Beware of the Post Feed Redirect URL Setting!

Blog Feeds are used to deliver blog updates to subscribers. The new Layout Blog Templates contain a big "Subscribe to Posts : Atom" link at the bottom of the post. However it is better to put a big orange RSS feed icon at the top of the sidebar to attract subscribers.


When Google bought Feedburner Blogger introduced a new setting in the Settings--->Site Feed subtab : The Post Feed Redirect URL (See picture below) :



This is a sensitive setting and due to lack of understanding of how it works many Bloggers are closing down their blog feed by putting wrong links in this box..........................

The Blog Feed URL

Each blog feed has a link or address where it is located. Subscribers have to enter this link in Google Reader or any other feed reader so they can read the latest blog updates. In Blogger your feed URL or link is :

(Atom Feeds)
http://MYBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
http://MYBLOG.blogspot.com/atom.xml

(RSS Feeds)
http://MYBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
http://MYBLOG.blogspot.com/rss.xml

Replace 'MYBLOG' with actual blog name. Blogger does not allow any customization of Feeds except for choosing 'Short', 'Full' or 'None'. Also you cannot know number of your subscribers. To customize your feed you have to 'burn' blog feed at Feedburner.com

Feedburner Feed URL

Feedburner takes your blog feed and gives the blog feed a new link or address. You can customize this address also. For instance the feedburner feed address for this blog is :

http://feeds.feedburner.com/DummiesGuideToGoogleBloggerBeta

The Post Feed Redirect URL

To get to this setting follow these steps :

Login at Blogger.com

Click Settings link for your blog on Dashboard.

Click Site Feed subtab.

Scroll down on page and paste the Feedburner Feed URL for your blog in this box :





What it does is to redirect all other feed addresses to the Feedburner feed address. So subscribers getting updates through :

http://MYBLOG.blogspot.com/atom.xml

or

http://MYBLOG.blogspot.com/rss.xml

or

http://MYBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

or

http://MYBLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

are ALL redirected to the Feedburner Feed URL.

Precautions to Follow

1. Do NOT paste Blog Feed URLs in this box!


2. Copy and Paste the Feedburner Feed address for your blog here. Do NOT type it as typing is prone to typo errors.

3. Do NOT enter Feedburner address of some other blog here!

4. Do NOT enter any other URL here! It Is meant ONLY for the Feedburner Feed URL for the same blog. OR if you are using some other service like Feedblitz.com you can also enter their feed URL here.

Wrong URL Results In

If the wrong URL is entered in the Post Feed Redirect URL box it causes :

1. Prevent blog feeds from updating.

2. Gadgets dependent on blog feeds like Recent Comments Gadget, Previous Posts Gadget, Table of Contents gadget etc. will stop functioning.

3. Loss of blog traffic or visitors.

4. Gadgets on other blogs depending on your blog feed will stop functioning.

5. Yahoo Pipes or other Feed aggregators depending on your blog feed will break down.

6. The Blog List gadget depends on Blog Feeds. If someone has added your blog to their Blog List it will not show the latest blog update.

7. The Reading List on your Followers' Dashboard will stop getting blog updates.

Calling all Newbie Bloggers!

Welcome to 2009 and your spanking new blog you created at Blogger.com. 

Photo by Ben30

What are the next steps you should follow to make blogging an instantaneous and painless experience? How to be a successful blogger using only point and click and some fast keyboarding? Here are some fast tips for the ultra n00b................

 

The first thing when creating a blog is to select a short and sweet URL or blog address. You can change this afterwards also by login at Blogger.com and then go to Settings>>Publishing>>Blog Address. If the address is not available you can get a Custom Domain Dot Com address for only 10$ US and also get rid of the 'blogspot' in the address.

Do not change the blog address if more than two months have elapsed because you will have to start all over again from scratch with respect to the search engines. You will also lose the traffic going to the old address!

