In response to my last post on marketing a blog, a reader asks:

What does a feed do or how does it work? I went to feedburner and registered my blog but it just made me a new feed… so what did registering on this site do for me?

Feeds are ways people can subscribe to your blog so they are notified whenever you have new content. They can read your feed in any number of programs like Google Reader, Bloglines, or on their MyYahoo! page. Basically, they copy and paste the link to your feed in one of those programs and hit subscribe. Then, whenever you publish new content, it will show up in their feed reader so they can go to your site to read your new articles.

Now that you have a new feed from Feedburner, you will need to copy/paste that where your old feed is throughout your site so that when people subscribe to your feed, they subscribe to the Feedburner version. This allows you to do all sorts of cool things like keep track of the number of people subscribed to your feed and clicking through to your website to start.

Feedburner also offers lots of cool features like you can get people to subscribe to your feed via email so whenever you post, they’ll receive an email that you’ve posted. It’s also owned by Google, so it’s one more way for them to learn about your site and increase the chance it’s found in Google’s search results.

Here are some things to check out:

1. FeedBurner Stats - Stats tell you how your content is being consumed, including how many subscribers read your feed, click through to your site, and download your content (like podcasts or PDFs).
2. PingShot - Allows you to quickly notify other services that you’ve added new content.
3. Email Subscription - Some people prefer to receive updates via email rather than in their feed reader, so Feedburner provides you with an email subscribe form and takes care of all the notifications.
4. BuzzBoost - Allows you to add the most recent headlines from your blog to other pages on your site (or someone else’s site), with no programming needed.
5. FeedFlare - This feature helps your readers spread the word about your posts through various social media sites like Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and Del.icio.us. There’s also an option to email to a friend.

Random Posts

• Are You CAN-SPAM Compliant?
• Advertising Ineffectiveness
• Client Focus: Galfand Berger Website Redesign
• Public Speaking: Captivating Your Audience
• 5 Email Marketing Tips For Higher Response Rates