a very stupid noob's q... i have added a feedburner to my blog a few weeks ago, and at present it shows "35" readers. this number is very dynamic, but it does not only increase, it also decreases. some day it's 38, the next day it's 25, then it's 35... does it indicate the total number of subscribers, or what? i mean do ppl just unsubscribe on a daily basis?
Total number of subscribers I believe. It counts live bookmarks and things so if someone bookmarks you they are counted as subscribing, but likewise if they remove your bookmark they are unsubscribing.
I have a problem with my feed burner stats too. It doesn't match my other stats. As far as I can tell, it counts new subscribers, and those who are currently subscribed and have actually read that day.
It also counts many automated sources that could hit your feed. They are constantly refining the formula as well. For example, a few months ago anyone who accessed your site with a Live Bookmarks enabled browser would count as a subscriber for that day. So the first time I was dugg, my subscribers went from ~100 to ~2,000. I was so excited, until the next day they went back down to ~150. They've since eliminated a bit of the erratic nature with Live Bookmarks. The last time my site was dugg the subscribers went from ~900 to 1100, and most of these were due to newsvine hits (which seems to have the same problem as the old Live Bookmarks). Also, it only counts a subscriber if they hit your feed. So if someone is using SharpReader or another offline reader, they won't show up in your statistics if they are offline. This is why subscriber counts are almost always lower on weekends and holidays ... unless you have a blog about weekends and holidays, in which case you'd probably see the opposite Anita