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This guest post has been brought to you today by Jean-Stephane of PopularWealth.com. If by some chance you are new to the Entrecard community and haven’t visited PopularWealth.com, you must check out his Entrecard contest. Every day his is giving away credits like it’s Christmas Eve and he’s Santa Clause. Once again, thank you Jean and I know you will all enjoy. Cheers.

When Josh recently asked me if I knew of a marketing strategy that I thought might work well for blogging, I wanted to jump into details about campaigns that I’m currently testing. But then it struck me. The blogosphere is FULL of campaigns that people don’t ever notice, so for the purpose of this guest post I want to cover one of the big campaign strategies. Blog image.

Victory online is judged by the appearance of victory and not by the victory itself.

Some of the best content I’ve ever read is forever buried on blogs that won’t ever reach the level of success they deserve. At the opposite end of the spectrum, some blogs that really don’t offer much to their visitors have successful marketing plans that bring them extreme success. How that happens isn’t a complete mystery, if you know what to look for.

Dot com moguls frequently remind you of their prowess by showing you what they consider their proof, their stats etc. Lets take a closer look at feedburner and feedcounts. Do those massive 5-digit feedcount numbers really give you the picture you assume they do? In many cases they don’t, and here’s why.

Many of the dot com mogul sites, not all, offer a free ebook of some sort that you can get for free if you subscribe to a monthly newsletter. Some sites promote the ebook heavily. Because of affiliate links inside, it earns them affiliate income. What many visitors don’t realize is that it also makes their feedcount stats jump dramatically at the same time.

When you subscribe to a monthly newsletter to download an ebook, you actually become a customer. The fact that you got the ebook for free doesn’t matter. Dot com moguls don’t always tell you that they run their newsletter and download service from a third party provider like Aweber. Even if they do inform you, they don’t always tell their readers that Aweber offers the ability to combine their newsletter subscriber figures with their real RSS subscriber figures.

That RSS Feedcount is real, but at the same time it’s fake!

A feedcount that includes monthly newsletter subscriber figures doesn’t represent the real daily readership of a blog. People who subscribed to the newsletter just to grab the ebook don’t always sign up to RSS by reader or by email, many don’t even visit the site again. If they do subscribe by Google Reader or by feedburner email to the RSS feed naturally, they’re counted twice. Once by feedburner and once by Aweber.

If you spot a huge RSS feedcount and wonder if it’s legit, look around for a “free ebook for newsletter subscription” offer or perhaps a store that offers a monthly newsletter to buyers. Chances are you’ll find one, especially if other things like Pagerank are low. Ebooks on a subject you’re knowledgeable about are a great marketing strategy, but getting the most out of that strategy is better still.

To fake it or not to fake it…

Should you start an Aweber account so that you can add newsletter subscriber totals to your RSS feedcount? Thats up to you. What is your impression of dot com moguls who have sky-high feedcount numbers and offer “ebooks for newsletter signups”? If you think they’re smart to pad their feedcount numbers, you might want to consider writing your own ebook. If you lose a little respect for them each time they brag about their feedcount being so high, write the ebook anyway but don’t bother with the newsletter. Better still, write the ebook, offer the newsletter and disclose whether or not you pad your feedcount with newsletter subscriber totals.

YOU are the best judge on what your readers expect from you, what anyone else thinks doesn’t matter. Your blog image depends on your choices. My only suggestion is to be honest! If you’re not, someone will eventually figure you out. I respect blog owners who own up to what they do, especially if they brag a lot, don’t you ?

Jean Harris

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3. March stats on the Unconventional Marketing Blog
4. How to make the switch to working online Part 4
5. Ideal Absolutes: The Blogger’s Digest of Fact and Folly