Set up RSS feed subscription

he easiest way to set up your RSS feed subsciption on your web site is to sign up for the free FeedBurner service. FeedBurner is one of the group of services provided by Google. FeedBurner allows you, as web site owner and podcaster to format your web page contents into feeds (a web document that ends in .xml or .rss that is created to be easily syndicated). It may be represented by an orange icon to provide an interface on your site to enable site visitors to sign up for your feeds, publicize your feeds when you publish new content in your feed, track the usage of your subscribers and other services.

Below are the steps to set up your RSS feed subscription on your site:

Step 1: Go to feedburner.com. Enter your blog’s url (e.g. xwordpress.com) in the box below and click the “Next” button

Step 2: FeedBurner will display your Feed Address where your feed will be located. If you do not have a FeedBurner account, you will be asked to create one with them. Click “Activate Feed” button

Step 3: The screen will display the following confirmation. Click the “Next” button.

Step 4: Click the boxes as per your prefere3nce. Click the “Next” button.

Step 5: The screen will display the following: “You have successfully update the feed “……………com”. Click the “publicize” tab.

Step 6: There are two options to enable your visitors to subscribe to your feed.

Option 1: This is to generate (publish a chicklet via FeedBurner) and put a RSS button (as show below) on your blog to enable your visitors to click on the logo button to subscribe to your feed.

In the FeedBurner screen as shown above, click “Chicklet Chooser” The following screen will be displayed:

I suggest you select “Subscribe in a reader” as this is a standard feed icon. Scroll down to locate the HTML codes (depending on your selection) generated by FeedBurner. Copy the HTML codes and place them in your blog (see step 8 below)

Based on the above HTML codes, you blog should display the following:

Option 2: This will generate a set of HTML codes via Feedburner that will enable your visitors to subscribe to your feed by email where they will automatically receive any new posts via email. In the FeedBurner link below, click “Email Subscriptions”.

In the email subscription screen, select your email service provider to deliver your feeds. Select FeedBurner and click the “Activate” button.

Once you have activated their service, FeedBurner will display a Subscription Management screen that will allow you to choose two ways for your visitors to subscribe to your post by email:

a. Subscription form – a set of codes will be displayed. Copy the codes and placed them in your blog (see step 8 below). Your blog should display the following subscription form:

b. Subscription text link - a set of codes will be displayed. Copy the codes and placed them in your blog (see step 8 below). Your blog should display the following subscription link:

If you wish, you may change the link text and add an email icon before the same as show below:

Please click on this link to see how it is done.

Note: Before you leave the email subscription screen, remember to click the “Save” button.

Step 8: Create a “text” widget on your sidebar. Copy the codes generated in step 7 above and paste the same into the “text” widget. Save and click refresh – the screen should display the subscription format which will enable your visitors to subscribe to your RSS feeds.

If you like this post, please consider subscribing to this site’s RSS feed. You can also subscribe by email and any new posts will be sent directly to your inbox.

Tags: FeedBurner, RSS feed subscription, set up RSS feed subscription