 

After creating a blog speed up getting it on the search engines by submitting blog to them and verify ownership using Google Webmaster Tools.

 

Creating posts and inserting pictures in your blog is made easy thanks to Windows Live Writer.

 

For optimum blogging experience download Firefox browser on a PC with a broadband connection. For checking your emails use Thunderbird. To follow and subscribe to latest blog updates use Google Reader. All are free!

 

Never delete the account used to create your blog. DELETING ACCOUNT DOES NOT DELETE YOUR BLOG. 

 

After creating a post open the post page in browser by clicking on the post title. Then from browser menu click File>>Save Page As and save it to a backup folder on your hard drive.  You should also backup your entire blog periodically. Backup your blog template (Login>>Layouts>>Edit Html>>Download Full Template)and widgets in same folder. Periodically record the folder to CD or DVD-ROM to insure against hard disk failure. Invest in a USB drive and synchronize backup folders to it. This will prevent piling up of backup CD/DVD-ROMs.

 

Keep passwords secure with Keep Pass - a free password encryptor and manager.  In your Google or Gmail account settings enter a secondary email account.

 

Open a Paypal account and put in some donation links in your blog.

On the Main Page of the blog show only an expandable summary of the posts followed by a Read More link. This makes the main page load faster.

 

Burn your blog feed at Feedburner.com and copy the new feed url and paste it in Settings>>Site Feed>>Post Feed Redirect box and save. Now you will be able to know your full subscriber count. Put in a prominent Feed Icon at the top of your blog sidebar so viewers can subscribe to blog updates.

 

Lastly add content regularly at least thrice weekly.  Do not make very long posts and add pictures and videos inbetween to break the monotony. Add Labels and social bookmarks to all posts.

 

Enjoy!

Count Your Blog Feed Subscribers.

Google Webmaster Tools has now introduced a count of your feed subscribers : Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Subscriber stats and more.


Previously if you needed to count how many subscribers you had you needed to channel your feed through Feedburner. At present only a count is available and only of those subscribers using Google services like Google Reader, iGoogle and Orkut.



The interface of Webmasters Tools has also been enhanced with a sidebar instead of tabs. Also it is now available in 20 languages!

Feedburner Chicklet and Headline Animator.

You can modify the feedburner chicklet to display the colors you want in your blog. You can also tweak the code to change the text displayed. You can display the Headline Animator as your Blog Header. You will then have your header display the rotating headlines of your posts displayed in the blog header..........

MODIFYING THE FEEDBURNER CHICKLET

First you will have to register at Feedburner and burn your blog feed as shown in Feedburner and Blog Feeds. Then login to your account and click on your Blog name. Click on Publicize and then on Feed Count in the sidebar. Copy the HTML code given. It will look something like my code below :

<p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/DummiesGuideToGoogleBloggerBeta"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~fc/DummiesGuideToGoogleBloggerBeta?bg=FF3333&fg=FFFF66&anim=1" height="26" width="88" style="border:0" alt="" /></a></p>

To change the text add "&label=DIEHARDFANS" after "anim=1". You can add whatever text you want instead of DIEHARDFANS. To change the background color change the hex color code in this part of the code : "bg=FF3333". To change the foreground color change it here :"fg=FFFF66". See Below :

You can also change the width and height attributes. To get hex color codes go here. Compare the above with the unmodified chicklet at the top of the left column of this blog.

REPLACE BLOG HEADER WITH HEADLINE ANIMATOR

You can put Feedburner Headline Animator into your Blog Header. This will rotate all your post headlines at the top of your blog. To do this first you need a header picture for your blog. Create a gif picture file. Put it in a Html/Javascript Page Element as shown in Removing Title Not Recommended but here is the How To.



