February 19, 2007

Did Feedburner surprise you?

Two days back, subscribers to my Feedburner feed jumped from 300 odd to 600 odd. At first, I thought it was a mistake and the number will come down. After reading Aditya's post (subject of which was some other Feedburner issue), I came to know that Google didn't publish the number of subscribers through Google Reader/homepage all this time. Just recently, they started publishing and that's why Feedburner stats are jumping for everyone. For me, an overwhelming majority of my subscribers (272) are using Google Reader/homepage and that was a pleasant surprise. So, if you were surprised by your Feedburner stats as well, now you know the reason.

I am glad so many bloggers benefit from my hacks. Once in a few days, somebody is applying peekaboo posts hack or 3-column hack to their blog. I try to help people as much as possible in this process. Thanks to all these people, my Technorati rank has just crossed 3000 and my blog has a page rank of 5. I can hear you saying "All that is fine. Is there any new hack?". My work pressure has cooled down a bit (to 8 hours a day :)), so I will try to come up with some hacks.

With Google analytics, I see that the topmost entry page to my blog is my main page itself. This surprises me a bit. If you have subscribed to my feed or reach my blog through Google search, you will land up in a post page. So, I am wondering how so many people land up in the main page. Are there many of you who don't subscribe to my feed and just check my main page once in while? I am thinking it is a possibility because feed readers are still not that popular. If you have not used a feed reader so far, I would suggest you to try one - like Google reader, Bloglines etc. You will get notified when there are new posts in your favorite blogs and so, you can avoid repeated trips to blogs' main page. And Feedburner is a great way to keep track of the subscribers to your blog. If you have any doubts about using these, leave me a comment.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

ok it's a bit off-topic. But how did you sync google-reader with your blog? I can't find the way... :(

Efendi said...

"My work pressure has cooled down a bit (to 8 hours a day :)), so I will try to come up with some hacks. "

nice to read this ^^


"With Google analytics, I see that the topmost entry page to my blog is my main page itself. This surprises me a bit."

hm.. i used Google Reader too ^^ but ever since i know the NEO thing, i tend to click on the title of hackosphere instead of the title post, which brought me to the main page, the reason is since you have only 1 post in your main, and that NEO is lightning fast ;)

another is, on the main page, i have lotsa options to browse for ;)

Deepak said...

Oh..So it was you who stole our reader count. :p ;)

Unknown said...

cyber-buff, are you referring to the shared items from google reader that I am showing in this blog? You should be able to do it too. Just look for "Add to Blogger" button in Google reader.

Deepak, hhahaaha :) I had a good laugh.

Efendi, so, it was you who contributed to that stats hah! But you do have a point there.

LOUI$$ said...

Good new bro...you wil be back soon!!!! I just wonder how to load my blog fast...it suck now!!

Miman Colocho said...

for those of us that only read a few blogs, it's a lot easier to type in individual addresses than to open the reader.

hmmm... that reminds me, i should go check my reader...

MaIDeN said...

Ramani, the google reader shared items just showing the title and blog author only.

Dou you think it's possible to hack with add some comment below the title ?

I look for something like this but can't find it. So, I have to write it (manual) with label "quicklinks" in my blog.

paul g. mattiuzzi, ph.d. said...

Ramani:

I have you bookmarked and check every once in a while ... so I count as a hit on your main page.

Regarding your new look: could you please comment on the absence of a navbar ... and perhaps say how you did it?

Thanks. paul

Unknown said...

Paul,

I tried to add peekaboo navbar but somehow it didn't work. I have to check again. Instead of removing the navbar, making it peekaboo using this hack is the best.

Unknown said...

MalDen,

I don't think we can hack Google reader's badge that easily.

Anonymous said...

Ramani:

I'll try the pop up nav bar hack you recommend. In case you're not aware, on my Mac with both Firefox and Safari, your blog is not displaying a navbar ... and in both, I have the pop-up blocker disabled.

The thing I don't like about the navbar is the evil "next blog" button ...

paul.

Anonymous said...

Ramani:

The link you gave for the pop-up navbar from bloggerato takes you to a blog that requires an invitation to read it.

But your custom search engine got me here: http://apnerve.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-to-remove-blogger-beta-navbar.html

and this hack worked.

(The code doesn't copy correctly ... but here's what I used:

/* Apnerve hack code
• more info @: http://www.apnerve.blogspot.com
• ----------------------------------------------- */
#navbar #Navbar1 iframe{
display:none;
visibility:none;
}

paul

Unknown said...

Paul,

I forgot that Bloggeratto (the blog which posted about that hack) is not public now. Anyways, it won't work as intended in IE and takes extra space even when not visible (I now remember that's the reason I took it out).