FeedBlitz at 40 Days: Nearly 10,000 subs, 700+ feeds

A scant 40 days ago FeedBlitz’s existence was first made public on some FeedBurner forums, and in a couple of emails to a few FeedBurner users who’d expressed a desire for a Bloglet alternative.

Forty days, 9,500+ readers and 700+ feeds later, FeedBlitz has grown and matured - thanks in great part to the enthusiasm and, yes, the bravery and faith shown by its first users. You people are crazy (and thanks!). I’m simply amazed at the creativity, energy and commitment that there is out there, as shown in the variety and quality of the blogs and feeds that FeedBlitz is mailing.

So, for what it's worth, I thought I'd take this anniversary (of sorts) to give you all a little more insight into what's happening at FeedBlitz, and to call out those whom I feel have gone above and beyond for the service. I owe you guys.

A Few Metrics

• The vast majority of feeds serve an audience of 50 or fewer, but...
• 23 feeds have 100 or more subscribers.
• The two largest feeds have ~1,000 subscribers each.
• Feed languages used include Hebrew, Spanish, Swedish, German, French, Japanese and Chinese.

As well as “traditional” blog and web site RSS feeds, several users are using FeedBlitz in more creative ways, including:

• FeedBlitzing a Google news feed.
• Collating daily job posts into a FeedBlitz email.
• Creating daily real estate listing updates.
• Notifying readers of cheap flight schedules.

I’m sure as RSS and FeedBlitz evolve there will be some additional mashups possible. I’ll blog about some of the more interesting ones that I see to inspire the rest of us.

The Future

Next week brings the next set of major enhancements, on a beta basis, to FeedBlitz. We’ll be testing the premium plans on a small scale to a select group. In addition, a partnership that I’m very excited about will start to see the light of day. More news on that as and when timing permits...

The Blogroll of Thanks

FeedBlitz, as I’ve already mentioned, wouldn’t be where it is today without the help, advice, suggestions and persistence of many. I’d like to publicly thank and acknowledge those who’ve gone the extra mile over the last 40 days. If I miss anyone out, it’s only because there have been so many that I’m losing track – my thanks to you, and please accept my apologies for the inadvertent omission.

So, in no particular order, my thanks go in particular to:

• Dick, Eric and the team at FeedBurner for their help with metrics and more.
• Brad and Fred for their suggestions and bearing with the occasional hiccup.
• Rajesh for “Killer App”, hints, tips and an (indirect) mention on Seth Godin’s blog.
• To Rob for some awesome ideas – I’ll be in touch again soon.
• To Shawn, Jim, blogum and Ashish for being very, very early adopters.
• Matt and Tom at Return Path for their help with deliverability – great service!
• To Hans – thank you for your help and support.
• Denise, Tracy, the Blog Squad and their friends and clients for their enthusiasm - Denise even documented the Bloglet import process.

And, most importantly, my thanks to my family, without whom none of this would even be possible.