Stupid Google Tricks: Faking RSS Subscribers (the easy way)

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If you use any of the information in this blog post on a real blog with the intent to deceive readers or potential buyers, you’re an evil scumbag and should burn in hell. That said, it’s still fun for me to tell you how to do it.

I probably know what you’re thinking right now… everyone already knows that you can increase your Feedburner subscriber count by using fake e-mail addresses that auto-forward to one account. By my estimate, that trick can add, at best, around 100 to 150 subscribers per hour, maybe a little more if you could automate the form completion and all that.

This is much more effective. My trick can add 50 to 100 subscribers per minute. All it takes is one Google account and a pen cap. No fancy automation and sore fingers required. One of the few things I love more than playing computer games is cheating at them. It’s an addiction. When someone figures out how to cheat at a game I play, I usually feel compelled to top it. When I saw the douchebag at RSS Xplosion actually charging people $1 per fake subscriber just to use the fake e-mail address trick, I knew I could do better than that. Unlike that twit, however, I won’t act like a jackass on the John Cow comments.

So how can you go from to in less than ten minutes?

I’ve been holding onto this information for several weeks, trying to decide whether I should make it public or not. In the end, my ego won. Public it is.

Step by Step

1. You need a blog and a Feedburner account. Because of the dastardly nature of what you’re about to do, I wouldn’t recommend using an account that you care about. Copy the address of the feed.

2. You need a disposable Google account.

3. Visit iGoogle, the personalized home page service offered by Google. Sign up for a personalized home page with your new Google account.

4. From the personalized home page, click “Add Stuff” on the right side of your tab bar.

5. Click “Add feed or gadget” on the left sidebar.

6. Paste the address of your feed into the popup box.

7. Hit ENTER.

8. Notice that the popup box doesn’t close down?

9. Hit ENTER again. And again. And again.

10. Jam a pen cap into your keyboard to hold down the ENTER key.

11. Walk away.

12. When you come back, you will have added anywhere from fifty to one hundred subscribers per minute that you were away.

13. Look at your Google personalized page, and you will see something like this:

14. Wait five to seven days. I don’t know why, but during my testing, I’ve found that the subscriber count takes five days to register your new subscribers. What you should see in Feedburner is something like the image at the top of the page.

15. Delete your blog. Delete your Feedburner account. Delete your iGoogle account, and forget steps 1 through 14. If you use this on a real blog, you’re going to look like a complete idiot when Google fixes this bug and you lose all your fake subscribers overnight.

43 Responses

John Sadler

January 3rd, 2008 at 10:53 am
1

Rich you are BAD! What a trick to pull to get more subscribers. I have been fretting about the low numbers I get through Feedburner and whilst I would like more, I will NOT be using your trick, but thanks for the smile it gave me
GG aka Gossip Girl

January 6th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
2

Naughty boy! So, I have to ask…how much traffic did this little baby bring you?
London Blogger

January 9th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
3

It always amazes me how people find these little bugs and then figure out ways to use them to their advantage. I watch these tricks come and go and continue to plug on the hard way. So far it is working decently for me. I am glad you do not recommend using these techniques to others.
Preblogging

January 9th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
4

Tut tut !

nice idea I’ve stopped displaying the number of my readers anyway !

B
Malignition.com – The Don’ts of How To Make Money

January 9th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
5

Cool trick but definitely something everyone should avoid. If your actual RSS subscribers find out you’re artificially inflating your count, you risk losing the majority of them. It’s not worth the ego boost.
Trylon Tower Freak!

January 10th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
6

At first I was confused as to why you’d want to do that! Then I realized that there are lots of reasons why you’d want a high feedburner count.

I love when the high tech collides with simple analog mechanics in the form of pen cap jamming! I was thinking Homer’s drinking bird would do the job just fine.
Technomads.org

January 27th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
7

Hahaha that’s definitely evil!
Sami

January 29th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
8

Good trick, but dose anyone care about the numbers?
Thanks
mike

February 3rd, 2008 at 11:57 am
9

tut tut!!
DivaGeek

February 7th, 2008 at 3:27 am
10

Ok so people see that a blogger has a large subscribers list and they assume that the blog must be good? I don’t know about others but I go by the content of the blog not numbers.
I didn’t know it takes 5-7 days for your Feedburner to show new subscribers. That kinda sucks.
Ames Bros

February 14th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
11

Give me more! Give me more! Great post!
DeathMitten

February 20th, 2008 at 8:04 am
12

Absolutely great - of course I would never, ever, EVEr do something like this…. but GREAT.
Samsul

