Tag Archives: feedburner

What Do Your Readers Really SEE?

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Image of a blogging bookSimple facts from the stats — for my personal blog Mobile Technology in TAFE.

The Facts

  1. Approx. 50 people visit my blog site each day.
  2. Main web browsers used for viewing my blog are FireFox (52.93 % ), Internet Explorer (39.93 %) and Safari (4.87 %).
  3. Approx. 750 people subscribe to my blog and read my posts using a Feed Reader.
  4. Main feed readers used by my readers are Google Reader (68 %) and Bloglines (7 %).
  5. Approx. 35 people prefer to read my posts via email (Feedburner email subscription).

What The Facts Mean

Even with great content people are less likely to subscribe or continuing subscribing to your blog if your posts are hard to read. It’s important to ensure your posts look nice and are easy to read on your blog, when read in feed readers and by email.

You check this by:

  1. Regularly examining the appearance of your blog using a few web browsers! (Read more here)
  2. Subscribing to your blog in a Feed Reader!
  3. Subscribing to your email subscription!

Here’s how to set up:

  1. Google Analytics for obtaining statistics on visitors to your blog (here an intro on how to use use of Google Analytics).
  2. Feedburner for obtaining statistics on subscribers to your blog
  3. Email subscription using Feedburner
  4. Your feed so it redirects to Feedburner to get accurate subscriber statistics
  5. A Google Reader Account and subscribe to blogs

FINAL THOUGHTS

So how did you go:

  1. Notice any problems that you need to rectify when you viewed your blog in different web browsers?
  2. What are your posts like when read in a feed reader like Google Reader? Have any of the embeds you’ve added been removed?

Image was created using txt2pic.com

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Setting Up Google Analytics on Your Blog

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Wondering if people visit your blog and what interests them?

There are statistics tools that you can install on your blog that help answer these questions. Problem is working out which tools to use when you first start blogging can be overwhelming because there is so much information on too many options.

So let me explain why most bloggers use Google Analytics and show you how to set up Google Analytics on your blog. The next post will explain how to use Google Analytics.

What is Google Analytics?

The two main tools used by bloggers to monitor their blog statistics are:

  1. Feedburner
  2. Google Analytics

Feedburner is important because it provides information about your subscribers i.e. people who read your blog using a feed reader such as Google Reader, Bloglines or NetVibes. If you are an Edublogs supporter you can redirect all your blog feed to Feedburner which means you know exactly how many of readers subscribe to their blog (here is how to Add a RSS Feed From Feedburner To Your Blog and How To Add a Feedburner Email Subscription to Your Blog).

But subscribers are only part of the picture; it’s also important to know about your other blog readers i.e. the readers who visit your actual blog site. This is where Google Analytics helps you out by providing statistics of visits to your blog such as who’s coming to your blog site, how they’re getting there and what interests them.

Setting Up Your Google Analytics Account

  1. Create an gmail account. Gmail is Google’s free webmail that you can access from any computer, anywhere. Ideally use a login name that people can identify easily as being you
  2. Go to Google Analytics and sign in using your gmail account.
  3. Now click on Sign up for Google Analytics and grab your User Account String.Image of Google Analytics sign up
  4. Go to Plugins > Installed in your blog dashboard
  5. Click Activate below Google Analytics Image of activating Google Analytics
  6. Go to Settings > Google Analytics in your Dashboard Image of Google Analytics tab
  7. Paste the User Account String into the Google Analytics box and click Update UA String Image of inserting Google tracking code
  8. Next click on Check Status to finalise setting up your Google Analytics account.
  9. Google Analytics takes 24 hours before it starts displaying your statistics.Image of tracking page

FINAL THOUGHTS

There are a range of tools you can use for providing blog statistics. Which one(s) are you using, what features do you like and how do you use them to analyze your blog’s statistics?

Please let me know if you have any trouble setting up your Google Analytics account. Refer to our next post to learn how to analyze the data Google Analytics provides.

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Redirecting Your Blog Feed To Feedburner

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Besides making it easier for readers to subscribe to your blog using RSS or email, using a Feedburner feed means you can analyse your subscribers e.g. number of subscribers, and which feed reader they use.

Trouble is unless you redirect all your blog feed to Feedburner you won’t get an accurate picture of the number of readers that subscribe to your blog using a feed reader (e.g. Google Reader, NetVibes or Bloglines) because some of your readers will be subscribing using your blog feed.

The great news is Edublogs supporters are able to redirect all their blog feed to Feedburner which means they know exactly how many of readers subscribe to their blog. It costs US$39.95 per year to become an Edublogs supporter which gives you great extra features including Feedburner integration.

Setting up your Feedburner Feed

If you’ve already created your feedburner feed like I explained in Adding a RSS Feed From Feedburner To Your Blog and How To Add an Email Subscription to Your Blog you need to use this feedburner feed URL when redirecting your blog feed to feedburner.

feedburnersupporter1.jpg

Don’t create a new feed by clicking on the link “To get started, create a Feedburner feed for ……..” if you’ve already created a Feedburner feed.

Image of Feedburner set up

Analyzing & Monitoring Your Feed

It will take 24 hours for Feedburner to display the changes to your subscriber numbers and don’t stress if suddenly your subscription numbers increase dramatically — remember it’s now showing all your subscribers.

You will notice slight fluctuations in daily number of readers subscribed because numbers are based on an approximation of how many times your feed has been requested in a 24-hour period plus some of your readers may use desktop RSS software that retrieve your feed less frequently.

statsedublogger.jpg

Make sure you also subscribe to your blog using a feed reader; it’s really important– read why here! If you currently not using RSS to blogs using a feed reader — check out What is RSS and why you should use it? An introduction for newbies and watch RSS in Plain English.

