Using Feedburner for Wordpress
Posted 9th June 2014 at 05:48 AM by imarkedy
When using Feedburner for Wordpress, webmasters should first take care to understand the basics of this mega popular tool. Millions of blogs and websites have turned to Feedburner to burn their RSS feeds and as with most great Wordpress (it can be used on other content management tools as well) website tools, it’s free! Feedburner provides statistics, feed optimization options and several other critical tools for monitoring and distributing a website’s RSS feed (RSS stands for ‘really simply syndication’). One of its best features is providing the ability for easy integration with Google Analytics. In this article, we will teach new readers and online students how to use the burner which will, no hyperbole intended, take your Wordpress blog to the next level, increase readership, shares, email list build as well as allowing you to monitor growth of your organization’s content brand messaging.
Most will ask – “Why do I need Feedburner when Wordpress provides a default feed option?” For those who use Wordpress and although rare for us to answer a question with a question, think about it like this; knowing Wordpress also provides default theme options, how often do you use these instead of custom options? The answer is simple – any default tool provided with install should be viewed as a ‘starter’s package’ and not a long term option. As your website grows; so will the need for customization.
Here are features provided by Feedburner;
1. Provides stats concerning who is subscribing to your feed. With this information, you can tweak, optimize or make necessary changes to increase readership and feed distribution.
2. Those who use the feed are provided with awesome customization options which allow subscribing to website content distribution points such as email and other feed readers.
3. Tallies and provides a key social analytics measure; subscriber count(s)
4. Provides tools for feed customization such as the ability to modify post headings, company messaging etc.
5. Ping services – this is a feature we are not particularly keen on. When you post fresh content and assuming some form of site map plugin is installed, pinging is hardly necessary.
6. Options which allow monetization of content such as onsite advertising banners, strategically placed calls to action, sign up pleas or direct sale options.
7. Click-through tracking
8. Download of content
9. Live hits translated into your local time zone
Another reason Feedburner is so popular with webmasters and bloggers is very few other tools provide a ‘360 degree’ view of content consumption. Earlier, we mentioned the ability to send content to emails lists. Although business APPS are available for download, email is still the killer APP and continues to be a must for successful marketing of a company’s products and services. The email subscription feature is by far our favorite! Non-bloggers (readers) may not understand what RSS feeds are, why they are important and in a few cases, how to subscribe but whom, having spent any amount of time on the Internet, doesn’t have an email account?
Further, you can use the burner to customize email in a way which best meets your business goals such as;
1. Offer subscriptions in a variety of languages like Spanish, English, German, Chinese, Russian, French and Portuguese
2. Easily embed the subscription form into webpages
Customize email with colored fonts, logos as well as other power email marketing features
Schedule delivery times
3. View subscriber email addresses and download them for off-web storage. This becomes important when transferring from one email services providers (ESP) to another
Now that we’ve covered functionality of Feedburner, it is time to present a big picture view. Above every other thing, the burner is about brand messaging. Whether using it for email lists, social subscriber counts, getting a 360 view of content consumption or content distribution, Feedburner offers your expertise to a hungry readership. We’ve written before and will continue to on the fact written, video, presentations and podcast content, over the long term, establishes trust with those who’ve tuned into your brand for educational information.
Before installing Feedburner, it is important to ask and answer the following questions (but not limited to);
What is the end in mind? Although seemingly simple and most will say ‘making money’, there are many things which must happen before profits are earned. This short blog post is hardly enough space to list all of these tasks but as a teacher once said; “begin with the end in mind”. Every step taken on the journey toward that end must lead to results; however they are measured in your organization.
Beyond distributing written content, what other strategies can be used to enhance brand image? It is good to distribute content to those who come to your website. Nevertheless, effective brand building must also include industry specific platforms such as forums, social media, organic search and our favorite strategy – content multiplication.
