Just as you subscribe to a newspaper to get the latest news delivered to your doorstep, you subscribe to a blog to get the latest updates delivered to your feed reader (if you subscribe via RSS) or to your inbox (if you subscribe via email).
(By the way, I use and recommend the feed reader Google Reader for RSS subscriptions.)
FeedBurner is a good, free way to manage your blog's feeds.
How to burn a FeedBurner feed
- Go to FeedBurner.
- Sign in with your Google Account. If you don't have a Google Account, click "Create an account" (it's free).
- Enter your blog address under "Burn a feed right this instant."
- Follow the prompts to burn your feed.
How to optimize Feedburner
Get the most out of FeedBurner by doing these two things:
- Optimize your FeedBurner settings. I won't reinvent the wheel here. This post at ChurchCrunch is an excellent and thorough explanation of how to do this.
- Install the FeedSmith plugin. I covered the installation of FeedSmith in How to install a plugin. This plugin keeps track of all the ways your feed can be accessed and funnels them all through FeedBurner, insuring all your blog's subscribers are counted and tracked. (Please note: This plugin is "packaged" funny, thus producing an error message when trying to upload via your Dashboard. Instead, upload it via FTP. Read How to Install a Plugin or Theme via FTP to see exactly how.)
- Subscribe to yourself! I highly recommend subscribing to your own feed by RSS and email so you know what your followers are getting and if any troubleshooting is needed.
Here at BloggingWithAmy you'll find tips, tools & tutorials about blogging and websites in plain English. Want to 
I like using Google Reader to manage my subscriptions. I wish bloggers would place their subscription options (including email, twitter and facebook – I subscribe in different modes depending on how I am going to use the information I read) in an easily identifiable location. Andrea at Mommy Snacks comes to mind as a blog where a reader can easily see the subscription options. I really get frustrated if I have to search too long, and start to question if I really want to subscribe.
I agree. Thanks for adding the tip, Alea!
The ChurchCrunch tutorial was a great one! Thanks for sharing that. I think I'm all set up now with Feedburner…
BUT, when you say subscribe to yourself… I already do this in my Google Reader. Is that what you mean? Or am I supposed to do something through Feedburner to subscribe?
Yes, that's what I mean. But I would also subscribe via email as well.
Hi Amy,
I had an error when adding feed burner. It says my site is not valid. When I clicked on why, it said because my blog posts were previously written in microsoft office. That is true, but I can't possibly rewrite all of these. Any sugggestions?
Yeah, Word can cause trouble.
Instead of rewriting all of your posts, you could try copying & pasting them from Word using the "Paste from Word" option (icon with Word logo) — an additional formatting option included in the Kitchen Sink.
I went through all of these steps, but my feed is still only coming up as partial instead of full feed through the emails. I have not activated the summery burner…. any ideas?
Check to make sure your feed is not set to summary in your WordPress Dashboard.
Go to Dashboard–>Settings–>Reading–>For each article in feed, show–>Full text.
Yep, I checked that already too. It is set to full text. I can't figure this one out!
Hmmmm…so it's only the emails that are partial but the RSS is full feed? Strange. Not sure what to tell you here other than to refer you to the FeedBurner Help Group. Sorry.
I also encountered an error. Could the problem be that I haven't posted anything yet?
What's the error?
The feedburner site is issuing me an error. Has to do with the 'validity'. It was linked to some of my settings…time, date, etc. I thought I fixed it, but still saying 'not valid.' Any help??
Hey Selena, check out this page and see if you can find a fix.
Amy, I tried that page…still not go. It lists two feeds for my site and both have the same error. I checked to see if when I typed the URL in that my website does come up…and it does. I'm at a loss! I posted a question on their help site. Is there anywhere I could talk to a person? Or are there any other feedburners I could try?
Thanks for you help!
Selena…were you able to fix it? I'm having the EXACT same problem. I'm hoping it will be magically fixed overnight because I'm too tired to keep trying.
Keri,
Did you get it to work? I'm having the same problem you and Selena are having. Thanks!
Nevermind, I figured it out. I made a test post and then did the feed generation steps and it worked.