Next login to Feedburner and click on name of your blog. Then click on Publicize and then on Headline Animator in the sidebar. Scroll down till you come to ClickThrough URL. Here paste the URL of your blog. This is because you will be using it in the header. Then click the drop down arrow under Theme and select Provide Your own Background. In Background Image URL box paste the Url of the image you have Uploaded to a freehost.and click the Load Button. The image will appear in the bottom. Click and drag the Title, Date and post titles headings to position the and then click on activate. Scroll upwards and click the Down arrow in Add To text box. Select "Other. Just Gimme the code" at the bottom. Click Next to get the code and paste this code in your Html/Javascript Page Element in the blog header. See the one I created below :



Check out the new Blog Header above with animated post headlines.

List Count Your Bloglines Feed Subscribers.

Do you want to find how many people read your blog feed through Bloglines? Blogger does not have a method of telling you how any people read your blog feeds. For more information on Blog feeds see What is Subscribe to Posts. If you channel your feeds through Feedburner as shown in Feedburner and Blog feeds you can find out by going to your feedburner account but that does not give you the subscribers to your original blog feeds through Bloglines. Here are some methods to find out your Bloglines subscriber count...........

Bloglines is a "news aggregator" which takes many online information services like weblogs which broadcast their content to the web in so-called "syndicated feeds" or "news feeds" with new technologies like Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and ATOM. You can subscribe to a blog feed and read all that it has to offer without visiting the blog itself. If you subscribe to all the feeds from the blogs you visit it helps you by not having to visit each blog individually to read its contents. You can choose and select to visit only the blog which really piques your interest and the rest you can read at Bloglines.


Feeds are important since all the search engines index them and follow their links to your blog. Hence the more readers you have the better your blog is placed in search engine rankings. You can place advertisements in your feeds and hence the number of readers becomes of great significance to your Ad. revenue. Feedburner takes your blog feeds modifies them and puts them out as a different URL. To see your readers login to Feedburner and click on your feed title. (Assuming that you have already 'burned' your blog feed as shown in Feedburner and Blog Feeds.) For Bloglines the method is different.

BLOGLINES METHOD 1

First you will have to visit Bloglines and register to get a free account. Then login to your account and click on Feeds tab at the top. Click Add link in the top of the sidebar. This opens a Subscribe page onthe right hand side. Copy your blog URL/link/address and paste it in the box and click Subscribe button. As an example I put http://boingboing.net in the box and clicked on Subscribe. See Image below

The number next to the date gives the number of subscribers. Click the Subscribe button at the bottom to subscribe to the feed. The feed name will appear in your sidebar.

LIST BLOGLINES SUBSCRIBERS

After you have subscribed to the feed the name will appear in the sidebar. Double click this name to display the feed contents in the right hand pane. Right click the Related Feeds link shown in the diagram below next to number of subscribers.


Select copy link location and paste into a Notepad file. You will get a link/URL like this :

http://www.bloglines.com/relatedfeeds?siteid=6085477

See the number in the end. Copy that number and paste it in the URL below where it says NUMBER

http://www.bloglines.com/userdir?siteid=NUMBER

Copy and paste the above link in address bar of browser and press enter. You will get a full list of subscribers to this feed who have chosen to make it public. See below :


At the top you get the numbers of all subscribers to the feed and below is a list of the subscribers.

RSS
Feedburner
Feed
Bloglines

Feedburner Feed Subscribe Icon Below Each Post.

It is not enough just to have a blog feed and set the settings to short or full. You have to publicize it so that your readers can easily subscribe to it......

There are several methods of publicizing your blog feeds which I have outlined in Feedburner and Blog Feeds.. Here is another method which adds a Feed link directly below each of your blog posts. Any viewer of your blog after reading your blog post comes imediately upon this link and is prompted to subscribe. If sufficiently impressed by your post he/she can immediately subscribe. This obviates the need to search for the feed link elsewhere and is a handy tool to increase your subscribers. You can also easily customize the colors of this box to match the decor of your blog.


