How to Set Up FeedBurner for Your WordPress Blog (2023 Guide)
Are you looking to grow your blog‘s reach and get more subscribers? Setting up FeedBurner for your WordPress RSS feed is a great way to optimize your feed, publicize it across multiple channels, and track your subscriber growth. In this in-depth guide, I‘ll walk you through the process of getting FeedBurner set up on your WordPress site step-by-step.
What is FeedBurner and Why Should Bloggers Use It?
FeedBurner is a web feed management service that was acquired by Google in 2007. It allows bloggers to "burn" their RSS feeds and access advanced features not available through WordPress‘s default feeds. Some key benefits of using FeedBurner include:
- Feed optimization tools to maximize compatibility
- Publicize options to promote your feed via email and more
- Detailed analytics to track your subscribers over time
- Ability to monetize your feed with Google AdSense ads
- Easy subscribe buttons and widgets to help grow your audience
While FeedBurner is an older service that hasn‘t received many updates in recent years, it remains a popular choice among bloggers for its feature set. Best of all, it‘s completely free to use with any size WordPress site.
How to Set Up Your FeedBurner Account
To get started with FeedBurner, you‘ll first need a Google account, as FeedBurner now requires this. If you already have a Gmail address or use any other Google service, you can use that to sign in.
Once logged in, follow these steps:
Go to feedburner.google.com and paste your WordPress site‘s RSS feed URL into the field provided. If you don‘t know the exact URL, it‘s usually your domain name followed by /feed (e.g. yoursite.com/feed).
Click "Next" and FeedBurner will verify your feed address. You‘ll have the option to give your feed a title (usually just the name of your blog) and choose a custom FeedBurner URL. Try to keep this short and memorable.
After clicking "Next" again, you‘ll see some options for your new feed. You can click "Skip directly to feed management" to configure the rest of your settings.
Optimizing Your FeedBurner Feed Settings
Under the "Optimize" tab in your FeedBurner dashboard, you‘ll see several options to enhance your feed:
BrowserFriendly: This makes it easier for visitors to view and subscribe to your feed within their web browser. Definitely keep this checked.
SmartFeed: Enabling this option improves compatibility with more feed readers and is recommended.
FeedFlare: This adds interactive elements to your feed posts, like an email subscription form. You can customize exactly what appears.
Custom HTML Styling: For advanced users who want full control over how their feed content looks.
I‘d suggest starting with BrowserFriendly, SmartFeed, and FeedFlare enabled. You can always come back and adjust these later as you see fit.
Publicizing and Promoting Your FeedBurner Feed
The next tab over is "Publicize" which contains a variety of options for promoting your newly created FeedBurner feed:
Email Subscriptions: This enables the email subscription form for your feed, allowing readers to get your latest posts delivered straight to their inbox. You can customize the form and choose from several delivery options. Definitely enable this feature.
PingShot: Whenever you publish new content, this service will automatically notify various feed aggregators and directories to help new audiences discover your feed. No reason not to turn this on.
FeedCount: Displays your number of FeedBurner subscribers, which serves as powerful social proof. You can customize the look and placement of the FeedCount "chicklet" to match your site.
There are a number of other publicize options as well, such as Headline Animator to create an animated headline widget, FeedBurner for Podcasts, and more. Explore the ones that interest you – they can all help grow your subscriber base when implemented.
Monetize Your FeedBurner Feed with Google AdSense
If you have a Google AdSense account, you can easily integrate it with your FeedBurner feed to automatically insert ads into your feed content and monetize your RSS subscribers.
From the "Monetize" tab, select "Google AdSense for feeds" and enter your AdSense account information to link the two. You‘ll be able to choose from several ad placement options and customize the look to match your site.
Keep in mind that aggressively placing ads in your RSS feed can be off-putting for many subscribers. Use this feature sparingly and with your audience experience in mind. A single unobtrusive ad is usually sufficient for most bloggers.