Caroline…I'm glad you got it to work! I never figured it out. It did pretty much fix itself overnight. LOL
Hi Amy,
I went to the support group on Feedburger(burner) hoping to get some help, but I couldn't find what I needed. So I followed your video and uploaded it and all, I am just wondering if this plugin is where I can see how many people subcribe to me, I wanted to get a count on my blog. Right now I just have the radio button on my screen.
Thanks,
I have really appreciated your help.
Hi Amy
I have been going through your steps. Again. with a new website. I couldn't get feedsmith to work. Everything I read kept saying that it doesn't work with the wp 3.0, but they are recommending fd feedburner plugin. So far so good. I don't know if you have any experience with this, or if this might help someone who is having trouble with feedsmith
Staci
Well, try opening the feedsmith plugin folder first and then importing it via FTP.
Hi Amy! I'm your new big fan!
I am trying to do the feedburner thing. I am getting this message.
I chose the first one. Did I do the right thing? And if now, can I fix it?
Thanks! (It said that it found 2 feeds at my site and that I must choose one.
Whole New Mom » Feed: http://wholenewmom.com/feed/
Whole New Mom » Comments Feed: http://wholenewmom.com/comments/feed/
Yes, the first one is the feed to your posts. The second is the feed to the comments people leave. The first one is the main one.
I know this question is old, but I had the same problem and discovered that creating a simple "test" post fixed it instantly. Hope this helps!
Hi again, Amy.
I am here again sort of stuck…
What do I do w/ all of this?
Any advice?
Your feed is ready for the world. Now what?
Integrate
FeedBurner integration varies depending on which platform you use to publish your blog. Some of the most popular platforms are listed below with links to the most important features.
Blogger
* Redirect your Blogger feed to your FeedBurner feed »
* Publish a chicklet to display your FeedBurner feed »
* Offer blog updates via email »
TypePad
* Override TypePad's default feed with your FeedBurner feed »
* Publish a chicklet to display your FeedBurner feed »
* Offer blog updates via email »
Self-Hosted WordPress
* Use this plugin to help direct your feed traffic through FeedBurner »
WordPress.com
* Publish a chicklet to display your FeedBurner feed »
* Offer blog updates via email »
MySpace
* Publish a chicklet to display your FeedBurner feed »
* Offer blog updates via email »
Thanks again!
Just optional suggestions.
Hi again, Amy!
Thanks for all of your help!
I went through the tutorial that you mentioned above and haven't done Feedsmith yet, so perhaps that is where I am getting hung up. However, here is what I think is going on.
Learning a lot w/ you though!
1) I have tried going in to Feedburner numerous times and it appears that each time I need to enter my feed name again. Am I doing something wrong?
2) I now have 2 feeds on there and I would like to delete one ( I assume that I shouldn't have 2 there) and I can't figure out how.
3) I know that I am new and shouldn't have many stats, but I am subscribed to myself via email but Feedburner always says that I have no subscribers. Hmmmm?
4) I don't know how to set up the RSS subscription as opposed to email. Honestly, I don't really know what RSS is. What a technie know nothing I am sometimes!
Thanks and Merry Christmas!
- Adrienne
When you log in to FeedBurner, make sure you burn your feed (follow the steps on the 1st page). To delete, click on the name of your feed. Once you do that, the next screen will look like this. Click "Delete Feed…"
If you click "Edit Feed Details…" (shown in the image above), you'll see your Feed Address. This is the link you would use which will allow someone to sign up via RSS.
Amy,
Hi again. Feedburner issues have returned. I have feeds coming through fine, but my subscribers say zero again, and I know I have some (though a small amount). Google Analytics has also stopped working for some reason.
There appears to be an issue w/ my google accounts too in that my same yahoo email address is linked to both my gmail and my yahoo google account somehow. In my new gmail google account it says that my gmail account is my primary email but when I sent a password recovery request it sent the new recovery link to my yahoo email. Everything seems all goofed up.
I installed Statcounter and it is working fine, but I am getting a lot of hits (106 yesterday) and I am thinking I need google analytics running too.
Should I just try to redo Feedburner and Feedsmith? Would I need to close and reopen w/ another user name my google accounts and gmail first?
I'm so confused!
Thanks in advance and Happy New Year!
- Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
Sorry it's giving you trouble. First, I should say FeedBurner is notoriously fickle, with subscriber numbers routinely going up and down. So, you might check back in a few days and see if there are any changes there.