First you will have to burn your feed at Feedburner. The method to do so is outlined in Feedburner and Blog Feeds.. After burning your blog feed at feedburner.com you will have the new link for your feed which will usually take the form of :

http://feeds.feedburner.com/NAME OF BLOG

Let us call this link "YOUR BLOG FEEDBURNER LINK".



Also download one of the Feed Icons or use the one I have provided here. Just right click the icon and save it to your PC and then upload it to a freehost like Googlepages and copy down the link to the icon. Let us call this link "LINK TO FEEDBURNER ICON".


Login to Dashboard of Blogger and click on layouts of the blog you want to add the feedbox to. Then click on Edit Html tab at the top and first backup template to PC by clicking on the Download Full Template link. Then scroll down in Edit Template box till you come to Variable Definitions section. Add this code within this section :

<Variable name="footerfeedboxcolor" description="Post Footer Feedbox Color"
type="color" default="#fff" value="#ffff66">

This code will allow you to change the color of the feedbox so as to fit in the decor for your blog via the Template----->Fonts and Colors tab.

Then scroll down and add this code just above the ]]></b:skin> tag :

.footerfeedbox {
background-color: $footerfeedboxcolor;
width: 85%;
margin: 10px 14px 20px 14px;
padding: 4px;
border: 1px solid #dddddd;
text-align: center;
}

Save Template. This so far has just defined the physical characteristics of the feed link box. To actually implement that box on the blog check the Expand Widgets Template button on top of the Edit Template text box. Then scroll down in Edit Template text box till you come to this line in the Blog Posts widget :

<div class='post-footer'>

Add this code for the box immediately after the above line :

<div align='center'><div class='footerfeedbox'>
<a href="YOUR BLOG FEEDBURNER LINK" title="Subscribe to my feed" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">
<img src='LINK TO FEEDBURNER ICON' alt="" style="border:0" />Like this article? Subscribe to the RSS feed!</a></div></div>

Replace the CAPS in the above code with the appropriate links obtained at the top of this post. Save Template. Click on Fonts and Colors tab at the top under Template tab and change the background color of the feedbox at the foot of your posts by choosing the appropriate color. See it below and at the foot of every post in this blog.

Technorati Tags:feedburner, feed, subscribe to,

Feedburner and Blog Feeds.

Blog Feeds are a method by which viewers can view your blog and updated content without visiting your blog. Their importance is further enhanced by Google's frequent indexing of feed content........

To make sure that your blog content appears in the Search Engine results turn on your feeds. For this go to Settings------->Site Feed------>Select Short or Full Feeds and Save Settings.

Your blog feeds once turned on are accessed using their feed URLs. The URLs for your beta/new blog's feed is

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full
http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Substitute actual blog name in place of yourblogname. For example the feeds for my blog can be accessed by clicking on :

http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/summary
http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Click on the above links to see the result. To view a blog's feeds in a Feed reader such as Bloglines or Google Reader simply add these URLs to it.

PUBLICIZE FEEDS

:To ensure that your viewers can easily subscribe to your blog content you have to put these URLs in a place easily seen on your blog. Blogger provides a link to them at the end of the posts. See What is Subscribe to Posts Atom.



Login to Feedburner and click on name of your blog. Then click on Publicize tab on top. Then click on Chicklet Chooser in sidebar. Choose the new standard feed icon by clicking its radio button. Scroll down and choose Use as a Widget in Blogger. Then click Go and follow instructions.

FEEDBURNER.COM

Feedburner.com provides a standard method of sending your feeds out. Your Blog feeds are taken by Feedburner and sent out. If you turn off your blog feeds then Feedburner will also give you error. To 'burn' your feed at feedburner goto feedburner.com and paste your blog URL into the text box provided and click on Next.


There is no actual burning involved. Feedburner takes blog feeds modifies them according to the settings you specify and passes them onto the readers. To make the actual connection with a blogfeed you have to first submit or burn it at feedburner. It is a once only process. Feedburner being separate from Blogger cannot connect with your feed unless you submit it to them. They prefer to call it burning in accordance with their name and probably to invest it with some portent!



