EDIT – 324 now. Ouch! 
I originally was going to have a review about Retire @ 21 go up today, but asked Michael if I could delay it… you see, there’s something I want to gloat about 
A few of you may have seen my post yesterday about the server crashing multiple, multiple times… not a good thing so I thought, especially as I was out the whole day and only knew about it after getting back to a whole host of instant messages saying that the website was down, the world was ending and they were going to kick my ass because of that. Ah, life eh
The ironic thing was that the article was an article on surviving in the web hosting business… with my hosting crashing every thirty seconds, it did not look very good, for both the reputation of the website and the person that wrote the article, as people a) assumed that I was writing about things I knew jack all about (I do know nothing about web hosting to be honest, but I did not write the article) and b) that TUK was hosted on Kiloserve, and TUK crashing so much must have meant Kiloserve was a bad company. With these two things in mind, I was beginning to think that getting on the front page, with me not knowing about it did actually much, much more bad than good; the website going down multiple times and the reputation dent, despite me being unable to do again about it was not good at all.
After the website came up and started staying stable for a while, I went and added a small note at the top of the article; informing the users of Digg about TUK, the article in general and why I had crap hosting; I do not think this blog has crashed anymore in that time. I also put up a link to the contest and my RSS feed, assuming that if they were going to see the website, they might as well check out the contest. Did not really expect much to be utterly honest, as, well I had no guarantee the blog would stay up and I had no idea whether Digg users were interested in such things.
Before today, the highest daily increase I’ve ever had was around 20 or so subscribers to the RSS feed; this was right after a contest post and although it was a decent sized increase, it was nothing spectacular… as I’ve seen other contests do a lot better in terms of metric increase. Whereas the feed count had increased by fifty or so visitors in the duration of the contest, again, that was nothing spectacular… slightly more than ten subscribers a day, certainly not worth it for a contest with $3,000 worth in prizes. Although I was happy with the buzz and backlinks, ultimately it is the RSS count that people look at – if people are really bothered about your blog, they’ll subscribe.
The increase was a decent 87 RSS subscribers yesterday… which takes my feed count to six subscribers under 400, or 394 subscribers. That may not be huge statistics compared to others, however to me, 400 subscribers is a shade short of 500, and from there… doubling it will not be as difficult, as everyone knows that the beginning of any project is always the hardest.
I’m insanely happy with the increase, and hope more will subscribe sooner rather than later… you see, the more the metrics of this website increase, the more effort I’ll put into promoting it as a brand.
The increase also means that I’ve got to watch and monitor the website very carefully, as people will unsubscribe if quality goes down; I’m going to start focusing on producing kick-ass content after the exams next week, as that is the main reason people should subscribe to a blog.
Sorry for the post that isn’t really helpful to anyone, but I do like to see increases in blog metrics; this also makes moving to a new server ever so pressing. The next update will be when I reach 500; you can help me by subscribing through a feed reader or via email if you haven’t already
March 12th, 2008 at 11:14 am
It looks good Jason. You have really grown fast the month.
Go one question for you though, where did you get that fancy looking chart?
VikingBlogger’s last blog post..Facebook Anthem Video
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March 12th, 2008 at 11:21 am
@ Staale,
http://www.blogperfume.com/feed-analysis/
Kick ass tool to checking up on your (and competitor’s
) feed counts 
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March 12th, 2008 at 11:21 am
[...] after going wild on Digg. Here’s a post on the benefits… anyone else felt something similar? What Digg Can Do To Your Feed Count… | The University Kid __________________ $3,000 Contest at The University Kid | I Use HostICan. Why Don’t You? Use [...]
March 12th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Thanks a lot Jason, that was a really gem! Bookmarked for sure:)
VikingBlogger’s last blog post..Facebook Anthem Video
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March 12th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
This is really good, but the blogperfume link is great. Thanks!
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March 12th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
[...] my daily reading round, a post over at The University Kid got my attention. Basically, he got an post featured at digg, and [...]
March 12th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I don’t want to say that I hate you… so I won’t say it.
But while you’re jumping up drastically, I’m freakin’ slowly decreasing lol! I went from 198 last week and it slowly dropped to 180 today… dammit!
Anyways, congratulations to you man! I’m not gonna hate… you’ve worked hard.
Jay
DatMoney.com
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March 12th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Congrats! Who knew that Digg traffic would convert to subscribers lol?
Tom Ross’s last blog post..Bloggers: Don’t become self-absorbed!
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March 12th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Wow, I remember your feed count being in the 20s (or somewhere around there) when I first started visiting this site! Now at 400! Great work in such a short time….. I guess that just shows what quality content can do for a site!
egk’s last blog post..Off Topic :: Ramiele Malubay : artworks
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March 12th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Yeah, Digg did a similar thing to me a while ago, like in November, with an OLPC article. Thing is, for me, I lost a lot of my subscribers after the first month or so
-G
George’s last blog post..My (MacBook) Air! It’s Gone!