Your Gmail issues — not sure I completely understand the problem, but I'd try searching help for Google Accounts and see if anyone has had a similar problem. Occasionally you can get some help that way.
If you wanted to redo your FeedBurner, just delete your feed and try again. You could also try something (paid) like FeedBlitz.
Hi again, Amy.
One other piece of info that might be helpful in figuring out my problem….once when I was trying to sort this issue out I got directed to a page on feedburner that asked me to claim my feeds. Whenever I try to do that I can't get into my account. I possibly took down my user name wrong. When I put in what I think is my user name, it says that it is sending me my password, but it doesn't come to either of my emails. I am thinking that I may have goofed everything up somehow and am using someone else's username? I am so confused.
Do you think that I should just start everything over (google w/ another username…feedburner and feedsmith) or just try FB and FS again?
Thanks again….
Adrienne
I think I'd first try FeedBurner and FeedSmith again to see if that makes a difference. And think of all the great stuff you're learning even in the midst of all the frustration! Experience is the best teacher, as they say, so after this, you'll for sure be a pro!
Hello! Thanks for the great tips with the Feeds. Installed it with sucess thanks to u. Now how do you get those nice FB and YT and Twitter widgets to go with them in a nice row – as you have at the top of your page?
Did you see this post here about adding social media icons?
Hi Amy-
Your blog has been very helpful. I have been trying to sign up with feed burner.
I keep getting an error.
Server returned HTTP Error 404: Not Found
•line 16, column 16: lastBuildDate must be an RFC-822 date-time:
Do you have any ideas?
Thanks
Renee
Hmmm…did you try to google the error like I explain in this post?
Thanks I will give that a try. -
Hi Amy,
Great post! I've got my feedburner all set up as described here, but I'm running into an issue: my header photos aren't displaying in my feed, and I really want them to!
I've tried looking online for a solution – one suggested that this problem exists when you have your feed set to summary, but both wordpress and feedburner are set to deliver the full post. Another suggested that this was because feed readers don't like relative paths for the image URL, but I've installed a plugin to fox that. I've pinged feedburner to make sure it's updated.
I don't know what else to do! help?
Hi Meg,
I'm not sure what you mean by your header photos. Do you mean like your logo at the top of your feed emails? Like your logo? If so, try logging in to FeedBurner and going to Publicize–>Email Subscriptions–>Email Branding. There's a spot where you can input a logo URL. Not sure if that helps…
er, to *fix that, not to fox it. lol
Hello Amy,
About google-feedburner…I seem to have installed some-how duplicate idential domain names and now I have two feeds. I configured 1 feed as instructed by the church site you mentioned. Should I delete, edit, or transfer the duplicate feed? Will it delete my other feed since everything is the same ? Please help. Lost.
If you haven't started your site yet (if it's the one you linked to it doesn't look like you have) I would just go ahead and delete the duplicate feed especially if there are no subscribers.
Thank you for your prompt response to my questions yesterday!
When it says "Copy and Paste the Following Code Into Any Web Page" or "Copy This HTML"…..where to I paste it in my wordpress blog?
Are you referring to the email subscription form? If so, you can paste that right into a Text Widget. Just slide the widget into your sidebar and then paste in the code. I hope that answers your question!
Yes, that's exactly what I meant. Thanks!
Hello there Amy,
Your site is VERY helpful. I am having trouble with my feed URL. I keep getting an error message when I go to get the feed from google (http error 404). I uninstalled feedsmith feedburner several times to see if it would work and I still keep getting the same message.
What do I do? Please HELP!!!
If uploading FeedSmith via FTP, there's an extra folder that you must extract the main folder from. Many times that causes the issue.
I am able to upload it just fine, but when I go to get the feed on google, I get an error message and it says that it's not valid. I deleted it and tried it again several times, but it will not recognize the url or website and says the feed address is invalid.
Hmmm…I recommend looking at FeedBurner's troubleshooting section. I think there are tools there which might help you identify the problem. Sorry I can't be more helpful!
Hello,
I'm totally new to this & so I have two questions:
1. Step 2 has already been done in an earlier step (Install the Feedsmith plug-in), that's if we've been following step-by-step….right?