Feedburner will show you what feeds are available (Atom and RSS) and ask you to choose one. Choose anyone and click on Next. Feedburner will give your feed a title and a new URL which you can copy and save for personal reference. Click on Activate Feed. The feed is now activated and you have to put the link for it in a prominent place on your site. Click on Skip directly to feed management beside the Next button at the bottom.

PUBLICIZE FEED

Buzzboost is the first option here. This takes your feed URL and turns it into Javascript code which you can embed into any other website you own which will then show the contents of your blog on that site. As an example I have added it to this Googlepages site : http://betabloggerfordummies.googlepages.com/bbd
This gives your content more exposure automatically.

Headline Animator is the second option. This displays rotating headlines from your blog. You can customize its appearance. See the left column of my blog where there is a seasonal Headline Animator. You can add this to the foot of your Emails also. Place this on another of your sites to promote your content.

FeedCount is another way to promote your feed. It is a dynamic graphic that always displays your feed's current circulation, as calculated by FeedBurner. Choose its color scheme and an animated or static appearance. This impresses your viewers into signing up for your feed.




Chicklet Chooser : These are small buttons which are the links for viewing your blog feed in any feed reader or application. You can choose the standard feed icon or any of the many chiclets. Paste the html code into a Html/Javascript Page Element in sidebar. This encourages people to subscribe to your feed by posting a friendly graphic in an easy-to-find location.

PingShot : This Notifies services when you publish. You can notify Technorati, My Yahoo, Bloglines, PubSub, Ping-o-matic, Newsgator and up to five additional services. Click on activate after choosing and then Save. Whenever you publish new content all these services are notified.

Email Subscriptions : Offers feed updates via email. Activate this and you will be given code to put in your site. Viewers can then type in their email address and click the Subscribe button. They will then receive in their email any updates to your blog.

Creative Commons : This service attaches the appropriate Creative Commons license in your feed's content. Choose the options you want and Activate and Save.

Password Protector : Basic security to keep an unwanted Tom, Dick, or Harry out of your feed. Protect your feed with a required username and password using HTTP
authentication. Any requests for your burned feed will require readers to enter a username and password to retrieve it.

OPTIMIZE FEED

Browser Friendly : makes your feed formatting easy to read in any browser. Choose among the options and Activate.

SmartFeed : Makes your feed compatible with any Reader application whether it is RSS or Atom.


FeedFlare : gives the viewer multiple options at the bottom of each post. See image below:

AUTODISCOVERY

It's a tag that tells web-based news readers and browsers like Firefox and IE7 what your exact feed address is. First View your blog in a browser and click on View----->Page Source. Locate these lines at the top :

<meta content='text/html; charset=UTF-8' http-equiv='Content-Type'/>
<meta content='true' name='MSSmartTagsPreventParsing'/>
<meta content='blogger' name='generator'/>
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="test blog - Atom" href="http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="test blog - RSS" href="http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss" />
<link rel="service.post" type="application/atom+xml" title="test blog - Atom" href="http://www.blogger.com/feeds/875397467806229665/posts/default" />
<link rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="http://beta.blogger.com/rsd.g?blogID=87539746760806229665" />

Copy this code. Then goto Template----->Edit Html and locate this line :

<b:data='blog' name='all-head-content'>

Replace the above line with the source copied. Save Template.

Then in the same code replace these lines :

<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="test blog - Atom" href="http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="test blog - RSS" href="http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss" />

with this line :

<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Your Blog Feed" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/YOURBLOGFEEDNAME" />

where YOURBLOGFEEDNAME is the URI, of your FeedBurner feed. Save Template.

REDIRECT YOUR FEED

If your url is changed you may need to redirect your feed. Follow the instructions here.

Technorati Tags:feedburner, feed, rss, atom, autodiscovery, ping,