On a suggestion from a reader, I’ve decided to try to get better statistics on my RSS subscribers by managing my RSS feed via feedburner.com. For now, what this means for you, my subscriber is that instead of my normal RSS feed, you can use the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/brainwagon to get the syndicated version of my feed. If you feel comfortable with all this stuff, try switching over to it and let me know what your experience is. If it seems to work, I’ll probably try to figure out the mod_rewrite juju necessary to send all requests for my feeds there, and then I’ll be able to get a better idea of who the regular users of my website are.
Thanks!
Mark,
I’m not busting on you, but asking me to rehash my RSS feed mechanism so that you can quantify the number of people coming to read your blog and in the next breath cajoling podcasters to look at quality over quantity is confusing.
Which is it? You don’t care how you’re ranked, you don’t care about the number of listeners/readers? Or you want me to unsubscribe from one feed in order to use another so that you can track usage? To my mind, and maybe I’m missing something, it can’t be both.
I think you were right on the money when you said, “If you enjoy my podcasts, just keep downloading ‘em and pass links to your friends who might enjoy them.” Same thing with the text. If you like Brainwagon, keep reading. If you like reading via RSS, do so.
Just keep doing it, Mark. I mean, would there ever be numbers so low that you’d say, “Meh, I’m packing it in. My blog is dead.”? I imagine not.
So just keep typing and podcasting. Forget about public ranking sites. Forget about the statistics. The best part of activities like this is the personal catharsis they deliver. Not knowing that X number of people read Y story Z number of times. But that you said it. It’s off your chest. It’s thrown out there into the bitstream and the currents and eddies shall take it where they will.
Don’t worry about being NOAA and setting up tracking buoys. Quantification is not validation. My two cents.
And rock on. 🙂
Editor’s note: Excellent point, and it does point out that I’m not 100% free of the clutches of trying to be popular. But I’m not a total hypocrite either, and I’ll explain why.
I am interested in how many people download my podcasts and the reasons that they might have for giving me 15 minutes of their time. What I am genuinely uninterested is how that compares to anyone else in the world. I’m not interested in comparisons to anyone else’s podcast. I merely would like to know what people find compelling about my podcast, and how I might improve it (not necessarily alter it) to make it more enjoyable to them.
The best way would be for the listeners to engage me in some kind of actual conversation, but for whatever reason, 99% of them never email and never post on my weblog. So I am left in the dark as to what they find interesting and what they find boring. Playing the numbers game is one way of gaining information that they seem unwilling to provide willingly.
If that seems like a lame justification, then perhaps it is. If it seems like I’m employing a double standard, then perhaps I am. I’ll ponder it more in the future.
I merely would like to know what people find compelling about my podcast, and how I might improve it (not necessarily alter it) to make it more enjoyable to them.
That makes a bit more sense, thanks for the elucidation.
But, again, who cares what listeners think? They’re downloading now, which means that whatever you’re doing is engaging them. Doing more of it, or a better job of it, is not going to make them dowload it faster. And it treads dangerously close to pandering, IMO (n.b. my opinions are often wrong).
Let ClearChannel worry about doing listener surveys in order to drive their programming decisions. I like you as an unsullied, independent voice that answers to nothing but his own internal barometer.
And if I may be so bold, I’d bet that’s what a lot of listeners/readers like about this site, too. It doesn’t pander. The voice is honest. The topics compelling.
Less worrying about quatification and listener surveys and streamlining content to match the expectations of Average User 1 and let’s see more typing. 🙂