23,000 RSS Subscribers

Despite the hoards of people claiming to unsubscribe from my blog because of the Rick Roll April Fools day joke, the FeedBurner widget is showing that this blog broke through the 23,000 subscriber mark. While this may come as a surprise to those who unsubscribed (or believe what they read in the comments), it doesn’t come as a surprise to me or anyone who understands Internet marketing.

Your Readership is Dynamic

A blog readership base is a dynamic element – it changes all the time and is not static. The people commenting on this blog now are not the same people who were commenting six months ago. Six months from now, most of the people commenting here won’t be commenting anymore. That’s just the way it works. If the commentators on your blog hasn’t changed in the past six months, it means the only people reading your blogs are friends and family members.

This dynamic element of the blog readership is the reason I never worry when I see comments by readers claiming they’re leaving. I know the chances of them completely leaving is very slim. Sure, they may unsubscribe from the blog RSS or comment less, but very few readers will completely leave a blog. And the fact that they left a comment saying they’re leaving make them less lightly to leave. If they left, they wouldn’t be able to read my reply. Human nature being what it is, they’ll check to see if I or anyone else reply to their comments.

While we all want to see readership keep going up, there will always be bumps along the way. As long as the general trend is upward, you really don’t have much to worry about. I was thinking about photochopping my RSS widget to show 10 subscribers and making a post asking, “Where did everybody go?” but decided against it because April Fools is over.

Apology for the Rick Roll

I want to apologies if I upset anyone for the Rick Roll prank. I assure you that was not the intention. While most will take the Rick Rolling for what it is – an April Fools joke – some were extremely pissed off by it. To those who were enraged by my stunt, I offer the following kind words from my favorite childhood TV show, The Muppets. I think it truly express how I feel.