Supercharge Your RSS with FeedBurner

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There are very few blogging services that I universally recommend to all my clients and FeedBurner is one of them.

(If you aren’t sure what RSS means or what feeds even are, feel free to check out a post I wrote a while back on RSS and Feeds to get the basics.)

What is FeedBurner? FeedBurner is quite simply a free service that greatly enhances the RSS feed experience for both publishers and subscribers.

Here are some benefits.

1. It’s Free – I’m a big fan of free, especially when it comes to top-notch services. And since FeedBurner was acquired by Google last year even their “pro” features are free. Very nice.
2. Feed Stats – We bloggers tend to be a bit obsessed with numbers like visitors, page views, inbound links, and comments. The best way I know to track RSS stats is with FeedBurner. You want to know how many feed subscribers you have? How about how many views and clicks your feed is getting? FeedBurner can tell you all that and much more.
3. Easy to Subscribe – There is a dizzying array of feed readers out there. With FeedBurner you can give your readers the flexibility to easily subscribe to your feed in whatever reader they prefer without having to clutter your blog with a ton of subscribe buttons.
4. Email Subscriptions – There is a small percentage of folks out there who will prefer to read your blog content via email. FeedBurner can give them that option so you don’t have to pay for another email publishing option.
5. Customization – With FeedBurner you can customize your feed by integrating a podcast, adding links, advertizing in your feed, connecting your feed to your Flickr account, Geotagging it, and so much more.
6. Bandwidth -  Using FeedBurner means they provide the bandwidth for your feed. Granted it isn’t an issue if your blog is just getting started and only has a few subscribers. However bandwidth is part of what you are buying from your web host so it’s nice to have someone else take care of that for you.

I’ve been using FeedBurner for years and have been very happy with their service. If you are at all interested in a more enhanced RSS experience for both yourself and your readers consider using their service.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Tags: Tech Tips, FeedBurner, Feeds, RSS

Bloglines Beta vs Google Reader

As a guy who who helps businesses with blogging and the whole social media scene I’m often asked to make recomendations on feed readers.

For many folks a web based reader makes sense. The ability to keep up with feeds from any computer with an internet connection, the ease of start up (and the fact that they’re free) mean that I usually recommend folks new to RSS start with one of these.

A little over a year ago I wrote a comparison post on some free web based feed readers. In it I talked about 4 different feed readers, Google Reader, Bloglines, Netvibes and NewsGator. I went poking around Netvibes and NewsGator today for the first time in a long time. On that quick overview today I didn’t see any huge changes from when I wrote that post in 2006.

Bloglines Beta

Bloglines has come out with a whole new platform since that post that they are calling Bloglines Beta. This morning Whitney Hess posted an excellent head to head comparison of the new Bloglines Beta vs Google Reader. I highly recommend Whitney’s post for anyone interested in the differences between the two. She spent a lot of time going through both readers from a usability viewpoint and came up with the one she thinks is best.

I’ve got her post bookmarked in Del.icio.us and will be passing on that link whenever someone asks me for a recommendation.

And if you’re wondering whether her evaluation of the two stands up, check out Matthew Oliphant’s response post comparing the two. He comes up with the same winner.

Google Reader

More than a year ago Google Reader was my workhorse feed reader. I’m still using it.

I was tempted to head back to Bloglines after they came out with Bloglines Beta. But just in the nick of time Google added
the ability to search your feeds and kept me aboard. I still don’t understand why a search engine company took so long to add search to their feed reader. I mean we’re talking Google here. Sheesh!

Anyway, since adding the search feature Google’s also added lots of capability to share both specific feed items and even whole folders of feeds with others. There’s some interesting things more advanced users can do with these sharing functions.

By making their tags public Google Reader users now have the ability to publish new “feeds of feeds” which can be repurposed into a blogroll or list of headlines from a group of blogs for your site.

Google Reader is still my feed reader of choice. But the good news is that all the competition is forcing all of the readers to keep raising the bar on their products.

All of us users end up winning as a result.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Tags: Tech Tips, Bloglines Beta, Feed Readers, Google Reader, Rss, SuccessCREEations

Free Web Based Feed Reader Comparison

So you are convinced about the value of RSS and Feeds but you aren’t sure which feed reader might be a good fit for you.

Well here is a little comparison of four of the free web based feed readers out there.

I split my computer time between a couple different machines in a couple different places. Some of those machines aren’t mine so I can’t be installing software on them. And I want to be able to access my feeds from anywhere.

So a web based reader is a good option for me. If I was doing a lot of business traveling, a computer based reader might be a better option because I would want to download my feeds where I could connect to the web and then read them at my leisure off line.

You all know I’m a fan of spending as little money as necessary to get the things I want, so in my book free web services are a great option.

Here are four services to take a look at.
Read more

Popularity: 12% [?]

Tags: Tech Tips, Bloglines, Business Blogging, Feed Readers, Feeds, Google Reader, Netvibes, NewsGator Online, Rss

Start Using RSS and You’ll Find You’re Well Fed

The other day in our Business Blogging 101 series we took some time to look at the value of RSS and Feeds.

Well we’ve got another satisfied customer!

Carolyn Manning explains how she now finds herself Jumping Into The Present with Syndication after switching all her email subscriptions over to a feed reader.

Carolyn was already subscribing to things via email. She thought she was operating in the now. And I wouldn’t have said that she was behind the times by doing that. My point is that getting your info pumped into your feed reader automatically will save you time. When you’re trying to run your business, that is important because your time is precious.

Here is what Carolyn had to say about it after she made the switch.

Yesterday, when I wanted to refer to an article, it took some hunting. Today, it takes a whistle. Gotta love that.

Good job Carolyn!

Make the switch today. Start using RSS and you’ll find you’re well fed!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Tags: Tech Tips, Carolyn Manning, Feeds, Rss

Business Blogging 101 - RSS and Feeds

So you’ve decided you really need to find out more about this whole blog phenomenon to try and decide if your business really needs a blog or not. (Hint: It does.) But you say learning all that new blogging stuff is a bit overwhelming?

How can you make informed decisions when you don’t even understand what those bloggers are talking about?

Well today is a good day for you because we’re here to help at SuccessCREEations. Welcome to Business Blogging 101 where we’ll try to explain some of the basics about blogging so that you can feel more comfortable entering the conversation.

This series is not meant to be the final word on anything, but like those 101 level courses in college we’ll just be introducing the various topics and point you to some additional resources so you can bring yourself up to speed as quickly and painlessly as possible.

So lets get started with today’s lesson!

RSS and Feeds

As we talked about yesterday, a blog is basically a simple way to get content onto a web site. If you know how to send an email with Hotmail or Gmail then you already have the basic skills you need to get started blogging.

But did you know that this symbol can revolutionize your business?

If not, then you’re in the right place. Read on. Read more

Popularity: 15% [?]

Tags: Blogging, Atom, Business, Business Blogging, Feed Readers, Feeds, Rss