So you’ve set up a Feedburner account, slapped a button on your blog which publicises your new feed and have been tracking your feed subscriber stats quite nicely. But are you getting the full story?
Not by default, no.
The problem: Even if you have a nice button linking people to your RSS feed, if they’re using an RSS feed reader which auto-discovers your feed (i.e. they just enter in your blog’s address and the software does the hunting for the RSS feed URL) then they’re not going to be using Feedburner, but your blog’s own feed. They won’t be a part of your Feedburner stats. Or, if people type in your blog’s feed URL or find it via Google, they’ll end up not being a part of your Feedburner stats too.
The solutions:
- Wordpress: Install this handy Feedburner plugin (the plugin instructions are really nicely written and easy to follow). It will redirect everyone automatically to your Feedburner feed.
- Other blogging software: There’s tips here for MovableType and other blog systems. Failing that, you could write a few lines for your
.htaccessfile (or ask someone who can) to redirect all RSS traffic to Feedburner.
Be flexible: If you’re worried about providing different feed formats, turn on SmartFeed in Feedburner. It will translate your feed on-the-fly into a format (RSS or Atom) compatible with your visitors’ feed reader application.
What about people who’ve already subscribed? Good news, new and old subscribers will all be redirected automatically to your Feedburner feed!
your thoughts
Pete...
Does this mean they need to be Feedburner users to subscribe to your RSS though?
Rachel
No – you don’t have to be have a Feedburner account to use the Feedburner feeds
Stephen
Do you know if there are other similar things for other blogging systems?
Pete...
Oh, thats cool, good way of keeping track of your readership
Rachel
Stephen, here’s a tutorial for MovableType along with other blog system tips.
Stephen
Thanks, Rachel.
Chrono Cr@cker
Okay, I’ve always wanted to ask this, so what the heck is the Big Deal with Feed Burner feed… I mean the RSS feed that Wordpress provides is well & good and is supported by all..
Surely Stats is not the reason why so many people move to Feedburner!
~ CC
Rachel
Fair question Chrono
Here’s some reasons why I choose Feedburner:
WordPress Feedburner Plugin: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
[...] Rachel just pinged me on IM to let me know of post she’s just writtten which I really wish she’d written a year ago. It’s about a WP Plugin called WordPress FeedBurner Plugin which makes your Feedburner RSS feed (if you have one) the one that is autodiscovered by feedreaders like Bloglines when people want to subscribe to your blog. [...]
Justin
Will this solve a problem of transfering people who subscribe to the index.xml file to the FeedBurner file?
Rachel
Hi Justin, Wordpress doesn’t have an index.xml file but using the advice for the other systems, yes it will
Chrono Tron - 100% » Blog Archive » Digg & Feedburner
[...] In other happenings, Rachel (Rocker Blog), recently posted about an awesome new Feedburner Plugin for Wordpress. I asked her as to why people preferred Feedburner RSS Feeds when Wordpress as well as many other Blogs, already provide decent feeds. Rachel gave me good answers: [...]
Morton
Thanks Rachel. I was having this problem and now it is solved!
HullaBaloo
Rachel, did you choose not to include a “comments” RSS feed for a reason? I know that WordPress supports that ability. It certainly make monitoring your site a little easier when there is a lot of “comments”. It would make a wonderful addition to the site. Oh maybe OPML?
Rachel
Thanks for the reminder! There’s a tonne of tweaks I need to make here on this blog. Adding back in comments RSS feed is one of them which I’ve just done
mitch’s meanderings » Blog Archive » Redirecting WordPress Feeds to FeedBurner
[...] Inspiration for this article was found in many places. Here are some other articles you might want to read: [...]
Daniel
Rachel,
What are you using to create your email subscruption form? I notice it channels you through Feedburner. Is this functionality of the Feedburner Plugin? I am wanted to provide email subscriptions to my WP site and am interested in your setup. I have seen many email subscriptions out there but have not given any of them a go yet.
Rachel
I’m using Feedburner functionality for it – not a plugin
Check out your feedburner account for more info on this.