How to Get the Most From FeedBurner on Your Wordpress Blog

FeedBurner is a Google owned site that helps you get more from your RSS feed. All blogs have feeds as a built-in function, but there are some benefits to "burning" your feed with FeedBurner. There's a plugin specifically for Wordpress blogs that makes the job easier. Here is how to maximize the benefits of FeedBurner.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• A Wordpress blog
• The FeedSmith plugin

1. Feedburner

   All you have to do to get started with FeedBurner is give them the URL of your blog (or podcast blog) to let them "burn" it. Burning your blog simply means that you will benefit from the services at FeedBurner that attract more readers to your blog and plug you into a wider network of eyeballs than you might have on your own.

2. Once you've burned a feed with FeedBurner you have access to additional services related to your account. You can track the number of subscribers to your blog, get stats about page visits, and even participate in their ad network.

3. If you're running a self-hosted Wordpress blog, FeedBurner recommends that you use a Wordpress plugin called FeedSmith (named for the original plugin creator, Steve Smith). You'll find a link to download the plugin in Resources below.

4. FeedSmith redirects all your RSS traffic through FeedBurner. Your users don't have to do anything other than subscribe to your feed as usual. FeedSmith is installed in the plugins directory on your server and activated in your blog's admin plugins panel. In the WordPress administration area, configure FeedSmith by clicking Options and then the FeedBurner FeedSmith sub-option. Follow the links to create your FeedBurner feeds, or if they already exist, simply fill in their URLs in the boxes provided.

5. You deactivate the plugin in the normal Wordpress manner by clicking the "Deactivate" link in the Wordpress plugins admin panel.

Resources

• Feedburner
• Feedburner's Wordpress Information
• Feedburner's Creating Your Wordress Feed Help