The 3 videos are shown below.
Sorry for a 3 part video (YouTube only allows up to 10 minute videos), however I wanted to make sure this was a COMPLETE tutorial on how to set up a FeedBurner account and hook it up to your WordPress blog. It will show you how to:
- Set up your FeedBurner account
- How to add a RSS image to your blog’s theme if there’s not already one there – and how to link it to your FeedBurner’s feed
- How to set up a “Subscribe by Email” box which users can subscribe to your blog by email
- How to redirect all the default WordPress feeds on your blog to your FeedBurner’s feed through a .htaccess file
- All this is done without the use of a FeedBurner plugin (which I don’t like using)
1. Your Feed Address
Your default WordPress feed address you’ll need to type or paste into FeedBurner will look like this:
http://your-site.com/feed
If your blog is contained within a subdirectory, say /blog, your feed’s address will look something like this:
http://your-site.com/blog/feed
2. How To Redirect Your Feeds To FeedBurner Through .htaccess
UPDATE: Thanks to feedback from viewers, we’ve discovered that this code doesn’t always work with your theme. If it doesn’t work, you may have to go into your header.php or sidebar.php file and manually replace the default WordPress feed’s address with your FeedBurner’s address.
If your WordPress theme already includes a RSS icon, it will link to your default WordPress feed and not your FeedBurner’s feed. To link it to your FeedBurner’s feed, log into your web hosting control panel, navigate to your WordPress installation’s directory and either create or open the .htaccess file.
Paste in the following code to your .htaccess file. Don’t forget to edit the feed address in the code below (shown in blue) to your own feed. Save the .htaccess file and your RSS icon should now link to your FeedBurner’s feed.
# Redirect your WordPress feeds to your FeedBurner's feed automatically
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedBurner [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !FeedValidator [NC]
RewriteRule ^feed/?([_0-9a-z-]+)?/?$ http://feeds2.feedburner.com/wpbloghost [R=302,NC,L]
</IfModule>
December 13th, 2009 at 7:26 am
Hi John
Great videos… a complete course and a super example of where video beats screenshots.
I’ll watch them a few times and then implement… a bit at a time.
Particularly liked the aliteration of the “Chicklet Chooser” LOL
Put you a link to WP Blog Host on my blog and post pages.
Take a look and check the link If you want the alt text or anything changed… let me know.
December 13th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Still love the colors of your theme.
Thanks for the link. That is really cool of you. What do you think of that banner? We wanted something a little different and I thought the image was hilarious.
Also, glad you liked the, “Chicklet Chooser” heheh.
December 13th, 2009 at 12:23 pm
It’s a good banner John… the words “Blogging isn’t a battle – we make it easy” give us all hope, and believe me… we need it.
I’m off to sit down in a darkened room, the Feedburner videos have taxed my brain to its limits.
WordPress is a fantastic piece of kit, but it seems like there is always another thing to learn.
Please don’t take early retirement John… we need you LOL
January 27th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Your videos make it so much clearer and easier! I set up a new blog a few days ago so I went back and forth between your videos, Feedburner and my hosting account to make sure that I set up everything correctly. The feed seems to be working. What a relief!
January 30th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Very cool, Lillea. Making the videos is fun and I’m glad they are being well received and helpful.
February 5th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
I followed the tutorial it was wonderful. When I got to the end it took me way to much time. I edited the htaccess file, but when I click on the rss button I see the same old stuff I saw before. Isnt it suppose to be different?
I read about address few times just looking at it, seems like your saying put the old feed to replace code mine is. http://www.myname.com/?feed=rss2
I look at yours and you have it starting with http://feeds.feedburner.
Do I put http://www.myname.com/?feed=rss2 or
this one http://feeds.feedburner.com/myname
Thank you for the tutorials.
Thank you Jill
February 6th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Hi Jill. Since I created that video it seems many themes don’t like the .htaccess redirect.
You can look in your WordPress header.php file for where your RSS image is displayed. Just before it there should be code referencing your default WordPress feed.
Replace that code with your feedburner code. Just make sure you back up your header.php file BEFORE you do anything.
If you’d like help, head over to my contact page and send me a note along with your web address.
February 10th, 2010 at 1:30 pm
Thanks for the replay, I’m just getting back to it.
This really helps!!
April 18th, 2010 at 2:23 am
Hi John
I’m back looking at RSS and Feedburner, forgot how good these videos are.
Someone said that they wanted to subscribe to my RSS feed so I rushed back to these videos and activated it.
Didn’t even know the URL of my default feed until you mentioned it in the video… URL/feed.
Not set up Feedburner yet but that’s the next step.
April 19th, 2010 at 8:59 am
Hey Keith. That’s good that you got the feed up and running at least, but when you can, try setting up Feedburner. Feedburner gives you statistical data (like how many people are subscribed to your feed) and options like email opt-in.
April 19th, 2010 at 9:52 am
Will do John
Lots of info in those videos.
I have to sit and take notes – how on earth do you remember it all?
