Now that wordpress.com has an in house subscription service you can let people subscribe to your blog by adding the blog subscription widget, and the instructions for setting up email updates through Feedburner have been removed from the wordpress.com support documentation. As I have been receiving requests from those who do wish to use Feedburner I have revived the instructions formerly available and have posted them below.
RSS in Plain English
A short explanation of RSS and how it helps you save time reading the web. This video comes in an unbranded “presentation quality” version that can be licensed for use in the workplace. (If you are not accustomed to using an RSS feedreader you will benefit from watching this video, first.)
Subscribe through Feedburner (Setting up Email updates for your readers)
These instructions result in offering readers the opportunity to obtain email ions result in offering readers the ability to subscribe to your blog by email.
1. Go to FeedBurner www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home
2. Register there.
3. Burn your feed.
Your feed address is your blog name with /feed at the end. Like this – example.wordpress.com/feed
4. Click ‘My Feeds’ at the top of the screen on the left
5. Click the name of your feed
6. Click the Publicize tab
7. Click the ‘Email Subscriptions’ in the left column
8. Choose FeedBurner, FeedBlitz, or Rmail to be your feed-via-email service provider.
9. Click ‘Activate’
10. You’ll be taken to the next page where you’ll need to scroll down to find the ‘Subscription Link Code‘ and copy the code in the box underneath
11. Paste that code into a text widget on your blog
12. Remember to save your options at FeedBurner!
13. That’s all there is to it. You are now offering email subscriptions!
Notes:
- You cannot redirect your feed to Feedburner.
- Questions about the email service should go to FeedBurner.
- Offering email updates might cause a drop in feed stats if people switche ability to subscribe to your blog by email.
Related posts found in this blog:
How to Become Better Blogger 1
Jingle
December 26, 2009
May your wishes coming true!
You have a golden heart and soft mind, you are the best blogger.
Blessings fly to you…
timethief
December 26, 2009
Thanks but you really have to cool it with the praise lest my husband assumes you are hitting on me … lol :D
jingle
December 26, 2009
I am a female, let you husband know..sorry.
timethief
December 27, 2009
No problem. Be well and happy too. :)
ninacolors
December 26, 2009
I can “see” what my favorites have that’s new in my mac mail program. Wonder if RSS is really any better? Anyone w a mac wanna comment?
timethief
December 26, 2009
I don’t understand what you ability to see your favorites in your email program has to do with this topic. Can you explain that again please?
ninacolors
December 26, 2009
Absotively. I don’t understand RSS, but it seems that all the new posts come to one site that you look at. In mac’s mail program, you enter the URL’s and anything new pops up just like new email. So I don’t have to go to any other site to see if my fav bloggers have anything new to say. Clear as mud?
timethief
December 26, 2009
I have subscribed to the RSS feeds of the blogs I follow so I know when they publish. I suppose if I only followed a few I could do what you do. :)
ninacolors
December 27, 2009
I follow 14 “feeds”. I really am curious to know if my set-up is any different than subscribing to RSS feeds. Next time you visit someone w a mac, pls take a look. I think it’s probably identical. If so, it’s a good thing since computers are a pain for me (I’m an artist) and I’m happy w the way mac has it set up.
BTW, your blog is terrific, as you must know. I’m slowly learning the ropes:-) Thanks.
timethief
December 27, 2009
I’m smiling and chucklin in a nice way. I have over 100 blogs on RSS feeds. Thanks for the blog compliment and best wishes for happy blogging. :)
Michael Stagg @ Dharmapreneur™
December 31, 2009
Although I figured this out by time I came across your post I still want to thank you for having this information available. Should I forget how to do this I now have a place where I can reacquaint myself with how to work with Feedburner.
Happy New Year!
Michael the Dharmapreneur
thesteppingstones
February 22, 2010
I am gradually learning about putting up a blogsite. Could you explain or point me towards an explanation of:
1) What are the benefits of RSS for the site? for the reader?
2) What I as the admin of a site have to do to enable RSS?
3) What would a reader of my blog have to do with respect to RSS?
timethief
February 22, 2010
(1) The benefit of offering RSS feeds to the site (blog) is attracting a wider audience of readers. The benefit to the reader is convenience.
When one subscribes and uses a feedreader they have all the data in one place and can choose to read it whenever they have the time to do so. I frequently skim read posts from the blogs I subscribe to and return to read them in depth at a later time. Then I can click through and leave a comment.
(2) All wordpress.com blogs are equipped with RSS feeds for both entries (Posts) and Comments. The URLs are predictably:
Entries (Posts) http://thesteppingstones.wordpress.com/feed/
Comments http://thesteppingstones.wordpress.com/comments/feed/
The minimum effort an Administrator of a wordpress.com blog can make to make their readers aware that RSS feeds are available is to place the Meta widget in the sidebar. In fact, on some themes RSS feed icons are included in the templates themselves in either the header area, sidebar or footer of the theme.
If they so choose the Administrator can set up a blog subscription widget or set up a Feedburner account for email updates.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/blog-subscriptions/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/blog-subscription-widget/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/email-subscriptions/
(3) In the case of following another wordpress.com blog as readers we can simply add the URL to our blog surfer. If there is a wordpress blog subscription widget we can proceed as indicated at the links I posted above. If the blogger offers a Feedburner subscription the readers simply click and enter their email addresses to receive updates by email.
Cait
March 3, 2010
Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this in plain English! :)
timethief
March 3, 2010
You’re welcome. :)
Cooking in Mexico
June 1, 2010
When I subscribe to some blogs, the email notice of a new post contains the entire post (email notices of your new posts appear like this). Other blog email notices contain only the first few lines of a new post, followed by “Read More of the Post” (this is how I receive notices from Always Well Within).
Is this setting determined by the blogger or the subscriber?
I am trying to change email notices my subscribers receive so that they contain only the first few lines, instead of the entire post, but can’t find how to change this. Can you help?
Thank you, as always.
Kathleen
P.S. I now have a new challenge — learning about RSS feed, and you have given me what I need to know.
timethief
June 1, 2010
I’m sorry but I have seen that same question posted to the forum. We volunteers have no answers for it. You will have to contact Staff directly http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/
Cooking in Mexico
June 1, 2010
Thank you. I will contact Support.
Greg Beals
June 11, 2010
Hi Time thief,
I am trying to get rss feeds to work not from other bloggers but from news sources. I would like to assign different rss feeds to different pages. i.e. news about egypt on the egypt page, news about pakistan on the pakistan page. I see that when I go into edit mode on those pages there is an rss button, but it seems only to be able to handle one or two feeds at a time. Other feeds simply don’t show up. What are the steps I need to take in order to get feeds from multiple news sources onto any given page on my site?
Thanks so much for your help!!!
timethief
June 11, 2010
@Greg
Greg Beals
June 11, 2010
Heartfelt thanks. You have saved me a tremendous amount of time and grief.
Wishing you the very best,
timethief
June 12, 2010
@Greg
You’re welcome and best wishes to you as well. :)
myflarelady
June 19, 2010
fuc#ing genius!! you should do all help videos pertaining to blogging this way. VERY helpful!!
timethief
June 19, 2010
commoncraft does excellent videos and I’m always on the watch for more. :)