How and Why to Use FeedBurner
03.07.06One of the basic steps in setting up a blog that makes the most of the medium is getting an account with Feedburner.com. No matter what blogging platform you use to write your blog, there are good reasons why you should use Feedburner. Below are some reasons why, followed by some steps on how to use the service.
First: What is Feedburner?
The simplest answer to this question is that Feedburner republishes your RSS blog's RSS feed (or any RSS feed for that matter) to make it much friendlier, more powerful and more useful.
What am I going to get out of this?
- Find out how many people are subscribed to your RSS feed. These are the folks who are going to keep coming back to your content, more than any other group of visitors to your site. It's good to know how many of them there are and how that number has changed over time.
- Make it easier than ever for readers to subscribe to your feed. By email, MyYahoo, Bloglines, Newsgator and more are all options with at most two clicks of a lambs tail when you use Feedburner. And it's so much more friendly than a Movable Type or Wordpress "subscribe to this blog's feed" link with a whole bunch of XML behind it. Here - go click on my feed and see how pretty it is.
- You are going to set up Feedburner to automatically ping Technorati and everybody else who ought to know when you've posted something new on your blog so that it will show up in search engines.
- There are lots of extra features that are easy to select as add-ons to your feed. For example, people who subscribe to my feed see links after every item to email that post to some one, save it in del.icio.us, see how many comments on are on that post and make a comment themselves. You can also display inbound links to that item and lots more.
- If you change blogs, you can just point your new blog's feed at your Feedburner account and not loose any subscribers.
There are lots of other reasons you might want to use Feedburner.com, but those are my big ones and aren't they enough? Make it easy for people to subscribe to your blog's feed, for you to know how many people have subscribed, for search engines to know when you have something new for them to index and for your readers to do extra things they like to do with each item in your feed. I think these reasons alone make Feedburner.com an essential part of blogging.
How do I do it?
Ok, you're convinced, that's good. Grab your blog's native feed URL by copying the link to subscribe (if you write a blogger.com blog, it's myblogissilly.blogspot.com/atom.xml except of course your blog isn't silly).
Now paste that puppy into the front page of Feedburner. Setting up an account there is easy and it is free. After you tell the service just a wink about yourself (not very hard, this part) then you can bop around and optimize the features. My advice is to optimize in every way available that's free. And if you have some funds available, take these people up on their premium services because they are an institution of great public good and deserve it.
Make sure you turn on the Pingshot service under the Publicize tab. And unless you have a blog that only people interested in new web technology are reading (like this one, I believe) you should make sure to turn on the Email subscription option.
You will get a snippet of code for the email subscription option. That is to be copied and pasted into a good place on the sidebar of your blog's template. Then you can go to the Chicklet Chooser page and get the code for your RSS subscription option's link. I recommend selecting the standard icon, when readers click through it they will see all the other options on the pretty RSS feed page. If you want to see how this looks, you can go and click on my orange icon in my right hand sidebar here.
Grab that code for what Feedburner calls your chicklet (your new "subscribe" button) and paste that into your blog's sidebar template.
We're almost there, just a few more steps. If your blog software already had a link to your RSS feed in your sidebar, delete it. You don't want some people subscribing to the naked feed and some to the shiny new Feedburner.com feed or else you'll lose out on a lot of what you gain from the service.
Next, this is the hardest part. Go into your blog's template, go to the header section, and replace the code for the blog's native feed or feeds with your new Feedburner.com feed. This step may be a real challenge is you use a system that doesn't let you get to your template code easily.
Mine now reads:
< link rel='alternate' type='application/rss+xml' title='Marshalls Web Tool Blog' href='http://feeds.feedburner.com/MarshallsWebToolBlog'>
It used to have a number of other links in it, different versions of RSS, etc. But that was when I was using my old feed, the one Word Press publishes automatically. I just took those out and replaced them with the above. You can do that too. Then your pings will be more successful (don't ask me why, ask Technorati) and subscribers who use auto detect systems to subscribe (rather than copying and pasting the URL of your feed into their feed reader) will get the right one.
Finally, I highly recommend making a post to your blog telling your readers that they can now subscribe to your blog's feed using your fancy new feed URL. This will spur some new subscriptions and let subscribers to the old feed know that they need to get with the program - so you can count them and they can see your souped up feed in their feed readers.
A final note: you can run any feed through Feedburner.com and get a pretty new feed with pinging, subscriber numbers, browser friendliness instead of pages of XML code. I have 15 feeds in my Feedburner.com account, and I certainly don't have 15 blogs. Other ways I've used the system include:
The NPTech MetaFeed - a collaborative newswire for non profit technology fans, spliced together from many different feeds by the wonderful services of FeedDigest.