March 23rd, 2008 at 4:33 am
13

Wuahaahaha… How did you find that? I’m not doing that, for sure
Blue Licorice

March 24th, 2008 at 10:19 am
14

Well it was interesting to hear how one could do that, but I guess I’m naive, what’s the point? Is Google going to jump up and down and raise my pr? hehehehe
Forumistan

March 26th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
15

Thanks…
Freehold Investment

March 28th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
16

hi

these is great articles
Graham

March 28th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
17

Oh dear….fantastic info thanks!
new zealand tourism

April 1st, 2008 at 11:34 am
18

Personally to me it would not be rewarding to write for a blog that I knew for myself was not being read by as many people as I lead the world to believe. I would rather spend that time trying to get real readers to come along.
Discount Party Supplies Guru

May 20th, 2008 at 5:51 am
19

If you’re really keen on the idea of losing a good chunk of your actual subscribers, go ahead and fake your RSS chicklet. In my opinion, it is not worth it at all nor is it work the few minutes of “gratification”
Naturist Family

May 21st, 2008 at 4:47 am
20

Interesting Google Trick I believe, RSS subscribers are something that I do not normally notice because I don’t have it setup for people to subscribe just read.

:I
Gatlinburg TN Real Estate

May 31st, 2008 at 4:28 pm
21

Interesting trick. But like stated above, I would rather write something that is truley driving the traffic as opposed to inflating my numbers to trick readers.
Manish

June 8th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
22

Hahaha…Nice Trick!
Bluehost

June 10th, 2008 at 2:29 am
23

interesting trick. a little grey hat though
Andrew. Lawyer.

June 20th, 2008 at 2:34 am
24

That’s a great trick you’ve discovered. As a lawyer, it would be highly unethical for me to do something like this. Of course, as a lawyer, people probably think I would jump at the chance.
Andrew Reynolds

June 25th, 2008 at 12:26 am
25

Hmmm.. excellent trick! How did you discover about it? But personally, it’s a not a good one, not a good trick. Anyways, thanks for sharing!
John M

July 12th, 2008 at 10:59 am
26

Oh! You are so good at that. One of my friend started a blog with me(my new blog) and he paid someone to do that. Thanks for letting me know that in free. Anyhow I am not going to do that.
Janet

July 13th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
27

Bad bad! I like it. Especially the jamming of the pen cap.
Geronimo

July 17th, 2008 at 2:27 am
28

Ha, this is naughty… and of cvourse you do NOT want people to try this on their own blogs for profit… NO sirree Bob…:)
Florida Pest Control

July 18th, 2008 at 3:40 am
29

There was a time when I cared about RSS numbers but this is a pretty cool way to game it
Geronimo

July 18th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
30

By the way - just HOW can any profit be gained from RSS trackers? Inquiring minds want to know.
free penny stocks newsletter

July 24th, 2008 at 7:45 am
31

Wow…Nice trick……….
free penny stocks newsletter

July 25th, 2008 at 11:11 am
32

Excellent trick!i like it.
Mark Daymond

July 25th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
33

Very tempting to try…..but I think I will resist this time!
oil and gas penny stocks

July 28th, 2008 at 8:47 am
34

interesting trick.!Thanks for the post.
Webkinz World

August 4th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
35

It is always fun to find out little exploits like this. But you are right, using this on a real blog would lose you all credibility and isn’t worth it in the long run.
Architect Jobs

August 7th, 2008 at 9:55 am
36

Naughty….But i like it.Thanks for the post.
Gamli

August 15th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
37

Hahaha crazy trick

????? ????? ?????
consultoria

August 16th, 2008 at 12:52 am
38

but what is the point of doing this… it won’t make any change on your traffic.
paul

August 26th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
39

ah, you trumped! nice bug find. we’ll see if anyone’s feeds drop by 10k in one night ;^)
shawnathon

August 26th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
40

Wow. Man, you have a ton of free time. Very well executed plan but I am too much of a weenie to actually do it.But I am impressed. You have my respect.
Free Charity

August 29th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
41

Hehe sneaky trick! There are so many nasty deceptive things that people can do on the internet… phishing, spamming, scamming, etc etc… It’s really hard to trust anything you seen anymore.
TigerTom

August 29th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
42

I don’t particularly understand this trick, but I’d advise not using any such wheezes on a site you value. In a world of millions of sites and blogs, search engines are looking for ways to filter out sites.
Mya

August 29th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
43

this is terrible..:)
I wonder if I came across any websites that use this trick?

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Stupid Google Tricks: Faking RSS Subscribers (the easy way)

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