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March 12th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
I really like that BlogPerfume link, very cool graphs it provides. Mine look impressive, but the numbers along the Y-Axis are low
Jim’s last blog post..The Net Fool March Update: Performance, Publishing and Content!
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March 12th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Congratulations.
On the topic of feedreaders, I’ve noticed that the title of your blog comes up in bloglines as feeds.feedburner.com/theuniversitykid instead of picking up the name of your blog.
Lightening’s last blog post..Entrecarders with Big Hearts
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March 12th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I would wait an extra 48 hours before showing any stats, because feedburner always spikes with Digg traffic when there are not as many actual subscribers. It is all the sites that grab Digg’s feed that are spiking it.
When I had my first digg post, RSS went from 150 to 450, then averaged about 250 after 2 days. So you might only have 300-350 tomorrow (hopefully not though).
Who knows, maybe I just had bad luck.
Collin LaHay’s last blog post..Lowered Advertising Rates
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March 13th, 2008 at 12:28 am
Great work Jason! Good to see you are so close to your goal!
Thomas Sinfield’s last blog post..It’s Time To Go Back To The Basics!
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March 13th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Congrats Jason! This is a huge increase, almost 30% in 1 day. If you follow up with great post, you’ll kept the majority of them easily. Good luck.
ForexTrader’s last blog post..Automatic Forex System Trading
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March 13th, 2008 at 3:14 am
So you’ve experienced the power of digg have you? If you ever have an article good enough to be “popular” on StumbleUpon you will receive closer to 100,000 views. If and when this happens you’ll break that 83 easily. Keep up the great posts.
Jared Stenzel’s last blog post..By: Guide to Free Microsoft Points « 1337 To Noob Gamers
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March 13th, 2008 at 4:36 am
@ Colin, if it comes down… ouch! Ah well, you learn I guess
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March 13th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Wow, congratulations on the success. I am sure that on Blog Perfume’s stats, your predictions will be showing some crazy results, right?
Keep up the good work.
Wayne Liew’s last blog post..Power of Search Engine Traffic in Blogging
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March 13th, 2008 at 11:15 am
You have really increased your subscribers and the challenge is to keep them glued when the contest is over.
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March 13th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Funny thing.
Dig can bring you to the top but it can also destroy you.
I think someone should write an article about it
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March 13th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Go, go, go. Yes Digg potential is really huge
Aleks’s last blog post..Funny picture of the day
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March 13th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Looks like I was right… for better or worse.
At any rate, an increase in readers is still good no matter how many new ones you get. =)
Collin LaHay’s last blog post..Sitehoppin sends free traffic
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March 13th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Man you’re seriously on your way to becoming one of the big boys! Nice work man, keep it up.
Sorry we haven’t talked in a while, I barely get any time to go online anymore!
Mark’s last blog post..A cool Google trick
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March 14th, 2008 at 8:54 am
Congratulations and Keep it up, I’ve enjoyed your feed for the last week or so now.
B Carter’s last blog post..Staying with my Gambling Husband – Part 3
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March 14th, 2008 at 10:50 am
This got me an idea, to try on my host, but I really don’t believe I can do front page.
Aleks’s last blog post..Joke of the day – Animals and people
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March 16th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Well digg certainly helped me.I am getting 100% unique visitors from digg.My % of traffic is 5-6% .
Agent 001’s last blog post..The ultimate blog contest – Really
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March 17th, 2008 at 7:37 am
When you got a lot of readers that will probably increase your subscribers.
David Chew’s last blog post..The New Proton Gen 2
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March 21st, 2008 at 5:20 am
Any reason you don’t display your feedcount?
Daniel’s last blog post..Choosing a Niche for Your Forum
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March 21st, 2008 at 6:36 am
@ Daniel, I have a reason.. but a poor one. Too lazy to put it up, you see
Soon as I move to the dedi I’ll look at it. I’m scared of breaking something
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March 28th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Holy Crap! I wish my subscriber count would go up like that..or even up in general. I seem to offend people easily or something as my numbers are always floating up and down.
Living on Adsense’s last blog post..If I Had As Much Time As Bill Murray I Could Launch Epic Blogs
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March 29th, 2008 at 3:15 am
And Jason, when you have a really decent number of subscribers, then it is the time for you to show the feedburner number count. Or having less subscribers would not look good and impressive for new visitors.
Chetan’s last blog post..Choosing you blog platform and hosting
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April 4th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Hey thats great man . Keep up the good work
Kashif’s last blog post..Traffic stats for March 2008
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July 21st, 2008 at 2:52 am
I wish I had that many visitors from Digg.com
Maybe one day soon
Ryan McLean’s last blog post..Smarter Wealth – Not Just Another Financial Blog
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January 1st, 2009 at 2:37 am
Looks like you’ve been growing alot, keep up the good work.
Jim’s last blog post..By: opticalsniper
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June 29th, 2010 at 11:57 pm
that’s right.Although traffic from digg has a very high bounce rate,it is worth it because it shoots up your RSS subscribers count.
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