How to Use FeedBurner to Maximize Your Blog's RSS Feed
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Your blog comes with a basic RSS feed that visitors can subscribe to using their preferred feed reader. An RSS feed delivers your blog's content directly to your readers as soon as you publish a new post without the need to visit your blog. RSS offers another way for you to get your content out into the world. Your readers who users who use RSS feed readers such as Google Reader can even share your posts with the people in their network.
Let's take a look at what FeedBurner, which is a free service owned by Google, can do to make the most of your blog's RSS feed.
Why should I tinker with my RSS feed?
Using a service like FeedBurner to maximize your RSS feed helps make it easier for your visitors to subscribe to your blog's feed. You'll get a customized address for your RSS feed that will never change regardless of where you move your blog or even if you change the blog's name.
You'll also learn how to make your feed's content shareable and automatically tweet your feeds contents to Twitter to encourage more engagement from your visitors.
How to set up FeedBurner
Since FeedBurner is now owned by Google, they've made it easy to sign up. If you've got a Google account, just use it to sign in. You'll be greeted with a screen that asks you to claim your feeds, or type in your blog or feed address to burn a new feed.
Next you'll give your feed a title and a custom address, such as, feeds.feedburner.com/yourfeedname
Once your new feed address is set up, copy and paste it into a Notepad file for the next step after you choose which traffic stats you want FeedBurner to track.
If you are running a WordPress blog, there's a handy, free plugin called, FeedBurner FeedSmith. Download the plugin and activate it. Then click on 'Options' on your Dashboard and select the FeedBurner FeedSmith sub-option. Since you've already created your feed, paste the URL in the box.
Advanced options
Next, go to the 'Optimize' tab in your FeedBurner profile, and then in the left navigation list, choose, 'FeedFlare.' This will give your subscribers the option to email, tag and share the content in your feed by placing a small footer at the end of each post. Adding FeedFlare to your feed helps you to distribute your content and create a community around your topic.
There's a window where you can get a preview of what the FeedFlare content will look like. You can click and drag to re-order the items until you are happy with the layout.
Socialize your RSS feed
If you want to connect your feed to your social media platforms, with Socialize, FeedBurner can automatically post updates from your feed to Twitter. (If you already have a plugin that automatically updates your social media accounts when you publish a new blog post, you don't need to do this step because it would be redundant.)
Under the 'Publicize' tab, select, 'Socialize' from the left navigation panel and then fill in the requested information. At the bottom of the page you can see a preview of what each tweet will look like.
Once you are happy click, 'Activate' and you are done.
Maximizing your RSS feed is just one of the many ways that you can get exposure for your online business. Visit http://mcreasite.com/blog today to discover how you can build and grow a successful online business.
Let's take a look at what FeedBurner, which is a free service owned by Google, can do to make the most of your blog's RSS feed.
Why should I tinker with my RSS feed?
Using a service like FeedBurner to maximize your RSS feed helps make it easier for your visitors to subscribe to your blog's feed. You'll get a customized address for your RSS feed that will never change regardless of where you move your blog or even if you change the blog's name.
You'll also learn how to make your feed's content shareable and automatically tweet your feeds contents to Twitter to encourage more engagement from your visitors.
How to set up FeedBurner
Since FeedBurner is now owned by Google, they've made it easy to sign up. If you've got a Google account, just use it to sign in. You'll be greeted with a screen that asks you to claim your feeds, or type in your blog or feed address to burn a new feed.
Next you'll give your feed a title and a custom address, such as, feeds.feedburner.com/yourfeedname
Once your new feed address is set up, copy and paste it into a Notepad file for the next step after you choose which traffic stats you want FeedBurner to track.
If you are running a WordPress blog, there's a handy, free plugin called, FeedBurner FeedSmith. Download the plugin and activate it. Then click on 'Options' on your Dashboard and select the FeedBurner FeedSmith sub-option. Since you've already created your feed, paste the URL in the box.
Advanced options
Next, go to the 'Optimize' tab in your FeedBurner profile, and then in the left navigation list, choose, 'FeedFlare.' This will give your subscribers the option to email, tag and share the content in your feed by placing a small footer at the end of each post. Adding FeedFlare to your feed helps you to distribute your content and create a community around your topic.
There's a window where you can get a preview of what the FeedFlare content will look like. You can click and drag to re-order the items until you are happy with the layout.
Socialize your RSS feed
If you want to connect your feed to your social media platforms, with Socialize, FeedBurner can automatically post updates from your feed to Twitter. (If you already have a plugin that automatically updates your social media accounts when you publish a new blog post, you don't need to do this step because it would be redundant.)
Under the 'Publicize' tab, select, 'Socialize' from the left navigation panel and then fill in the requested information. At the bottom of the page you can see a preview of what each tweet will look like.
Once you are happy click, 'Activate' and you are done.
Maximizing your RSS feed is just one of the many ways that you can get exposure for your online business. Visit http://mcreasite.com/blog today to discover how you can build and grow a successful online business.