[consulting] Tracking readership via RSS

[Bill Fitzgerald]

Hello, all,

Thanks for the feedback -- this is about what I was expecting -- I have 
had a few clients ask about alternatives to Feedburner lately -- my 
standard response has been what some people stated in this thread: rss 
metrics are imprecise at best, and are best used within the context of 
tracking usage patterns, as opposed to absolute usage numbers --

What feedburner used to offer was the appearance of a real number -- but 
even that was always imprecise. But, given feedburner's flakiness for 
the last couple years, people are finally getting sick of it.

What I was really wondering was if someone on this list had found a 
metric or tool of which I wasn't aware -- at the risk of stating the 
obvious, I've been down the Google road several times over the last few 
months, and the lack of anything especially useful was part of what 
sparked my question to the list.

And, for managing my own rss consumption, I use a Drupal-based site 
running the FeedAPI -- what other tool would you need?

Cheers,

Bill

Shai Gluskin wrote:
> Bill,
>
>         You would find equally useful statistics through standard web
>         server log analysis statistics on the specific xml/rss pages.
>
>
> That's true... and those logs are distinct from the way Google 
> Analytics collects stats, which wouldn't collect the needed data for 
> this kind of analysis... unless they have come up with something 
> clever since the last time I read about this.
>
> Shai
>
> On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 10:42 PM, Ryan Cross <drupal at ryancross.com 
> <mailto:drupal at ryancross.com>> wrote:
>
>     Instead of sending you links Bill, I was able to find some good
>     material by searching google for "feedburner alternatives" and
>     "rss subscription counter" (or statistics)
>
>     I'm sure you recognize that rss subscription statistics are
>     inherently vague and imprecise by nature, correct? You would find
>     equally useful statistics through standard web server log analysis
>     statistics on the specific xml/rss pages.
>
>     Cheers,
>     Ryan
>
>     On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Shai Gluskin
>     <shai at content2zero.com <mailto:shai at content2zero.com>> wrote:
>
>         Gang,
>
>         I think Bill is asking something different. He's not trying to
>         manage his own reading list, he wants to help web publishers
>         understand the effectiveness/readership of the feeds they publish.
>
>         I use feedburner.com <http://feedburner.com>, now
>         feedburner.google.com <http://feedburner.google.com>. You can
>         also enable email subscriptions to feeds which is great for
>         people who aren't in to rss yet.
>
>         Shai
>
>
>         On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 10:16 PM, Brian Vuyk
>         <brian at brianvuyk.com <mailto:brian at brianvuyk.com>> wrote:
>
>             I use Thunderbird as my regular email client... I also
>             just add my RSS subscriptions to it as well. It's a good
>             interface IMO.
>
>             -Brian
>
>
>             On 04/06/2009 02:40 PM, Bill Fitzgerald wrote:
>
>                 Hello, all,
>
>                 A question for the list --
>
>                 What methods are people using to track subscriptions
>                 via RSS? Many people have been getting sick of
>                 feedburner, as it has been flaky for a while, and its
>                 aquisition by Google has not helped matters.
>
>                 Thanks,
>
>                 Bill
>

-- 

Bill Fitzgerald
http://funnymonkey.com
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ph. 503 897 7160