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What the what has been going on with subscription numbers in stats?

  1. justjennifer
    Member

    There is really not much of a point to giving control to remove subscribers from the list, as they can simply resubscribe again.

    @markel, Ryan, just pointing out that what you say is also valid for confirmed email subscribers as well, but on that list blog owners have the option to remove the subscriber.

    The only sploggy/spammy thing about this particular subscriber is their URL; they've never commented on my site, that I remember, nor blogged on their site, so it's not cut and dried whether they are truly a splogger or not. I'd just like the ability to remove them from the subscriber list.

  2. lifeinpicturesinaction
    Member

    @markel (again). Wanting to experience the process of subscribing to my Blog, I typed another e-mail address I own into the 'Subscribe to the Blog' widget. As I pressed 'Submit' the page seemed to jump a little/refresh/move? whatever, but it was enough to return the page to the very top, thus leaving the widget out of sight. I scrolled down a little to bring the widget back into view and yes, it was now displaying a message requesting me to check my mail. This tells me that my 'Subscribe' widget needs to be higher up the pecking order of widgets so that when the page refreshes, the widget remains in view? It also tells me how easy it is for a person to think they've subscribed, because as things stand, some people will have experienced the same 'jump/refresh' as me, and therefore not even noticed the 'Check your e-mail' message showing in the widget area. As for the confirmation e-mail I received, even THAT could put some people off! It seems more like a warning than an invitation to confirm, with its tone being so cautionary re the phrase that they're 'exposing' their address to someone who they don't know? I'm surprised I managed to get 2 subscribers, let alone the 200+ who've actually made it through! LOL. I'll go and shift my widget up a bit now...

  3. mistyp0079
    Member

    his still does not answer if the subscriptions are included in my stats. If they aren't, I'm removing the subscriber block from my blog and have my readers type in my site directly so it can count in my stats.

  4. wherethetruckturns
    Member

    Why can't you have two list, one for those that have subscribed completely and those that are pending. In this way we (the blog owner) will know that we have individuals that wish to subscribe and have not completed their subscription, we can then remind them that they need to respond to the email.

    Would help a lot to clear up the confusion.

  5. aroosha7
    Member

    Hey guys,

    How can i publish my page and make known? who could help me?

    thx
    Shiny

  6. aroosha7
    Member

    hey guys?!

  7. airodyssey
    Member

    @aroosha7: Hi. Please do a search in the forums, as your question is one of the most common on these forums and has already been responded. If you still haven't found the answers you were looking for, it's best to create a new thread, as your question is unrelated to the current topic of subscriber numbers going up and down.

  8. sopranoout
    Member

    I'm with justjennifer, I have one subscriber through WordPress who I want OFF my blog. I don't care if they resubscribe every day, I'll re-unsubscribe 'em every day.

    I went to the person's Gravatar profile and there is no blog attached, no information that I can access. There is a young male's photo. My blog is about middle aged lesbians. This guy is not my target market. I want him the heck OFF my blog. Seriously.

    How. do. I. get. him. off. NOW.

    Thank you.

  9. schoolfinder72
    Member

    I agree with zythophile above who mentions how unfriendly the new date, or non-date system is. Presumably WP bloggers are able to read and understand dates, so please return the dates to us, instead of the more confusing and somewhat nebulous "three weeks ago" and "about one year ago."

  10. npaen
    Member

    Regarding the subscriber change-over, I agree with all the concerns here. I write a new blog, I went from 20 subscribers to 29, then back to 20. I went from WOW to Huge Disappointment. I scrutinized (but DAMN didn't copy these extras that night) those 9 extras. I know a few of them and I think some just don't know how to use the system and didn't follow through (I write for an older niche market). Under the circumstances and make it up to us, how nice it would be for WP to contact all those almost subscribers and say "Due to technically difficulty, we wanted to ask you once again if you'd like to subscribe to XYZ blog." Just dreaming. By the way, did WP warn us or promote that the subscriber lists were going to be broken down to WP subscribers?

  11. npaen
    Member

    I have a suggestion for one and all. Don't assume new blog readers know how to sign up to subscribe! Since this issue came up (and for a moment I saw the ones who hadn't followed through) I have changed my wording above the Subscribe button (done in the widgets). I now tell them explicitly that they need to:
    enter the e-mail address
    click Subscribe and
    FOLLOW THROUGH by confirming via the WordPress e-mail that follows.
    I believe I lost a large number of potentials because they simply didn't know the whole process or trust an e-mail from WordPress. (My niche market is largely over age 45).
    I know it sounds like overkill but you need to know a lot of the older generation just don't know how to do it. And there are a lot of older blog newbies who just need a little hand with instructions getting on board.

  12. qdmworks
    Member

    npaen, I did this months ago... customized my "sign up" widget to advise readers to expect a confirmation email and check in the spam folder if it doesn't show up. Yet, when I got the accidental "glimpse" a couple weeks ago of the non-confirmed subscribers, like many others did, there were a significant number of them... half the number of my confirmed subscribers. My subscriber list would be 50% larger if these people completed the confirmation process! I understand the need for "double opt-in," but there should definitely be some way to remind or nudge these people.

  13. edwinridout
    Member

    The thing is that this subscriber sign-up process is fine -- even great -- for the kind of people reading and writing to this forum. The trouble comes in the niche markets, where a preponderance of readers may be considerably less computer-literate. They don't really read or understand the instructions. Some of them don't even really regularly check their emails -- and yet they'll complain that they didn't get the message. For my church choir members blog, I had to give up expecting people to click a link in the confirmation email. Instead I subscribe a single email address, then convert that to a forwarding address forwarding to my list of members, and which I manage myself manually.

  14. henners83
    Member

    I would love to know if what npaen suggests is possible - if we can get the list of unconfirmed subscribers back again so we can send them another friendly reminder email. It may help mine (and others) subscription numbers significantly!

    Please?

    Henry :)

  15. justjennifer
    Member

    Since my above posting, I've discovered that it is no longer possible to remove even email subscribers from our blogs. So I'm bringing this back up as a further request to allow blog owners the ability to remove unwanted subscribers, regardless of whether they are email or WordPress.com subscribers.

    This ability to remove a subscriber was available across the board before the change in subscriber stats.

  16. airodyssey
    Member

    @justjennifer: Yeah, they removed the feature recently for email subscribers too:
    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/can-we-approvedisapprove-subscribers?replies=10#post-552773

  17. justjennifer
    Member

    (sigh) Missed that discussion entirely. Thanks for pointing it out, airodyssey.

  18. mdimortgage
    Member

    Markel, my Happiness Engineer,
    I recently set up a new blog. I had someone tell me today that they subscribed, but it is not showing up in the stats which tells me he may have missed the confirmation email? My mom subscribed last week (great fan base I have :) ) and her confirmation email went to her junk folder. She hasn't really done anything with wordpress before, so has not specifically blocked the address.

    Any advice for what I can do to make sure that people who think they ARE signed up, really become signed up?
    Thanks

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