When I launched Inspired Affiliate, I wanted to use the opportunity of launching a new Blog to try doing some things differently from my InspiredMoneyMaker.com Blog.  Making money with this Blog was not a primary objective for me when launching it.  My main monetization strategy for this Affiliate Marketing business is to make money by Affiliate Marketing, not Blogging.  This presented a unique opportunity for me to just launch a Blog and not worry about making any money with it, and to try out a bunch of things that I didn’t want to test with my main Blog.

One of the things I wanted to test out was a different style of writing content.  My Inspired Money Maker Blog has an average post length of 1,100 words per post.  The posts I write on there are a lot more lengthy because I like to dive into a bit of depth when addressing some of the personal development topics I write about on there.

On this Blog, so far I’m averaging about 500 words per post.  That’s less than half the length of my other posts.  Writing shorter posts was one of the things I wanted to test out with this Blog.  Including more pictures and video content is another thing I want to test out on here.  Also, one of the things I want to do with the content on this site is to make it a bit more relaxed, fun and not so focused on the topic compared to Inspired Money Maker.  Meaning, with this Blog I’m not only going to write about Affiliate Marketing, but also a bit more about myself, my hobbies and other fun things that Affiliate Marketing allows me to enjoy.

Getting back to the topic of this post though, one thing I wanted to test out is whether or not having a Feedburner RSS chiclet showing on your Blog from day one has a negative impact on how quickly you grow your RSS subscriber base.  What I mean by that is that I’ve heard from quite a few people that when you first start a Blog, it is NOT advisable to show your Feedburner count if you’ve got less than 50 or 100 RSS subscribers because people will think that your Blog is crap if they see a low number.

It’s solid advice I’ve heard from quite a few people.  However, one thing I always like to do is to test things for myself instead of just blindly listening to the "Guru’s" out there, so with this Blog I decided to put up my RSS feed counter right from day one to see what happens.  Here’s a graph of the results.  Judge for yourself:

I’ve grown my RSS subscriber base from 0 to over 50 subscribers in less than 30 days of running this Blog.  So, does a low RSS Feedburner chiclet really make people weary and unwilling to sign up?  I’m not convinced.  In fact, I now think it makes no difference.  I’d put a Feedburner chiclet on any future Blog I create regardless if it’s showing 50+ subscribers or just 1.  I don’t think it matters.  I think it only matters if you believe it matters.

See, with this Blog I didn’t really care how many subscribers I got.  Meaning, of course I want more people to read the Blog, but I am not obsessing over it like most new Bloggers are.  Instead of focusing on where that number is, here’s what I focused on:

(1) Writing More Content – This is my second Blog, so I now have to write content for two Blogs at the same time, so one of my primary concerns was to make sure I produce enough content for this Blog and keep to a consistant writing schedule.  My trip to Vegas to attend Blog World Expo didn’t make that easy, but I think I’m back on track now.

(2) Created a Contest Right Away – Right away I launched a contest / competition with Richard Bonner with an enticement for people to sign up to my email list for a chance to win cash prizes for the contest.  This is something I think every Blogger should do, and it’s never too early to get something setup.

(3) Immediate Integration with AWeber – This is a big one.  Right away I began creating an email subscriber list on this Blog using the services of AWeber, and tied that directly to my RSS Feed.  AWeber allows me to have people sign up on my Blog and receive automated emails with my latest articles from my RSS feed.  If you haven’t got AWeber setup for your Blog yet, you’re insane.  Click here to get AWeber now.

That’s pretty much it.  Just those 3 simple steps and I’ve got over 50 RSS subscribers on my Blog in less than one month of launching the Blog.  I know 50 RSS subscribers is nothing to get all excited about, but you’ve got to start with something.  Also, I actually know quite a few Bloggers who’ve been running their Blogs for over a year and they still don’t have 50 subscribers.  I also know that they haven’t followed the 3 steps above yet either, so that might have something to do with it.

If you’re still trying to get your first 50 RSS subscribers, try those 3 things.  Maybe it will work for you like it worked for me.