Social proof can be done by showing how many subscribers you have to your blog. That means if you increase your blog subscribers then you have better social proof. Now think about that for a second. Then when you get more social proof that leads to more subscribers, more advertisers, and more money. I’m guessing that is what you want?
So what is social proof? It is a psychological phenomenon where people are unable to determine the appropriate behavior in social situations. Those people then decide that the surrounding people may possess more knowledge about the situation and deem the behavior of others as appropriate. People tend to think that social proof doesn’t pertain to blogging because we cannot see what one another are doing. That is not true though.
People tend to go where everyone else is going on the Internet. A good example of this is digg. There are many social bookmarking websites, but many newcomers decide to go to digg because “Everyone else is going their”. A person believes that others have the best knowledge to decide what social bookmarking site is preeminent so they follow there lead. Most likely this would mean that the person would have been around people that were crazy about digg.
If you have a good amount of subscribers, then you can use that as social proof for your blog. I’m not here to write how to get more subscribers because there are too many ways to count. The point is you need subscribers for social proof. Social proof does pertain to blogging and it is easy to see. Problogger gets more subscribers because visitors see the 60,000 some subscribers he has and basically decide that people know what they’re doing by subscribing. So they subscribe also.
See, social proof is working all over the Internet even without people noticing it. And it definitely works for your blog. Increasing subscribers for social proof will get you the following:
- More subscribers – I know everyone loves getting more subscribers. The more subscribers you already have the better chance you have that another person will subscribe. It doesn’t all have to do with social proof when it comes to a new subscriber, but a lot of people make the decision to subscribe because they decide that other people’s judgment must be accurate.
- More advertisers – showing how many subscribers you have has always been a good way to get more advertisers. It all starts with getting a couple advertisers and others will follow because “It must be working for them”. Whether it is working for them or not, you have just used the persuasive power of social proof to get another advertiser because other people are advertising based on your subscriber count.
- More money – proving your subscriber count can also make you a lot more money. People will listen to you more based on how many subscribers you have. They will base their judgment on that alone sometimes. When you tell them to buy a certain product then they will if they are one of the people listening to you based on how many subscribers you have. Yaro Starak is really good at this. He is able to make more money because people are able to see how many newsletter readers and blog subscribers he has. Even though the following mindset is not right people still do it: “Well, maybe I should buy this product considering how many people already listened to him based on his subscriber count.”
You can see how important using your subscriber count as social proof can be for your blog. I know I will get thousands of questions as to how to raise your subscriber count. I think that promoting your feed, commenting on other blogs, commenting on other forums, and just helping others out will gain you more subscribers. It doesn’t take an absolute genius, but it does take commonsense.
Even though I do not use my subscriber count as social proof, others do all across the Internet. It had worked for my other blogs and it can work for your blog. Of course there are always other things you can use as social proof also. You can use how many people follow you on Twitter, Alexas rank, and many other things. However, your subscriber count has always been one of the easiest ways to persuade people by social proof.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post! Blog subscribers is one of the best ways for social proof. I agree with you about 95% of the time. Some people really do not care how many subscribers you have because they always suspect that it is not real. We live in a world with Photoshop so people always question whether the subscriber’s account is real or not.
I am questioning how you got 95% of the time? haha. You’re right about the Photoshop thing but if you just look where the source of the file is coming from then you’ll know if it is fake or not.
This is a ice read. However, what can you say about people faking subscribers? Since you said that this can serve as some form of social proof, some people go overboard by faking it.
So for me subsciber count alone can’t be enough as proof. The comments as well as other stuff like alexa rank put together with subscriber count can count as proof, especialy if you are an advertiser.
Like Gregory said above people do Photoshop their subscriber counts. But you can right-click on the counter and go to its properties. Then it will tell you where the file is coming from and if tit is not coming from a place like feedburner then it is not real. A lot of people fake their subscriber counts and get advertisers from it. However, if you get caught doing so the consequences are not good. Like you said, subscriber count, comments, alexa, and other things can all be proof for advertisers.
It’s a great example of the ‘herd instinct’ that is embedded within all of us. It can work against you, as well. If you display a low subscriber count then people might think that your blog must not be worth subscribing to. So, the question becomes, how many subscribers do you need before this can work positively in your favor?
I think it really depends on what you are trying to get out of showing how many subscribers you have. If you are trying to get advertisers then why not show it all the time? Then again if you do not have very many subscribers go after advertisers and try to get them. I was a 300 to 500 subscribers will work positive in your favor. It seems like people that show their subscriber count before that can never get over 300 subscribers for a long time.
I disagree.Or should I say if you want to keep it real then who cares how many people are subscribed. You have bloggers conning people to subscribe that won’t or don’t read your feed is fake. I rather have a person sign up that may glance at a post title and circle in for some more.Just like I did coming to your blog.
Thanks
I have made alot of money this month.I have my Alexa drop 3,000 each post.
I should be more like you and I do wish I was. But I know that bloggers are so selfish and self centered they don’t care man.I’m about to revolutionize blogging and social media watch by Christmas I’m making 10k a week,my alexa will be less then 50 k and I won’t care less about subscribers or fake ass ad companies >If I applied to a company and they asked my number of subscribers I’d hang up on them.Ultimately I have abandoned feeds and reburned them to ditch people I want you to come to the blog not read it on google reader with ad blocking software,that is the definition of LAME.
It’s all just a game anyway
The blog is looking tight
You bring up a lot of good points John. You are right when you’re talking about it being a game anyways. If you’re out just to make money, then you have to play the game. I do have a lot of subscribers that come to my blog from the feed reader though. It is just a good way to keep people updated about your blog. Otherwise it is really difficult to keep people coming back. However, all blogs are different and you have to do whatever works the best for your own. It sure seems like what you are doing is working right now so I would stick with it.
So…tell us why you don’t show yours on this blog!
I’ve had this question many times. The reason why I do not tell people how many subscribers is because I like to keep them guessing. I have done this all along, but I will be showing my subscriber count before the new year. I read an article a couple of months ago after talking Maki from Dosh Dosh. We were talking on MSN and he told me to go to one of his articles about showing your subscriber count. Here’s the article if you want to read it: http://www.doshdosh.com/why-readers-subscribe-to-a-blog/
Whattya sayin’? I shoulda read through your
blog posts to find the answer? lol
Cool. I’ll check out the article. Thanks
Cheers!
Jay
Excellent advice my man. My feed jumped nicely after placing it above the fold.
Yup.. have a good number of subscribers would mean a steady pool of readers.. definitely helps in bargaining your ad prices..
This post speaks truth. A related piece of advice is to most definitely start building up your mailing list if you are not already doing so. And, if you do it via Aweber (my personal choice), you can use their blog broadcast feature to allow people to subscribe to your RSS feed via email. And Aweber reports the counts back to Feedburner, a good way to increase your count while providing more convenience to readers who don’t use RSS.
Aweber is a great tool. Not many people people like RSS lately so it’s a good alternative.