Why Should You Use Feedburner?

A blog feed is a way for bloggers to syndicate their content and deliver it straight to their readers. Most blog platforms (TypePad, Blogger, WordPress, etc.) come with a feed and you don’t have to do anything to turn it on – it’s part of the package.

However, you may want to track your feed stats to see how many people are subscribing. Or you may want to give readers who aren’t savvy about feed readers a way to get your blog posts delivered to their email inbox every time you update. You may even want to monetize your feed. How? By using Feedburner, a free service from Google.

RSS Readership = Authority?
Back in June of 2007, when Google purchased Feedburner, some bloggers speculated that Google was using Feedburner to determine the authority and page rank of your blog. The more readers, the more authority, right? It’s not something that can be proved, and if Google is using Feedburner this way, it’s sure to be one small piece of the authority algorithm
However, I do know that advertisers, PR agencies, and brands look at your RSS feed reader count as a way to determine your reach and influence. But don’t let a small feed readership get you down. First, it’s one measure out of many. Second, your readers may not like or don’t know about feed readers. They’re like friends who like to stop by your house, but never call you on the phone.

Then there are the people like me who sign up for RSS feeds all the time – and then rarely go to their feed reader to look at their favorite blogs because they’re too busy. Bottom line: it’s better to have 50 devoted readers than 500 who put your RSS feed in their reader, and never read you blog again.

Feedburner flakiness
In As FeedBurner Flails and Fails, Feedblitz Fights, Louis Gray points out that Feedburner is far from perfect and FeedBlitz may be a good alternative. Yes, it’s true that there are times when your feed count drops by half. It’s depressing, but it happens so often now that you shouldn’t let it bug you.

Also, just last week Feedburner added FriendFeed subscriber counts to your FeedBurner subscriber count, which doubled (or more) everyone’s feeds if they had accounts with both services. That was exciting, but now I wonder how accurate the numbers are.

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