Blogsafer.org change tracking - A few months ago I helped set up a wiki about anonymous blogging to avoid government repression in a number of places around the world called Blogsafer.org. People who want to help keep the wiki good and spam free and keep track of changes made to it for any other reason, can subscribe by RSS or email to get notification of any changes made to the text. I just took the wiki's own "recent changes" RSS feed and ran it through Feedburner.
Ok, I hope this is helpful. I can't emphasize how highly I recommend using Feedburner. Please let me know if any of the above needs further clarification. If you are interested in the inner sanctum of Feedburner.com and how it works, check out this podcast interview with Rick Klau. If you are interested in hearing about the company's future aims, check out this podcast interview of Klau. If you are really into it, the company blog is great.
I don't know if I should have put this at the top or here at the end, but I have also written a long post about how I teach people to read RSS feeds.
TagCentral Tags: feedburner, RSS, howto, blogging, blogs, tutorials
March 7th, 2006 at
OK, now FB just got on my to do list.
March 8th, 2006 at
1- Thanks for commenting on my blog.
2- Feedburner ROCKS. I usually dedicate an hour of training to just that.
3- Great post on Feedburner, and you just reminded me to do a post on Flare…
March 8th, 2006 at
I go straight opening a Feedburner account. Thanks Marshall for the continuous education you’re doing.
March 8th, 2006 at
Just got back from feedburner. this is oooh sooo coooomplicated ! I have my account setup, my blog is showing up in the ‘my feeds’. now what ? I read on the forum that I need to modify the code in my Blogger template… buttons,… do my visitors then need a feedburner accoutn…. simplification please.
March 8th, 2006 at
Terrific post, Marshall. I just emailed the link to a few people.
March 9th, 2006 at
I love feedburner, however it is a little confusing for a newbie. I use it in combination with feedblitz to deliver e-mails to those who aren’t ready for real time RSS.
March 9th, 2006 at
Mr. Kahan, I’m sorry that it’s getting confusing. Your visitors don’t need to do anything different. It sounds like you’ve got things together pretty well on your blog. In the very top of your template you should replace the URL in with your new Feedburner feed URL.
Also, if you’d like to remove the blogger.com banner along the top of your blog, you can place noembed> and /noembed> (with open brackets inserted) around the section of code for that banner.
March 9th, 2006 at
Per Victoria’s comment (hi Victoria!) Feedblitz is one of two options for email subscription that is offered as part of Feedburner’s services. I haven’t tried the other option yet, has anyone else?
Both should be real easy to use.
March 17th, 2006 at
[…] Readers here who enjoyed my post on How and Why to Use Feedburner (for RSS management) may like a recent interview I did with Rick Klau, VP of biz dev at FeedBurner. Very understandable, yet in depth at the same time. The most interesting part is how they count the number of subscribers. […]
April 19th, 2006 at
[…] […]
August 31st, 2006 at
[…] Caratteristiche riprese dal blog di Marshall Kirkpatrick […]
May 14th, 2007 at
[…] How and Why to Use FeedBurner […]
May 20th, 2007 at
[…] Kilka dobrych odpowiedzi na to pytanie znajduje się pod adresem: http://marshallk.com/how-and-why-to-use-feedburner […]
May 22nd, 2007 at
[…] How and Why to Use Feedburner - a post I wrote on my personal blog, primarily for text based bloggers but good general info, I think. […]
May 23rd, 2007 at
when I view my page source I saw the various feeds that I want toreplace with my new feedburner feed, but when I actually go to edit my template I dont have access to all that stuff, and instead it just says:
**probably something to do with my template and an issue for blogger support, but was wondering if you knew off the top of your head how to get at all my various feeds to replace them with the new and improved one. thanks!
May 23rd, 2007 at
p.s thanks for this supremely helpful post!
May 23rd, 2007 at
yeah…I think that I should post in my brand new blog why I used FB. Besides, Google already confirmed bought a FeedBurner…
May 24th, 2007 at
[…] Marshall Kirkpatrick » How and Why to Use FeedBurner […]
May 24th, 2007 at
I love Feedburner, although your article made me realize and oversight on my site that I was able to change
June 1st, 2007 at
[…] RSS a mystery to you? Check out the awesome video that explains it in simple terms in our last post. Wondering how to or why you would want to use Feedburner? Check out this post. […]
June 2nd, 2007 at
fb going to poland… www.feedburner.pl
June 4th, 2007 at
this blog post just screams out for a rebuttal to crappy reasons listed.
1) There are plenty of stats plugins to every popular blogging platform
out there. The way this is phrased makes it seem like only feedburner
gives you this data
2) Actually, I find it the opposite. With IE7 and Firefox2 which have
RSS readers and dont use the stylesheet anymore… the feedburner pages
are standard and all the template stuff with the helpful info is
completely lost. This lack of control is exactly why feedburner tends to
be a bad choice
3) Again, this is easy to accomplish on popular blogging platforms.
