The Blog Doctor.

Count Your Blog Feed Subscribers.

Email Subscription Box and Buttons.

Many bloggers want to know how to have the 'Subscribe to Blog Updates' by Email box and the big orange 'Subscribe to Blog Feed' buttons in their blog. Putting out blog feeds and having a prominent Email subscribe box/buttons are two effective ways to increase traffic to your blog.

Blogger already has a Subscribe to Posts link at the bottom of each post...........

However for best results you should place your feed links in the header, at the top of the sidebars or in the post footer. To put it at the top of the sidebars login to Dashboard of Blogger and click on Layout. In the Page Elements tab which opens click on Add Page Element link in the sidebar. Choose the Html/Javascript option and paste the following code in it :

<a href="FEED LINK"><img src="LINK OF ORANGE FEED ICON"/></a>

Replace FEED LINK with :

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

OR

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

Substitute actual blog name in place of yourblogname. If you want to channel feeds through Feedburner put in your Feedburner feed link instead. It will look something like this :

http://feeds.feedburner.com/yourblogname.

Get the actual link from Feedburner. Instead of LINK OF ORANGE FEED ICON put the link of where you have uploaded the orange icon. Feel free to steal the icon at the top of the left column. Right click the icon and select 'Save Image' and save it to a location on your hard drive. Then upload it to a freehost like Googlepages or Photobucket. Use the link of the icon hosted at these sites to copy and paste instead of 'LINK OF ORANGE FEED ICON'. Do not try to use Blogger as an image host as the links are difficult to extract and sometimes do not work.

If after adding the above buttons you want to remove the original Subscribe to Posts link see the third blockquote from the top in What is Subscribe to Posts Atom.

If you have a sufficient subscriber base you can add a chicklet to show the subscriber count .

EMAIL SUBSCRIBE BOX

To put in a Email subscribe box create an account at Feedburner or Feedblitz. You will have to burn your blog feed at Feedburner first. Then click on your feed title. Click on the Publicize tab at the top and then on Email Subscriptions in the sidebar. You can then choose to enter it as a link or as a box and also the language. If you have the new layouts template click the down arrow in the text box 'Use as a widget in' and choose 'Blogger'. In the next screen click Add page element and it is added to your template without any coding. If you have the classic template copy and paste the given code in sidebar section of your template.

In Feedblitz add your blog after logging in. Then on Dashboard click on Solutions and then on Widgets. Under Feedblitz Widgets------>Email Subscription widgets----->Click on New Blogger widgets. In the next page type in your email and the verification code and then click the button 'Install your Email Subscription Widget on Blogger Beta'. In the next page select Add Page element and the box will be installed to your blog without any coding. For the classic template get the code from the syndication management page and copy and paste it in sidebar section of your template.

The email subscription box enables readers to get your blog updates directly in their email. If you want to post updates to only a few members you can do so through a Google Groups Mailing List.

It is useful to subscribe yourself to both your feed and email updates so that you can monitor what the feed looks like and if it is regular. It helps also if you want to modify the feed and add advertisements in it. You can also modify the feed footer in your settings.

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,

What is "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)".

"Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" is a link provided at.................

the end of all your blog posts. This link is for viewers of your site/blog to view your blog without having to come to your blog. In the real world when we want to read a newspaper or magazine we go to the news-stand and buy it.

If you wish to change the words "Subscribe to Posts Atom" go to Template------>Edit Html----->Backup Template first------->Put a Check in
Expand Widgets Template box------------>Scroll down in Edit Template
text box and locate this code in Blog Posts widget :

<b:includable id='feedLinksBody' var='links'>
<div class='feed-links'>
<data:feedLinksMsg/>
<b:loop values='data:links' var='f'>
<a class='feed-link' expr:href='data:f.url'
expr:type='data:f.mimeType' target='_blank'><data:f.name/> FEED ME</a>
</b:loop>
</div>
</b:includable>

Substitute the CAPS instead of (<data:f.feedType/>). Change the CAPS to whatever suits you. Preview and save.

After having read it we like it so much that we decide to read it regularly. However, we cannot spare the time to go to the news-stand daily or monthly to buy the paper or magazine. It is then that we decide to subscribe to it. Then the news/magazine is delivered to our doorstep without us having to visit the news-stand.

