How to Set Up Your Feedburner Account

Here’s how I burn my feeds, but there are many variations on what to turn on or leave alone. Learn by my example, but use the services that are a good fit for your blog. Experiment and ask how other bloggers are using their Feedburner accounts.
Burning your feed

1. Login to http://feedburner.google.com using a Gmail account. If you don’t have Gmail, this is a good time to set up an account for your blog(s) so you can sign in once to use Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, and Google Adsense under the same account.
2. Burn a new feed by typing your blog or feed address in the box.
3. If “Identify Feed Source” shows up, just click on the Next button.
4. The next box asks for a feed name. Make sure your feed name is simple, straightforward, and doesn’t have dashes or underscores in the name. For example: feeds2.feedburner.com/MyCoolBlog NOT feeds2.feedburner.com/My_Cool_Blog.

The Optimize Tab
SmartFeed
Click on Activate button.
Feedflare
You can sign up for a variety of links that will show up on the bottom of your posts in your feed and on your site. Links can be anything from “Email this” to “Share on Facebook.” You can have different links in your feed than on your site.
The dilemma is what links to have. I try to think about what my social sites my readers may use and how they like to communicate, so email and Facebook seem logical. I like to encourage people to use StumbleUpon and Digg as well, so here’s what I’ve chosen:

• Email
• Facebook
• Digg
• Stumble

I also like to add two more options: Twitter and Kirtsy, since my readers use Twitter and many are women who use Kirtsy to bookmark content.
You can add these by pasting these URLs into the “Add New Flare” box

• Twitter (via Twit This!) – http://www.feedburner.com/fb/static/flareunits/twitthis.xml
• Kirtsy – http://www.kirtsy.com/kirtsyflare.xml

Click on Activate and save.
Feed Image Burner

1. Specify custom image URL – if you have a logo for your blog, you may want to use it here. Just enter the URL of the page the image is hosted at.
2. In Image Title enter your blog’s title
3. In Link, enter the URL of the blog.

The Publicize Tab
Email Subscriptions

1. Click on Activate button.
2. Click on the Go! button at “Use as a widget in ‘_______.” Make sure when you are forwarded to your blog’s design dashboard, you pick the correct blog to add it to (if you have more than one), and that you place your email subscription box in the upper most right hand corner for maximum visibility.

Communication Preferences
Check your email address to make sure it’s the one you want publicized and used.
Delivery Options

1. Set for your time zone.
2. Set for a time you think is logical for your readers. I like to choose “between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.” since I want my updates to be in their inbox first thing in the morning.

Ping Shot
Sign up by clicking on Activate. This lets all the services looking at blogs to be notified that you’ve updated.
Feedcount
Pick a chicklet color that fits in with the color scheme of your blog, then activate. There are some people who believe you shouldn’t display the chicklet on your blog until you get a healthy feed count, like over 100 readers. I’ll leave that up to you, but if you’re shy about it, then make sure to display it on your PR Yes page or your contact page.
Creative Commons
Sign up with the choices that fit in with how you want others to use your content. See Creative Commons for more information on how to use their service.
The Monetize Tab
If you have a Google Adsense account, you may want to display Adsense ads in your feed. All feed ad setup and ad performance reporting features are found in AdSense. To activate AdSense for feeds, sign in to AdSense and then look for the AdSense for feeds link under the AdSense Setup » Get Ads tab.
More information on Feedburner:

• Getting Started with Feedburner by MamaBlogga
• How do I use Feedburner for my Blog RSS? by Dave Taylor
• Simple Way to Add AdSense for Feeds to Your Feedburner Feed via Blogthority
• Do you have a Blogger blog with a feed problem? (shows how to integrate Blogger and Feedburner) from Blogging Basics 101
• Google Adsense for Feedburner blog

Anne-Marie Nichols is the Social Media Manager at Mom Central Consulting. You can also find her blogging up some healthy recipes at This Mama Cooks!

Anne-Marie Nichols