FeedBurners Feed Count Zero ??????

Well this post is totally off topic but i still wanted to post this, all credits goes to Mohammad Mustafa Ahmedzai the author of the article. I am just sharing this article so as to inform my readers about the latest feedburners Feed count bug

Feed Burner Feed Count Zero - API Error
This is a quick update to let everyone know that due to some technical API fault the count on all Feedbunrer Chicklet buttons display 0 (Zero) Subscribers. This is indeed a poor display of performance and inefficiency of Feedburner Staff which has always destroyed one day new readership and effected web traffic. It puts a terrible impression on new visitors who takes the Feed count for real and restrain from subscribing to your site or blog because who would subscribe to a blog with ZERO SUBSCRIBERS?

Feed burner updates its little dynamic xml Button i.e. Chicklet once every 24 hours and these counts often fluctuate and rarely displays the actual number of subscribers. Sometimes the value fluctuates up and sometimes down but to some extent. However today it went so terribly down that even after 8 hours the Counter is still showing zero Readers.

The Feed count includes the total number of people who have subscribed to your blog either by Email or some RSS reader. People subscribe to you more once you reach a number of readers greater than 400 or 500. A good Feed count forces visitors to subscribe more and helps advertisers to measure the value of the website audience strength. Even one day drop in Feed button can effect your precious readership of the day. I just hope this problem is addressed the sooner possible else we would need a better alternative to Feedburner.

How to Solve this error?
We can not do anything to be honest and neither would a complain letter work. The only practical thing to do is to remove the Feed counter from your subscription box for sometime and monitor your Subscriber count on your Feedburner Dashboard. If the values returned to normal on your account then you may add back the XML Button else keeping it hidden is better so that you may not discourage new visitors from subscribing.

Credits :- Mybloggertricks