On my Blogger blog I’ve got Google Analytics set up and I fanatically log in to see how my visitors are doing (not bad if you’re interested. Blogging frequently certainly drives more traffic).
Does Google Analytics track people using RSS Feeds?
So this got my thinking…..I use Google reader to read blogs. So does Google Analytics track people who use RSS readers to read blogs? The answers no, categorically.
If they wanted to do this, fundamentally the way RSS feeds work would need to change. The only way I could see if working would be if the URL 301 redirected to the RSS feed URL. If the Tracking was on the redirected page then you could track it.
How many people use RSS Readers?
Interestingly I couldn’t find any up to date statistics on this, as I wanted to estimate the hidden audience for my blog. The most up to date information I could find was from a study in 2005 by Neilson, which states:
- 11% of blog readers use RSS feeds to manage feeds
- nearly 5% of blog readers use feed aggregation software
- more than 6% use a feed aggregating Web site to monitor RSS feeds from blogs
Given that blogging has gone through exponential growth since this study was completed, it would be fair to say that significantly more people use feed aggregation or blog readers to manage their RSS feeds.
Are people who use Feed Aggregation Software more passive?
So this got me thinking even further about reading on the website vs reading in a RSS reader and the variances between the two behaviours.
I use Google Reader for my blog reader – mainly because I use a lot of the other Google features and I can be the mobile app for this (which is great for trains).
So does how people read, reflect and comment on your blog differ compared to if they were reading it on the website? Utimately it is bound to, as the reader is in a different mind set. I would definitely say (from my own experience) I’m a little more passive in reading all the articles. I skim read and digest posts I find interesting. I then open these in another tab, book mark them and comment on them if I deem that it is relevant to.
So how do you use your blog reader?
I’d love to hear from you:
- if you have found a way to get usage stats on people picking up your RSS feed.
- let me know how your behaviour differs reading on website vs blog reader and if you think there is any marked difference in behaviour
Look forward to hearing from you.
I use Google Reader (http://reader.google.com) to subscribe and read a number of blogs on a daily basis (incl this one). As for the stats – I suppose there's services such as Feedblitz and Feedburner which do offer some stats when it comes to subscribers nmbers. You need to pipe your Blogs RSS fee through thse and prompote the resulting RSS feed URL as the primary one that your blog readers should subscribe to.
You are correct Charlotte, the tools are used for different purposes. Web searches are directed searches to retrieve specific bits of information. RSS readers preselect topics of choice (which then tend to be browsed at 'water cooler' moments.) In fact IMHO people use microblogging and RSS readers in a similar way.
Thanks both for your comments.
Interesting that you use Google Reader too. I've looked at Feedburner etc. Using other sites such as technorati to promote your blogs increases your reach. But I've never seen any stats on my personal blog on these sites?
Like the idea of water cooler moments – completely get that!
hat I mean by "stats" is the ability to view the number of people (and who thay are) whom have subscribed to a blog. Although admitedly this doesn't actually tell you how many times a post is actually read.
I'm already using the usual Analytics with Blogger, just editing the basic the template.