The Ebb and Tide of Subscribers

Lloyd and Caroline try to make sense of STBD's erratic subscriber base.

We're sure we're not alone in this, but: has anyone else noticed a seemingly arbitrary rise and fall in their daily subscriber numbers? No matter if you're in the dozens, the hundreds, the thousands or beyond, it seems as though there are relatively random spikes and dips in the numbers.

Sure, there's an understandable increase after being linked to by a popular blog or web article, and there's a noticeable drop-off if the feed in question produces no new content within a reasonable amount of time. But there are days we've posted quite a few updates all at once and seen our numbers slip, or gone silent for days and watched them climb.

Is there a reliable metric to explain all of this, or is it to be chalked up to the whims of a zero attention-span audience? And, if that's the case... does the quality or frequency of content matter in the short run?