4) These features are also available in other popular blogging
platforms. And there is no need to manage separate settings and
additional steps if you just have users go to your direct feed
5) As long as you maintain domains you wont lose subscribers. But if
your using feedburner and then decide to stop… you will certainly lose
some subscribers. And now that they are owned by google, Im even more
wary of the havoc they can reap.
Additionally feedburner has caused so many problems for people its
amazing its still as popular as it is. I know software has bugs, and
podPress has caused some feed errors from time to time. But at least
when podpress does it, its only to a single blog and rolling back to an
older version can be done to get back up. When feedburner has caused
problems, and my users freak out… theres nothing that can be done
except wait and hope things get fixed soon.
Now keep in mind, I dont care if people want to use feedburner, and I
dont have any real animosity toward them. They are a good solution for
some… but I want people to understand what benefits and what
heartaches they provide so that users can make informed choices.
– Dan Kuykendall (aka Seek3r) http://www.mightyseek.com
July 9th, 2007 at
[…] Warum ich auf Feedburner umgestiegen bin: Marshall Kirkpatrick hatte mich überzeugt. […]
July 28th, 2007 at
[…] Van deze weblogs zal ik een aantal parameters bepalen waarmee ik een waarde aan de websites toeken. Deze parameters zijn 1) de gemiddelde Google pagerank van de homepage, 2) de Technorati ranking, inblogs en inlinks, 3) de Feedburner hits en circulatiegegevens, 4) het gemiddelde aantal berichten en 5) het gemiddelde aantal reacties op de weblog. Voor de parameters 1) en 2) hoeft u geen instellingen van uw weblog te veranderen. Voor optie 4) moet u een RSS-feed hebben voor uw artikelen. De meeste weblogs hebben dit standaard, dus daar hoeft u niets aan te veranderen. Slechts sommige weblogs (met name wordpress) bieden ook mogelijkheid 5) om via RSS de reacties van bezoekers te volgen aan. Als u wilt dat Medgadget in staat is om het gemiddelde aantal reacties te bepalen, dan dient u een RSS-feed voor uw reacties te hebben. Van de meeste medblogs in de database heb ik nog geen RSS-feed van reacties. U kunt uw RSS-feed voor reacties doorgeven op jan @ medgadget.nl. Voor het gebruik van Feedburner dient u enige aanpassingen aan uw site te doen. Een handleiding hoe u dit kunt aanpakken kunt u onder andere vinden op de website van Marshall Kirkpatrick. Het is voor het bepalen van de waarde van uw medblog niet noodzakelijk om alle 5 de bovenstaande functionaliteiten te hebben. Als u echter een of meerdere functionaliteiten mist, dan zal de waarde van uw medblog lager zijn dan deze waarde daadwerkelijk is. Het is op dit moment nog niet mogelijk om ook te stemmen op een bepaalde website. Als de lijst populair wordt, dan zal ik onderzoeken of ik deze functionaliteit kan toevoegen. […]
August 14th, 2007 at
Great tutorial. Thanks alot!
August 14th, 2007 at
I found this information both informative and interesting. Muchas Gracias!
August 22nd, 2007 at
i cant seem to get into the template and put in the code.
where exactly in wordpress do i go and paste the code
August 30th, 2007 at
can feedburner handle feeds created dynamically?
September 18th, 2007 at
This is a great post, and a nice guide for people starting with feedburner. Keep up the great work
Becky
October 1st, 2007 at
Do you know of anything else like feed burner that does the same thing but to different services or is a bit different and cool?
October 13th, 2007 at
[…] I found a general article article about setting up FeedBurner by Marshall Kirkpatrick, and another specifically about Feedburner and WP blogs by HarisTV; however FeedBurner itself has a very clear Word Press Quick Start page. […]
October 18th, 2007 at
Hi Marshall, thanks for the article, it was one half of a question I was trying to get answered and that is what is the pros and cons of using feedburner. You certainly did highlight the pros. Any take on the cons? I’m especially interested in how people can you use your feed to profit from your content without your.
October 18th, 2007 at
[…] Back in Google answer number two to my question is from Marshall Kirkpatrick’s How and why to use Feedburner. His article covers the good of Feedburner and I guess that puts that into perspective. It also reveals a tip or two to a novice such as myself about other things they can add to your feed (will go and do that right now). […]
October 23rd, 2007 at
NPTech link seems to be broken.
November 6th, 2007 at
Marshall I am not tech savvy, but with your inspiration I have set up many features. Now, I am apprehensive of messing up with my blog. My friend has also installed technorati authority tag on my blog and now I also have this RSS feed chicklet. Hope it doesn’t infringe the terms of agreement which make little sense to this incomputerate. Please advice me if I am inviting a rejection by involving two chicklets on my blog.
