Blogging 2007-17 in 1 graphic: the fate of RSS. Ribbonfarm peaked at ~7000 (green, left Y), now at ~2000, of which ~1000 are actually email.
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...Note crash in green line in 2015 when Google turned off Reader. But reach (blue) had *already* collapsed 2 years earlier.
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...If you used RSS as your primary distribution and did *not* have RSS-to-email signups turned on, you'd have collapsed more dramatically...
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...So how did ribbonfarm keep growing (last year was a record)? Social sharing #1 and Google #2. Both have "pump" modes and "organic" modes
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..."pumping" distro (SEO, clickbaiting) doesn't create growth. It creates a) volatility b) falling reach c) falling trust.
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reach measured just within that distribution will always be less. RSS/emails is relationships, reach within RSS is reads.
.@ValbonneConsult There's no there there for a moral discussion to have a locus of impact

