At the Future of Web Apps (FOWA) conference last week, WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg threw around some interesting numbers and provided some cautionary advice to corporate bloggers.

The interesting statistic he provided is that WordPress supports more than 2.5 million blogs. That’s a huge number, but it doesn’t distinguish between corporate bloggers and personal bloggers. The more interesting statistic he provided indicated that WordPress has removed more than 800,000 “splogs” or “spam blogs” that simply republish content extracted from an RSS feed in an effort to improve search rankings and AdSense revenue.

If you do the math, nearly one-third of WordPress’ blogs are effectively spam. Do Mullenweg’s comments signal the beginning of a concerted effort to derail RSS marketing in an effort to preserve natural search engine results or protect legitimate advertising revenue? More importantly, if you have an RSS marketing strategy, should you change it for fear of being shut down?

The advice Mullenweg provided answers these questions. To avoid the appearance of RSS abuse, Mullenweg suggests that corporate bloggers simply need to be authentic and focus on the work and the site’s users. As reported in The Social, Mullenweg said:

“If you don’t look like you’re hard-core about your company and its users, he said, you won’t build up a following.”

For the authentic blogger, proper RSS marketing has substantial value. It connects your readers to your message and helps you call together your community, but it is just one element in a comprehensive strategy to add value to your site.