Tracking FeedBurner Stats and Analytics
One of the most useful features of FeedBurner is the built-in analytics that allow you to track your subscriber growth and activity over time. In the "Analyze" tab you can view:
- The number of subscribers to your feed
- A graph of your subscriber growth over a set time period
- Which feed readers and email clients your subscribers are using
- Which feed items are getting the most views and clicks
- Which content is most popular with your audience
Monitoring this data on a regular basis provides valuable insights into what your audience likes and how to optimize your content strategy. If you notice certain types of posts getting more traction, consider creating more of that content.
Keep in mind that you won‘t see any data here for the first 24-48 hours after setting up your feed – it takes a little bit of time for FeedBurner to start collecting the data. Be patient!
Adding FeedBurner to Your WordPress Site
Now that your FeedBurner feed is set up and configured, you need to integrate it with your actual WordPress site. There are a few different ways to accomplish this:
Use a plugin like Google Feedburner (https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-feedburner/) or Feedburner Redirect (https://wordpress.org/plugins/feedburner-redirect/). These will automatically redirect all traffic from your default WordPress feed URLs to your FeedBurner feed. This ensures you don‘t split your subscriber base between two different feeds.
If your WordPress theme has a built-in FeedBurner integration option, use that. Many popular themes like Genesis and Thesis include this functionality and make it easy to add your FeedBurner URL.
Manually redirect your feeds using the functions.php file or a code snippet. This is the most technical option and requires editing your WordPress files.
For most users, I‘d recommend starting with a plugin as it‘s the easiest and least error-prone method. The Feedburner Redirect plugin is lightweight and straightforward.
After setting up the FeedBurner redirection, you‘ll also want to add the email subscription form you enabled earlier to your site, usually in a sidebar widget or popup. You can grab the form code by going to Publicize > Email Subscriptions in your FeedBurner dashboard.
Ultimately, how you integrate FeedBurner with your WordPress site will depend on your specific setup and needs. But the end goal is to have all your RSS feed links pointing to your FeedBurner URL and provide an easy way for visitors to subscribe via email.
Is FeedBurner Still Worth Using in 2023?
So that covers the basics of setting up FeedBurner for your WordPress site. But the question remains – is FeedBurner still a good option for bloggers today?
The short answer is…it depends. Google has largely neglected FeedBurner for the past decade and its future remains uncertain. Many of the advanced features bloggers relied on, like the FeedBurner API and AdSense for feeds, have been deprecated or shut down.
That said, the core functionality of FeedBurner is still operational and many major publications continue to use it, including some of my own sites. It may not be as sleek or powerful as it once was, but it gets the job done for the most part.
Ultimately, whether FeedBurner makes sense for your WordPress site comes down to your specific goals and priorities. If you‘re just looking for a simple way to enhance your RSS feed and gain email subscribers, it‘s a viable free option. The setup process is fairly straightforward, as this guide has hopefully illustrated, and the benefits can be significant in terms of audience growth.
On the other hand, if you want more advanced features, analytics, and flexibility, there are some great FeedBurner alternatives worth considering. Some popular options include:
- Feedblitz (https://feedblitz.com/)
- Feedity (https://feedity.com)
- MailChimp‘s RSS to Email (https://mailchimp.com/features/rss-to-email/)
Services like Feedly and Flipboard have also emerged as major players in the RSS reader market. While these tools are aimed more at feed consumers than publishers, familiarizing yourself with them can help you optimize your content for maximum reach and engagement.
Furthermore, many bloggers today are prioritizing building their email list independent of FeedBurner using dedicated email marketing services like Constant Contact or ConvertKit. By offering exclusive email content, lead magnets, and automated sequences, you can turn casual subscribers into raving fans.
At the end of the day, FeedBurner is still a useful tool to have in your arsenal as a WordPress blogger, especially when you‘re just starting out. Give it a try and see how it impacts your growth – you might just be surprised!
I hope this guide has been helpful in walking you through the FeedBurner setup process. Growing your blog‘s reach and subscriber base takes time and perseverance, but with the right strategies and tools in place, you‘ll be well on your way.
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