My birthday wish...subscribers

(no, that's not me. but thanks, if you thought it was)

Today is my birthday, and I'm old enough to not care so much about presents—maybe this comes from the fact that the things I want are far too expensive to go on any wish list. Except this one. And it's free:

More subscribers.

No, I don't earn money from subscribers, and subscribing doesn't cost you anything. It just means that if you use a feed reader (like Google Reader, for example), you can see whenever I do a new post. At the top right of my sidebar, you can click the "subscribe to posts" and pull down to the appropriate reader.

So if I don't earn any money from subscribers, why do I care?

Well, it's just my nature to obsess over things like that. If you're a long time reader, you may remember my game of google analytics risk back in July. The update on that is that I only have a few countries in Africa left before I've reached global domination. But beyond my pointless but amusing game, I want to reach as many people as possible just because it is gratifying.

No ulterior motives?

OK. You got me. There is one. My goal is to do a Take-out photo book in two or three years, and it certainly wouldn't hurt my chances of getting it published if a publisher saw that I had a strong readership already. Right now, I have about 7,500 visitors in a month, but only 88 of them are subscribers. I would love to see more of those visitors decide to stick around and subscribe.

So, in conclusion....a brief anecdote and a plea:
Back in the days when we thought tanning was a good idea, Michelle went to sign up at a tanning salon. She encountered the most high-pressure sales guy you have ever seen. He tried to up-sell by bullying her with a repetitive: "C'mon c'mon! It's my birthday! Today is my birthday! C'mon. It's my birthday! Sign up! It's my birthday!" It was so obnoxious that to this day Michelle and I jokingly shout "It's my birthday!" whenever we want to be a badger about something.

I don't really want to be like tanning-salon guy, but...
It's my birthday! Today is my birthday! Help me get some more subscribers! C'mon. :)