Does having a higher subscriber count instantly mean a better blog, or are there other factors that on first glance will make you believe a blog is good or bad?

I am asking this because there were two great posts on increasing subscriber numbers, the first was from Winning the Web, entitled 16 Ideas For Free Products That Will Double Your Subscribers & Leads and the second was from The University Kid entitled How To Send Your Subscriber Count Through The Roof.

While both of these are interesting articles, does the quality of subscribers matter? I know that we constantly talk about the quality of traffic, but in their posts, they don’t talk about what kind of negative side effects, if any, occur when you push your subscriber base up in a way that is almost artificial.

We have become so competitive at building up blogs that many people have started building them so efficiently to sell them that they make their full time living through building what appears to be a strong community and then selling it to the highest bidder.

While I would like to think that everyone that subscribes to this blog is subscribed because they want to be, there is no doubt a bit of inflation in every RSS subscriber number, and so don’t forget that, especially if you are purchasing a blog.

Originally posted on February 22, 2011 @ 7:09 pm