The Race To 1,000,000 RSS Subscribers

August 3rd, 2007 | Categories: blogs, networks, social media, trends

RSS IconWhich blog will be the first to claim 1,000,000 subscribers? Only time will tell. Perhaps, we may never know exactly when the first blog does reach 1 million RSS subscribers. One may have already, although it is highly unlikely. Of the top 10 blogs listed on Technorati, only TechCrunch and Daily Kos publish their RSS readership numbers (from what I can see). For this reason, we may never know who will be first to reach the magic mark.

Here is the Technorati top 10:

  1. Engadget
  2. Boing Boing
  3. Gizmodo
  4. TechCrunch
  5. Huffington Post
  6. Lifehacker
  7. Ars Technica
  8. Daily Kos
  9. PostSecret
  10. TMZ

Keep in mind that these blogs are NOT ranked by RSS readership, but rather by Technorati Authority level.

Once again, the mystery surrounding web statistics and traffic numbers manifests itself. Why all the secrecy? Why the need to conceal? Quite honestly these blogs should be proud of their success and top 10 ranking.

Blog networks seem to be very fickle about their numbers. Weblogs, Inc. and Gawker* own 3 of the top 10 blogs and control many other notables including Kotaku, Joystiq, Valleywag, and AutoBlog. Nevertheless, they choose not to showcase their RSS numbers. I assume it’s like war - you don’t want to give away your position to the enemy. Meh… I think it’s a pretty lame excuse.

The independent bloggers have no reason not to publish their numbers. I would even wager that new visitors are more likely to add a given feed if they see a large RSS readership number. In other words, it may persuade people to follow the crowd and be in the know (excuse the cliches).

Getting back to the original topic, it will be interesting to see who will be the first to break the 1 million mark, if we do indeed ever see it. The rivalry and competition of the blogosphere is almost laughable. Having said that, it also makes it extremely difficult to track the progress of the Internet’s top blogs.

*Please note that Gawker does post traffic numbers, but not RSS stats.

2 Comments

  1. Mark Evans Says:

    I noticed that the Official Google Blog has 522,000 RSS subscribers.

    Mark

  2. Aidan Says:

    Wow… I hadn’t realized that. What’s interesting is that Google can now access everyone’s Feedburner stats and perhaps *manipulate* their own… ha.

    -Aidan

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