what do you think to yourself when you see buttons such as these.

And the link to the next post, by Seth Godin is:

Money, popularity, quality

By the way, we all know our counts drop on the weekend because of FeedBurner’s methodology. So I thinking we’ll want to be up over whatever our minimum count is by at least 20% before adding a counter.

Great topic by the way. I’d been wondering about this for a while. I always take notice of feed counts as a measuring stick.

Here’s my question: *when* do I add the FeedBurner counter to a new site? At 100 readers? 200? 500?

Whatcha think?

@ Ashwin the one exception to the above SOB badge rule is that we like folks who have strong opinions and who stand for quality. You’re is ready when you want.

Regarding other badges like “SOB”, Alexa rank, Technorati Profile (instead an About me be there) makes the blog look ‘cheap’ to me. After all in the end of the day, I dont blog for Technorati or Alexa rank.

It’s a funny thing, I try to avoid the whole blogtrumps thing of comparing technorati/feedburner high scores. Even back when hit counters were all the rage I never liked those either. With this though I feel it helps provide a scent of validity.

With all of this stuff I am always open to listen others’ opinions.

Subscriber counts work for me exactly like finding out someone’s salary. I hadn’t really thought consciously about where the number of subscribers would be, but once I know, the person somehow is pegged at that level and I become interested in how that number changes.

Occasionally I’ll use Technorati to check a blogger’s connections. That happens most often when the blogger in question seems to be talking down to readers or self-promoting in a loud and uncomfortable way.

Those factors come forward as price/value indicators when I thnk about the potential of a sale. Then other variables enter the pool of “value” as well — focus/quantity of content, earnings of the blog, how closely the blog is tied to the blogger, and so on — so that the weight of the original numbers is only part of a whole.

In the end, the numbers and seals of approval serve to let me know that other folks are listening too. Knowing how blogs change and how individuals collect, they validate my choice, perhaps, but they have little to power as an incentive or disincentive. They are a nice thing — no more, no less.

1. The stat widget shows a high number of subscribers so this blog’s content must be worth reading.
2. The widget shows a low number of subscribers so either this blog is new or it’s not worth reading. If it’s new, will the blogger keep it flowing with new content? If it’s a blog with lots of posts and no subscribers it’s unlikely I’ll be sticking around.
3. No stats are shown. I’ll read the post I visited the blog for and make my own mind up!

Showing your subscriber stats is only a good idea once you have at least 200 subscribers.