2. Are we able to subscribe to ourself at this point if we're following step-by-step? I'm assuming we have to add some sort of "button" for the feed …which I'm only on this step. If not, then how or where do I go to subscribe. I'm use to seeing the button links on other websites for subscibing & I don't see that yet on the one I'm working on…this may sound silly, but I"m so new to this.
Thank you
Yes and yes.
Here's how to grab your own feed:
Login to Feedburner.
Click on your feed title.
At the top of the next screen, find the "Edit feed details…" link and click (right under your feed title).
You will see your "Feed Address" which you can type into your browser. For example, mine is http://feeds.feedburner.com/BloggingWithAmy
Hope that helps!
Hi Amy,
I am pathetically computer illiterate, but I'm able to follow along with your step-by-step posts to get my own blog set up, so, thanks so much!
I got stuck on step 3 on the google page where we download FeedSmith. I got FeedSmith installed and activated, but that google page then says to go to "Options" and then "Feedburner/feedsmith sub-options" and do stuff. I don't have a clue what they're talking about… am I supposed to do that stuff at this point, or do you cover that later?
Okay, and I just tried to follow your instructions to "grab" my own feed, but there is no e-mail option. I'm honestly not even sure how an RSS feed works, since I always subscribe to blogs via e-mail. My only options are "live bookmarks", "google", "my yahoo", and "choose options" which doesn't seem to be e-mail… I'm sorry to ask such basic questions, but like I said, I really have no clue what I'm doing!
Thanks for your help!
No worries. Did you follow the post to find your email subscription info in Publicize –> Email Subscriptions. You can the code for the email option there. I hope that helps!
Thanks, Amy! I'm seeing the subscription link code under "Subscription Management" but I don't understand where to put it.
Do I copy it and then put it in the "add new" under "links" in my dashboard?
Are you grabbing the HTML for the form (starts with "form style") or just the link (starts with "a href")? You can paste either the form into the HTML tab on a post or even a widget.
LOL, I must not be asking the right question. I see both of those (the "form style" and the "a href") and I don't know which to use or what to do with them. (I haven't gotten to your "widget" blog, yet, so I know nothing about that).
Are you saying I can copy either form and paste it in a new post? I don't know what it is I'm missing, but I'm sure it's obvious to everybody else. Sorry!
No worries at all! Yes, you can paste that HTML (look like funky characters and letters but it's code) into a post as long as you're in your HTML tab, not Visual tab. However, I wouldn't get stuck on it. You can always come back later once you've worked through some of the other steps.
Hi Amy,
I stumbled through using a widget and subscribed via e-mail… it worked! Thanks so much!
See? You're already becoming a whiz! Way to go. (P.S. That's how I learned everything too—by stumbling through.) LOL!
Thanks, that makes me feel a little less lost! I appreciate all your patience.
I think I'd better make myself quit for the night, though. This can really become addictive! "I'll finish just a few more steps before bed…"
I am starting to really hate this! Everything I try to install on my new site is not working. I am spending more time on forums/help support sites than it is worth! I am using Host Gator and they don't have unlimited FTP directly, I have to install Cyber Duck. What a pain! Not working. Now Cyber Duck won't even open. UGH! Just venting…but really!
Hey Amy – is it me or is the ChurchCrunch link broken?
It's working for me. Did it not work for you? Maybe this link?
Hi again! I'm sure this is a simple fix, but I just can't seem to find where to change it… I'd like for my e-mail subscribers to only receive the first 100 words or so of the posts, rather than getting the entire thing. Is this a Feedburner setting, or do I need to change something in WordPress?
Thanks so much!
In order to do that, you'd need to change your feed from "full" to "partial." However, I must say that unless you have a unique reason for doing so, you might consider keeping it a full feed. There are a lot of readers who automatically unsubscribe from blogs with partial feeds.
You can go into Settings –> Reading –> Show partial feed.
Thanks Amy! That is so interesting about people unsubscribing if it's a partial feed, because I'm exactly the opposite! I prefer to just read a couple of lines and then go to the actual site to finish reading it, if I'm interested. I'll keep it "full" feed since you've seen people who prefer it the other way.