If you’re interested in a more through analysis of your Feedburner statistics try out BlogPerfumes Feed analysis.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

How To Add an Email Subscription to Your Blog

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In our last post we showed how to add a RSS feed from Feedburner to your blog to make it easier for your readers to subscribe to your blog and so that you could analyse your blog subscriptions e.g. number of subscribers, Feed Readers they use. This post will show how you can add an email subscription to your blog.

Reason For Adding Email Subscription to Your Blog

However not every reader likes to use RSS, some readers prefer to receive latest posts from blogs using email subscription. This is why you will often see both email subscription and RSS feed options on blogs; bloggers are doing this to cater to the different preferences of their readers.

Readers simply enter their email address and then click on “Subscribe”. They then receive an email notifying when new posts or information have been added to the blog.

There are two main options you can use to add an email subscription to your Eublogs blog:

  1. Drag Email Subscription Widget onto your sidebar (here is more information about using Widgets)
  2. Create and add an email subscription using Feedburner for your blog.

These two options work very differently:

  • Edublogs Email Subscription Widget – emails your reader immediately that a new post has been added to your blog. However to read the post your reader will need to click on a link which takes them to the post on your blog.
  • Feedburner Email Subscription – emails your entire post to your readers on the day after it has been uploaded to your blog i.e. they can read the entire post as an email rather than following the link. Please note images are not displayed in the email. Advantages of Feedburner includes details of your subscribers e.g. number of email subscribers, their email addresses

Which ever email subscription you use make sure you subscribe to your blog using it; so you know what your posts look like when people receive them via email. Normally

Creating An Email Subscription For Your Blog Using Feedburner

Once you have created and added an RSS feed from Feedburner to your blog ( here are the instructions on how to add a RSS feed from Feedburner to your blog) the next step is to set up your email subscription with feedburner (follow the instructions in the diagram below).

Diagram of how to set up email subscription

Adding Your Feedburner Email Subscription To Your Blog

The code for your Feedburner email subscription is located under your Publicize tab. You need to add this to a text widget in your sidebar.

  1. On your blog dashboard, go to Design > Widgets
  2. Scroll down to Text widget in your available widget area (left hand side of dashboard) and click on Add.
  3. Click on Edit on the Text widget that has been added to your current widget area.Image of adding a text widget
  4. Paste code for Feedburner email in Text Widget.  Click on Change.
  5. Click on Save Changes at bottom of Current Widget area (right hand side of dashboard).

Image of Email Widget

FINAL THOUGHT

Please let us know how you go adding an email subscription to your blog; especially if you have additional questions on using it.

For accurate statistics on your subscriber numbers you should redirect all your blog feed to Feedburner!

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Adding a RSS Feed From Feedburner To Your Blog

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Subscribing to RSSMost readers receive posts from their favorite blogs by subscribing to RSS using their feed readers (e.g. Google Reader, Bloglines, NetVibes).

RSS notifies your reader of new content; saving them time because it means they can read their latest news in one location, their feed reader, rather than having visiting each web site separately (if you currently don’t use RSS — watch this video).

feed.jpg

As a blogger you want people to read what you write by subscribing to your blog. A common way bloggers make it easy for readers to subscribe is using Feedburner.

What is Feedburner?feedburnerreader.jpg

Feedburner is a free web service which enhances bloggers and podcasters ability to manage their RSS feeds and track usage of their subscribers.

Most blogs already have RSS feed which is detected automatically by Feed Readers like Google Reader, Bloglines, NetVibes when the blog URL is added to the reader. The trouble is not all Feed Readers can automatically detect the RSS feed from the blog URL.

Having a Feedburner feed means readers can click on the RSS icon and subscribe to your feed by selecting their Feed Reader.

Using Feedburner means you can also analyse your subscriptions e.g. number of subscribers, Feed Readers they use.

feedstats.jpg

Setting up your Feedburner Feed

You’ll need to register for a free account with Feedburner, if you don’t have an existing account.

In Your Feeds section of your Feedburner account add your Blog URL to the Burn a Feed Right This Instant box and follow the instructions in the diagram below.

Please note:

If the Identify Feed Source page gives you the following message “FeedBurner discovered more than one feed at that address. Please select one to use as your source” — select the RSS 2.0 feed i.e. looks like this http://theedublogger.com/feed/

feedburneraccount.jpg

Adding Your Feedburner Feed To Your Blog

  1. Open up your Feedburner account.  Click on the Publicize Tab > Chicklet Chooser and copy the HTML code.
  2. Image of Feedburner code
  3. On your blog dashboard, go to Design > Widgets
  4. Scroll down to Text widget in your available widget area (left hand side of dashboard) and click on Add.
  5. Click on Edit on the Text widget that has been added to your current widget area.Image of adding a text widget
  6. Paste code for Feedburner in the Text Widget.  Click on Change.
  7. Click on Save Changes at bottom of Current Widget area (right hand side of dashboard).Image of Feedburner widget

I recommend you refer to Feedburner Quick Start Guides for Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, MySpace, Podcasting for blog platforms other than Edublogs.

FINAL THOUGHT

Please let us know how you go adding a Feedburner feed to your blog; especially if you have additional questions on using Feedburner.

Our next post will explain the different ways you can set up a subscribe by email feed to your blog. For accurate statistics on your subscriber numbers you should redirect all your blog feed to Feedburner!
If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!