4 ms·

Why exactly do people like FeedBurner so much? What is it for that having an RSS feed on your blog doesn't do?

stevencorona 14y ago
The only value I see (and why I use it), is so that I can track how many RSS readers I have. Also interesting - RSS (for me anyways) converts really poorly. On 100,000 pageviews, I only pick up about 100 or so RSS subscribers.
- sabret00the 14y ago
  RSS is only really useful as a conversation rate in communities. Take HN for example, it keeps you abreast of recent stories without having to open the page. In news sites, it's even more useful to scan the news. The conversation comes when users opt to partake in discussion. That said, some sites do it badly, my personal experience of ARS Technica for example. I'll often see an interesting article I want to read, but then see something like "Read the other 52 paragraphs" and decide to come back later at which I never do. There's an art to creating feeds, almost like sales-people that excel at converting window shoppers into actual shoppers due to how they design their shop windows.
- bad_user 14y ago
  That happens when a blog doesn't have a well defined subject. It also happens if they aren't incentivized to go to the website, like when publishing articles in full I prefer my reader since it is consistent. What I have found is that the few RSS subscribers I have are an excellent distribution channel on Twitter/HN/etc...
agpen 14y ago
I manage a website for a small business that doesn't want or warrant a full integrated blog engine. Feedburner allows the business owners to write news/announcements on blogger.com and display them on the front page of their website with just a single line of js. This puts authentication and security all on Google instead of the website and still provides a simple WYSIWYG interface for easy tech-illiterate updating.
rsingel 14y ago
Well, for one, Feedburner enables PubSubHubBub support, which is pretty key for RSS-centric infrastructure.
WalterGR 14y ago
RSS feeds -> email subscriptions. With Google branded signup and Google branded mail.
- slouch 14y ago
  Yes. In 5 minutes, I have an email sign up form on a new WordPress install that delivers all the posts I make to all the subscribers via email.
freejoe76 14y ago
Setting up email subscription and delivery of your RSS feed is dead-simple in FeedBurner. That's a huge plus.
freejoe76 14y ago
Also: If you don't own the keys to your CMS (see: newspaper-dot-coms), and your CMS changes (along with the URL to your RSS feeds), Feedburner allows you to keep your RSS subscribers.
aklemm 14y ago
Feedburner also helps ensure a good experience for the user while subscribing to the feed. Instead of showing a page of XML or requiring the user to configure an action in the browser/system to handle feeds, FeedBurner subscribe screens show a useful page for subscribing in whatever way the user wants (especially good for Google Reader and such).
petercooper 14y ago
At one stage, FeedBurner subscriber counts acted a bit like a mega cheap circulation auditor. That is, if my blog said 25,000 subscribers, advertisers were likely to believe that number versus any stats I might produce myself. This was a pretty big deal for me at one point, though nowadays it's not that important at all.
toddh 14y ago
It helped monetize your content. It provided metrics. It was pretty savvy about handling non-standard feeds. And it was reliable. All valuable ideas for a stream based open web. Long live the open web!

The only value I see (and why I use it), is so that I can track how many RSS readers I have. Also interesting - RSS (for me anyways) converts really poorly. On 100,000 pageviews, I only pick up about 100 or so RSS subscribers.

sabret00the 14y ago
RSS is only really useful as a conversation rate in communities. Take HN for example, it keeps you abreast of recent stories without having to open the page. In news sites, it's even more useful to scan the news. The conversation comes when users opt to partake in discussion. That said, some sites do it badly, my personal experience of ARS Technica for example. I'll often see an interesting article I want to read, but then see something like "Read the other 52 paragraphs" and decide to come back later at which I never do. There's an art to creating feeds, almost like sales-people that excel at converting window shoppers into actual shoppers due to how they design their shop windows.
bad_user 14y ago
That happens when a blog doesn't have a well defined subject. It also happens if they aren't incentivized to go to the website, like when publishing articles in full I prefer my reader since it is consistent. What I have found is that the few RSS subscribers I have are an excellent distribution channel on Twitter/HN/etc...

agpen 14y ago

I manage a website for a small business that doesn't want or warrant a full integrated blog engine. Feedburner allows the business owners to write news/announcements on blogger.com and display them on the front page of their website with just a single line of js. This puts authentication and security all on Google instead of the website and still provides a simple WYSIWYG interface for easy tech-illiterate updating.

rsingel 14y ago

Well, for one, Feedburner enables PubSubHubBub support, which is pretty key for RSS-centric infrastructure.

WalterGR 14y ago

RSS feeds -> email subscriptions. With Google branded signup and Google branded mail.

slouch 14y ago
Yes. In 5 minutes, I have an email sign up form on a new WordPress install that delivers all the posts I make to all the subscribers via email.

freejoe76 14y ago

Setting up email subscription and delivery of your RSS feed is dead-simple in FeedBurner. That's a huge plus.

freejoe76 14y ago

Also: If you don't own the keys to your CMS (see: newspaper-dot-coms), and your CMS changes (along with the URL to your RSS feeds), Feedburner allows you to keep your RSS subscribers.

aklemm 14y ago

Feedburner also helps ensure a good experience for the user while subscribing to the feed. Instead of showing a page of XML or requiring the user to configure an action in the browser/system to handle feeds, FeedBurner subscribe screens show a useful page for subscribing in whatever way the user wants (especially good for Google Reader and such).

petercooper 14y ago

At one stage, FeedBurner subscriber counts acted a bit like a mega cheap circulation auditor. That is, if my blog said 25,000 subscribers, advertisers were likely to believe that number versus any stats I might produce myself. This was a pretty big deal for me at one point, though nowadays it's not that important at all.

toddh 14y ago

It helped monetize your content. It provided metrics. It was pretty savvy about handling non-standard feeds. And it was reliable. All valuable ideas for a stream based open web. Long live the open web!