All the same, thank you for such a nice post. Hope I gain from it.
November 6th, 2007 at
Hi,
Shall I use the feedburner for my Health site (itk99.com)? I am not asking about my blog…
If so, please explain how to do it?
November 11th, 2007 at
[…] I have a new RSS feed URL. My blog’s main feed is now redirected to FeedBurner using the FeedSmith plugin for WordPress – Find out why it’s a good idea to use services provided by FeedBurner here. […]
November 25th, 2007 at
You have a lot of readers, and it’s been nearly 2 years since this post, so it looks like you were right!
December 17th, 2007 at
Marshall, I know it’s been a long time since you actually posted this but I found the link to this article in Wikipedia’s FeedBurner entry. Just wanted to say that it really helped me out a lot. I’ve been meaning to add FB to my blog for a while but couldn’t figure out the vital steps to take. This article got me to do it. Thank you!
January 18th, 2008 at
I have a question…we use wordpress and podpress…and feedburner.
It seems that having wordpress and podpress is sufficient and feedburner duplicates this.
What do you think?
Thanks.
Jerry
February 1st, 2008 at
Your instructions are soooooooo easy to follow and very helpful. I’m learning a lot about feedburners different abilities and what it can help me with. Your blog was on point. Thanks again.
February 7th, 2008 at
[…] Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote on his blog, “How And Why To Use Feedburner” where he reinforced basically what my buddy said, the most important to me being that it makes it easier than ever for readers to subscribe to your feed. By email, MyYahoo, Bloglines, Newsgator and more are all options with at most two clicks I can be added to your reader! Some readers may be like oh no….but you have to admit you like some of the things I write, no? This also helps to attract attention and subscribers to my Alexa ranking plan. I’d like some tips if and webmaster is willing to help out […]
March 10th, 2008 at
Thanks, much appreciated. Helped me in setting it up for my blog. Keep going.
http://www.nela.in/
March 13th, 2008 at
[…] For you whom new about FeedBurner, it’s a free service which can maximize feed function on our blog. We just have to registering on FeedBurner and we’ll get new feed name to replace our blog’s feed. We can easily set up some features on FeedBurner, including compatibility problem and re-publish your new feed. Read more info here. […]
March 19th, 2008 at
“5. If you change blogs, you can just point your new blog’s feed at your Feedburner account and not loose any subscribers.”
Loose?
Not lose?
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April 6th, 2008 at
[…] After reading this article I finally decided to upgrade Switchblade Comb’s RSS to FeedBurner. […]
April 12th, 2008 at
I am new at blogging and this article helped me determine to use FeedBurner.
If you’re using WordPress and you’re new at blogging then I highly recommend FeedSmith. It’s a plugin that makes it easy to get FeedBurner up and running.
April 19th, 2008 at
[…] I recommend using Feedburner to re-publish your feed to a wider audience and Marshall Kirkpatrick has written an excellent article about why. […]
May 10th, 2008 at
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May 13th, 2008 at
Off topic: I was fired up to contact you for ‘consulting’ until I saw $500 per hour. I think that’s a bit excessive for my purposes — although I’m sure there are those out there who may think it’s a good “VALUE” … but I’m curious … how do you get $500 worth of consultation out of a 1-hour telephone call? Would you do a HALF-hour for $250?
I came here looking for simple, direct information on FeedBurner. To me, it seems impossible to find out what, how and why from their site. I set up just like “they” say, but get errors each time the blog “pings” FeedBurner. I thought I had made a mistake, or there was something I had overlooked — or not paid for — but to no avail.
I’m going to carefully read and follow your tutorial on Feedburner — and then try it again.
Then I’ll see if I’m convinced that you might be worth $500 an hour.
:-)
Thanks for reading
Fred
May 13th, 2008 at
[…] Keep track of your subscribers with Feedburner […]
May 15th, 2008 at
That was a very helpful article. I’ve just recently started a new blog, and I’m still new to using Blogger and it’s feature. …not to mention anything to do with Feedburner. Thanks for the information.
May 24th, 2008 at
Thanks for your tips on feedburner. I always wondered how it could be used more effectively.
May 30th, 2008 at
I know this article was written long ago but I’m behind the times, what can I say. I recently added feedburner to my site, but I’m concerned adding it will take away from my Google analytics reader count, because readers will read my feed instead of visiting my site. Is this a concern for anyone else? How is feedburner analysis better than Google analytics?
June 10th, 2008 at
Hi Marshall, how to know the emails of people subscribing to our RSS? Please advise. Thanks.
June 10th, 2008 at
Winga, that’s a great question. I haven’t looked but Feedburner may allow you to see those emails and they may not. If not, you’re trading convenience for your list! aack!
July 1st, 2008 at
[…] Sign up with FeedBurner and have it handle your feeds. Not sure why you would do that […]