Feedburner is a great system to track your R.S.S Subscribers. It shows statistics, hits, email subscriptions, and offers more customization than many of their competitors. (Being Google owned also offers a distinct advantage for new projects 
)
Anyway, The point of this post is not to tell the readers how good this service is, rather to discuss the issues that a blogger can face when displaying their R.S.S feed subscribers. Lets break it down in terms of Pros and Cons:
Pros
- Great way to show readers that people are reading your content.
- Shows first time visitors that this blog has good enough content to attract X amount of subscribers.
- Could influence a new visitor to subscribe to your feed as people usually like to follow the numbers rather than initially start a trend.
- Makes you not have to sign into your feedburner account to see how many subscribers you have
Cons
- If the numbers are small, you could deter subscribers from subscribing to your feed because of the point outlined above (people like to follow a trend rather than start one)
- What is the magic number to influence a first time visitor to subscribe? (Eg - Hundreds? or Thousands?)
I know I have posted about this previously, but when you keep seeing your rss subscriptions increasing, this question plays tricks with your mind 
What are your thoughts about Feedburner Feedcount? Will you display it once a certain number of subscribers have subscribed to your feed? Or avoid the problem entirely, and not consider it.
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9 Responses to “Feedburner Dilema: Should Feedcount Be On Your Blog?”
Feed count is one of the parameters like Google PR or Alexa PR. I don’t think it influences a reader to subscribe.Content only decides that. Feed count tells how popular a blogger is.
OldSailor’s last blog post..Global Need to Develop Submarine Escape and Rescue Systems
I think I have 16 readers and I recently also removed my histats counter from public view because of the same first impression judgements,?Right now I’m using my technique of never having to ask someone to “check out my blog” which they don’t to an organically built method of making people come..?If each reader was worth a buck a piece or something I’d worry about it.?I noticed cause I do it myself that people usually click to sign up if they like you or not.I was recently reading a blog that had like 2300 readers and I was thinking that many people like reading this crap no that many people at one point said I like this guy.It’s nice to see that techno continue to rise..Did you check out http://100People.21Publish.com Please take a minute and don’t miss out:)ThanksIt’s all about the backlinks? WHO you linked to ?check out that little thingy I made to let readers link to me That to me is the KEY and great content which you got Plenty;)?
feed count is one of the factors that people consider when subscribing , but feedburner sometimes tend to show 0 rather strangely. So I’m not that sure about showing it in my blog.
Nishadha’s last blog post..How to look Good in any browser - 1
@ Oldsailor - Great analysis. Thanks for your opinion.
@ John - Err, Yes I’ll check the link. Thanks for the long comment.
@ Nishadha - The errors are definitely creating the inconvenience of their own widget.
Actually I was thinking of one scenario that could be applied to people showing it.
Bragging rights? Some Blogs show 8000 subscribers - obviously that they want you to see that they are popular and are well read.
I have a new blog but you knew that Right??
With that being stated I have removed the stat counter for FeedBurner. Reason being was that I didn’t have that many subscribers and thought perhaps it was deterrent to others that may have been thinking about.
When and if it increases in size I will once again add it and see if it makes a difference.
Not sure if it does or not though. I have noticed or can’t locate the amount of readers you have.
So does it benefit you by not having it show up here? Would it increase Your readers if you did?
[...] Feedburner Feedcount is a great tool to show your visitors how many people are reading your content. But can that have a reverse effect on them? See the Pros and Cons of the tool: Feedburner Dilema: Should Feedcount Be On Your Blog? [...]
I had feedburner up for a month long contest seeing who could gain the most subscribers but now that the contest is over I took the feedcount down. Just doesn’t seem to benefit my readers enough to take up space!
Adam Pieniazek’s last blog post..My iPhone Died
[...] interface to show R.S.S Subscribers (which helps you in turn, gain them to your feed - read more about that here) but what does the plugin accomplish? More comments? A better reputation because people have chosen [...]