In the virtual world regular users subscribe to groups whose members hold the same interst as they do. Some examples of these are Google groups and Yahoo groups. In these groups members post messages which are delivered automatically to all members of the group. They do not have to send emails to each member seperately. After the World Wide Web exploded into millions of websites viewers were confounded and confused and a wasted a lot of time visiting each site separately.

Thus RSS and Atom was born. These are the delivery guys of the Internet. RSS is an acronym that is short for Really Simple Syndication. It's a type of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) that is used for syndicating content. XML is used to describe data and is basically a markup language like HTML. To read the feed easily, download a feed reader like Feedreader.com or use an online reader like Google Reader.

TO MAKE IT WORK right click the link : Subscribe to posts - Atom and left click on 'Copy link location'. This will copy the URL of the link to your clipboard. Then go to your feed reader and paste the link into it.

DO NOT LEFT CLICK THE LINK because it will ask you to download the XML file full of code.

You can paste multiple such links from multiple sites on the Internet and then you will have updated content from all sites ready to read instead of having to visit all those sites one by one.

You can also use it to deliver updated content from other sites/blogs to your site/blog. How to do this is descirbed in Add Content with RSS feeds.

Similarly others can use this to deliver content from your site to their site. To prevent access to your feed you can hide this by pasting following code in your CSS part of template :

.feed-links {
display:none;

}

To see what is CSS part of template see Parts of Template.

The feed url for you beta blog is :

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

type name of your blog in place of 'yourblogname' in link above.

To add these links to your sidebar go to Settings----->Page Elements---->Add Page Element in Sidebar------>Choose Link List------>Enter the above feed URLs and for Titles add Subscribe to Posts :Atom and Subscribe to Posts :RSS.

In Classic Blogger the feed URL is :

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

TO SET THE SETTINGS for your feed in Beta Blogger go to Settings----->Site Feed.

Here you can set the Settings for :

1) Whether you want your full posts to be sent in the feed or none or short.
2) Whether you want the Blog Comments also to be sent in full or short form.
3) Whether you want the per posts comments to be full, none or short.
4) Lastly if you want something else to appear in your feed like Adsense Ads.
5) Always try to set it to short so readers get a sneak preview of your posts and then visit your blog to read more on the topic.

For more info see :

Technorati Tags:atom, feed, rss, subscribe to

TO ADD A GOOGLE READER BUTTON to your blog go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/add.html . Type in your Feed URLin the first Text box and click on Create Html. Copy the snippet of code and paste it into a Html/Javascript Page Element in the sidebar. For Example a Google Reader button for my blog is :

Clicking on the above button will enable you to add the feed from my blog to your Google Reader or to your Google Personalized Search Page.

TO ADD A Add-to-My Yahoo! Button GO TO :
http://publisher.yahoo.com/promote.php. Choose a button style. Enter your bew blogger feed urls which are described above. Then click on Generate Html. Copy and Paste the code generated in a Html/Javascript Page Element in the sidebar. I have added a button here below :

Clicking on the above button will enable you to add a feed from my site to your MY-Yahoo Page.

RSS Auto-Discovery

Auto-discovery is a way to let applications (such as Mozilla's Firefox browser, Yahoo! Toolbar, etc.) know there's an RSS feed on your web page or site. Then, the application lets users know they can subscribe to your feeds.

To see if your web site currently supports RSS auto-discovery, use the new Yahoo! Toolbar or Firefox browser. If Firefox has an orange box highlighted in the lower right corner , or the Yahoo! Toolbar has a blue "plus" button next to the My Yahoo! button on the toolbar, then you don't need to do anything.

Otherwise, please add the code below to your template after the metatags :

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="[YOUR RSS FEED TITLE]" href="%5BURL%20TO%20RSS%20FILE%5D">

Auto-discovery tips for publishers:

Please make your titles something meaningful and descriptive (e.g., "NYTimes Top Stories") – otherwise users will see "Add RSS" when they use this feature.

If you have multiple feeds, please add this code to all feeds if possible, so users have more choices.

Make sure the LINK tags go in the HEAD and not in the BODY of the HTML document.