS readers are willing to Stumble, Digg your posts. Because they like you.

Hope serves. Meanwhile i wish you a happy new year!
Cheers,
Mert

I would agree with Mert in that you might not want to show a low RSS count - especially in your domain of affiliate marketing. You want to project authority and potential advertisers might be dissuaded by this. You need to “walk the talk”.

And I would also add to the fact that people like to hang out where the “cool kids” play. If they see a high RSS count, they will be more apt to comment than one with a low RSS count. After all, it’s a form of marketing for commentators but it takes effort to comment.

Conversely, if I don’t see a RSS count, I suspect that the blogger hasn’t reached 100 - unless you’re an already an established name in your niche.

Best of luck and congrats on your first milestone!

But of course, a low rss number could sort of give off a negative first impression. Which would be a shame wouldn’t you say

I guess an assumption of a low RSS count is better than it staring in your face

Although I still don’t think it has that much of a correlation to the actual visitors a site has. For example, I think I’m getting a LOT of comments for 11 RSS readers

Thanks for your input! Much appreciated!

I decided to take the counter off for a while, as per all of your ideas. Just because I agree it could be construed as a negative first impression.

Thanks again for all of your very insightful comments!

I’ve always heard that you don’t want to show the number untile its respectable. Of course if you use feedburner then its fairly easy to find the number out even if you don’t publish it on the blog.