What is your strategy for capitalizing on email list builds? Having measured this over the years, we say with surety that simply sending purchase offers to your email list will SKYROCKET ‘unsubscribes’. Truthfully, unsubscribes can be a good thing because it prunes lists of people who are never going to spend money with your company. It becomes a brand killer when the only intent is advertising and sales. Content’s chief function is to educate readers, builds trust and then some on your list will spend money!
Using Feedburner has many more pros than cons. When installing this tool your Wordpress website, have a strategy for making the most of its functionality.
B.D. Dale
All About Wordpress Plugins Course
Most will ask – “Why do I need Feedburner when Wordpress provides a default feed option?” For those who use Wordpress and although rare for us to answer a question with a question, think about it like this; knowing Wordpress also provides default theme options, how often do you use these instead of custom options? The answer is simple – any default tool provided with install should be viewed as a ‘starter’s package’ and not a long term option. As your website grows; so will the need for customization.
Here are features provided by Feedburner;
1. Provides stats concerning who is subscribing to your feed. With this information, you can tweak, optimize or make necessary changes to increase readership and feed distribution.
2. Those who use the feed are provided with awesome customization options which allow subscribing to website content distribution points such as email and other feed readers.
3. Tallies and provides a key social analytics measure; subscriber count(s)
4. Provides tools for feed customization such as the ability to modify post headings, company messaging etc.
5. Ping services – this is a feature we are not particularly keen on. When you post fresh content and assuming some form of site map plugin is installed, pinging is hardly necessary.
6. Options which allow monetization of content such as onsite advertising banners, strategically placed calls to action, sign up pleas or direct sale options.
7. Click-through tracking
8. Download of content
9. Live hits translated into your local time zone
Another reason Feedburner is so popular with webmasters and bloggers is very few other tools provide a ‘360 degree’ view of content consumption. Earlier, we mentioned the ability to send content to emails lists. Although business APPS are available for download, email is still the killer APP and continues to be a must for successful marketing of a company’s products and services. The email subscription feature is by far our favorite! Non-bloggers (readers) may not understand what RSS feeds are, why they are important and in a few cases, how to subscribe but whom, having spent any amount of time on the Internet, doesn’t have an email account?
Further, you can use the burner to customize email in a way which best meets your business goals such as;
1. Offer subscriptions in a variety of languages like Spanish, English, German, Chinese, Russian, French and Portuguese
2. Easily embed the subscription form into webpages
Customize email with colored fonts, logos as well as other power email marketing features
Schedule delivery times
3. View subscriber email addresses and download them for off-web storage. This becomes important when transferring from one email services providers (ESP) to another
Now that we’ve covered functionality of Feedburner, it is time to present a big picture view. Above every other thing, the burner is about brand messaging. Whether using it for email lists, social subscriber counts, getting a 360 view of content consumption or content distribution, Feedburner offers your expertise to a hungry readership. We’ve written before and will continue to on the fact written, video, presentations and podcast content, over the long term, establishes trust with those who’ve tuned into your brand for educational information.
Before installing Feedburner, it is important to ask and answer the following questions (but not limited to);
What is the end in mind? Although seemingly simple and most will say ‘making money’, there are many things which must happen before profits are earned. This short blog post is hardly enough space to list all of these tasks but as a teacher once said; “begin with the end in mind”. Every step taken on the journey toward that end must lead to results; however they are measured in your organization.
Beyond distributing written content, what other strategies can be used to enhance brand image? It is good to distribute content to those who come to your website. Nevertheless, effective brand building must also include industry specific platforms such as forums, social media, organic search and our favorite strategy – content multiplication.
What is your strategy for capitalizing on email list builds? Having measured this over the years, we say with surety that simply sending purchase offers to your email list will SKYROCKET ‘unsubscribes’. Truthfully, unsubscribes can be a good thing because it prunes lists of people who are never going to spend money with your company. It becomes a brand killer when the only intent is advertising and sales. Content’s chief function is to educate readers, builds trust and then some on your list will spend money!
Using Feedburner has many more pros than cons. When installing this tool your Wordpress website, have a strategy for making the most of its functionality.
B.D. Dale
All About Wordpress Plugins Course