Hi Amy,
I have learned so muc from your blog already and ahve been following yur step-b-step guide so far without any trouble. However, I am not able to figure this FeedBurner thing out. I followeed your instructions above and entered my blog where it says "burn a feed right ths instnt" and click "next". The next page that opens up ssays the following:
dentify Feed Source
The feed URL you entered is: (then it list my blog name that I entered)
FeedBurner discovered more than one feed at that address. Please select one to use as your source:
There are wo options I can choose from at this point and no matter which one I choose I then get this message:
Received HTTP error: "Not Found" while fetching source feed.
What am I doing wrong?
Sarah
That's frustrating. Sorry to hear that. When I'm stumped, I google it per my "How to Deal with Errors and Warnings" post.
Hi Amy –
I followed the great steps and was able to get the feed working but then I noticed that over the course of the last few weeks it went bad so I did the very complex troubleshooting of trying to delete and add back the feed.
Step1 : Instant Burn – check
Step2: Detect 2 feeds -one for the feed and 2 for comments. I selected the top one for feeds and hit next.
Step 3: I get the "File not found" error message. I searched the forums and it basically points to having a bad link.
Do you have any tips on how to troubleshoot this as right now I am at a loss.
Hmmm…did you try searching that error in the Help section?
Yep – It was one of those things were I checked it the next day and it started working. The miracle of just being patient I guess!!!
Thanks!
LOL! When it comes to online things, patience is not my virtue.
Hi Amy! For all who have had an error message when optimizing feedburner….you MUST have at least one post in order for your feed to work. I moved by blog over to wordpress and kept getting 'error' after 'error' message and then realized I needed to have a post to feed. Duh!!! Don't know why I didn't think of this before. I think this is the problem most people are having.
Thanks, Tiffany!
Hi Amy,
When I click to subscribe on my RSS feed from Chrome, I get an error message like this:
This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.
When I use Internet Explorer, it works. People are saying they're having trouble subscribing, but I have no idea how to fix this.
Have any advice?
Thanks!
Don't think I've encountered this. Did you try my handy dandy error tip? Usually I can find a fix when I do that.
Hi Amy,
I'm really at a loss. I installed Feedburner Feedsmith Extend version 1.0.0 and activated it. In my widgets I have the Feedburner email ID and I checked that I have a new feedburner.google.com account. I subscribed via email, and it took me to the feedburner e-mail subscription page.
Here's the issue. When I (or anybody else) try to subscribe via RSS feed, it doesn't go to the feedburner RSS page, it just goes to the creativechristianmama.com/feed/ page. That works for Google feed, buy not yahoo or some of the others. Do you have any idea why feedburner is working for e-mail, but not rss?
Thanks so much!
Justyn
http://www.geeksyrup.com/wordpress/redirect-feeds-to-feedburner/
http://business.feedfury.com/content/48681518-feedburner-set-up.html
According to these two sites, I've done exactly what I'm supposed to, but my rss button still just goes to creativechristianmama.com/feed instead of the feedburner page. Is there some back-door way to fix this?
Update: Now it's working, but only if I'm using Internet Explorer. If I am using Firefox, which most of my readers use, it still just dumps me at /feed instead of redirection to feedburner. Clicking on your rss button while using firefox takes me to feedburner, though…
LOL, okay, I just added a new post and that seems to have fixed everything! Woo-hoo!
Yay! I'm late to the game here, but I'm glad you figured it out!
Great Post, This is really helpful, appreciate your sincere efforts!!
Amy,
Your tutorials are awesome. Just a suggestion if you are brand new to WordPress you do have to publish a post in order to start the steps to this process. Us newbies get lost easily. I figured it out by reading through some of these comments but it might be helpful if you add a side note that you must have a post, or feedburner won't let you continue through the process. I just wrote a title and a sentence and published it. Just a thought. THanks again. Your site is awesome.
I obviously signed up for feedburner when I started my site a couple of years ago, because their is the "subscribe by email" box in my sidebar from feedburner. I really want to do the optimization settings you are recommending and I'd also just love to see the stats of how many subscribers I have…but I cannot login. I have only ever used 2 email addresses, and it says there is no feedburner account attached to either of them. I DO still get email updates since I am a subscriber, so I know it is working….but I can't access my administration/stats records. Any suggestions?
Could it be that you accidentally entered a mistake in your email address when you signed up? I might try a few variations.
THanks so much for your instructions. When I went to put in my website into feedburner, it comes up with an error page saying my URL doesn't exist. Now what? My website does come up normally (even though it's not complete, but it's there)