April 19th, 2010 at 9:58 am
What’s the saying?
There’s no better way to learn something then to teach it.
April 30th, 2010 at 10:29 am
thank you! Video #1 was all I needed to answer the question about the feed address. I have been hunting to no end and stumbled on your video. My future blog – and my blood pressure – thank you.
May 1st, 2010 at 10:36 am
My pleasure. Glad I could help, Sheridan. Thanks for the comment.
June 9th, 2010 at 11:12 am
Hi
I’m back again, I changed my theme and I realized I need to put my feedburner address back in.
This is the code in my header file, I tried to put the feed address in but I can’t get it right. this is what my code looks like
<a class="rsslink" href="” title=”RSS Feed”>
Where do I put the http://feeds.feedburner.com/myname
Thanks you
JIll
June 9th, 2010 at 11:15 am
I notice in the post above it did not put the full code in. I guess you can see it in your edit mode.
<!…<a class="rsslink" href="” title=”RSS Feed”> …!.>
June 11th, 2010 at 6:49 am
Jill, sorry for the late reply. Did you get this working? It seems you did.
June 11th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
I played with it a little more and it works!!
I love it when I finally find the real information I need. I mean your tutorials.
Thanks
June 27th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Thank you so much. I am a newbie when it comes to web site design and needed to help a client add on a RSS feed for their blog that I added to their web site. This was a very clear and complete tutorial. I just wish it didn’t take me so long to find it when I searched you tube. Keep up the great work!
June 28th, 2010 at 8:42 am
Hi Esther, my pleasure. Thanks for the nice comment and stop by anytime!
June 30th, 2010 at 9:19 am
I’m confused. It looks like FeedBurner works just find with the installed version of WP, but I’m using the “free” version with wordpress.com.
When I go to my blog/feed. I indeed, get a posting, but it’s not the page that I want to deliver as my feed. Is it possible to control which specific page of my blog is listed with FeedBurner as the direct url? Each time I try it, the preview it gives me is blank, and says comments. So, it looks like it’s pulling the non-existent comments into the feed rather than the page content.
The blog page I want to use as my feed url is http://idealabmi.wordpress.com/about/light-up-creativity-at-the-idea-lab/
Can you please take a minute and let me know what I’m doing wrong?
Thank you for your help.
Diana Kathryn
July 9th, 2010 at 12:04 am
Diana, you might try using the FeedBurner plugin. Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of experience with free blogs.
December 5th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
We had installed feedsmith on our site, and it didn’t work. We wasted more than a day trying to figure it out, and then we stumbled on your tutorial on YouTube. THANK YOU! Your videos are so clear and easy to follow, we were quickly able to eliminate feedsmith and get feedburner going and our wordpress default feed changed. You make things so simple even technology challenged people like us can make it work. We’ve bookmarked your site and will return whenever we need to solve a wordpress problem.
All the Best to You,
Lee & Steven
December 6th, 2010 at 12:55 am
Hi Lee and Steven.
Glad to of helped. I just hate those “all day to figure it out” kind of days. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
December 26th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
Hi John
Finally I’ve set up a Feedburner account and changed my RSS URL from the default to the Feedburner URL, then I had a thought… would my existing RSS feed subscribers all be lost!
I set up the Feedburner account for the Subscribe to email function, which someone asked me for.
March 20th, 2011 at 11:54 am
WOW thanks for these videos they are so helpful and I found out that I did not have everything activate that I should have – so now my blog is more optimized
Nancy
Skype: nancyradlinger
April 8th, 2011 at 5:32 am
Hi,
Just installed feedburner on my WordPress site in 50 minutes while sitting outside in the sunshine and flicking between watching your videos and the browser on my iPhone. Thank you so much for the brilliant instructions, suitable for a WordPress newbie like myself.
Only one problem, when I view my page in some browers the right hand bar widget doesn’t seem to fit on the page and slides down the page to start under my posts. Seems like it’s too wide but changing Widget width in options (using 2010 Weaver) doesn’t help. Any suggestions? http://www.montfortconsultants.com/news
Thanks
April 8th, 2011 at 10:19 am
Hi Ling. Glad to of helped. Sounds like a great setting for doing work, doesn’t it?
About your problem… there could be one of several possible things which could be causing this, it’s impossible for me to tell.
Some usual causes include:
– Image in the sidebar or content area which is wider than the sidebar or content width
– A div tag in the code with no closing /div tag
– a url link which is too long in either the sidebar or content area
– header image is too big
It really is the type of thing you just have to play with in order to figure out what the problem is. If you don’t know WordPress well enough, you might try hiring someone to debug it for you. But remember, they will need to be able to recreate the problem themselves.
April 8th, 2011 at 10:33 am
Hi John
I wonder how many people have set up their Feedburner account using your videos.
I used exactly the method Ling described – two tabs open, one your video and the other the feedburner account – works a treat.
Your videos are the best John – hope to see a few more.
BTW – how far did you go with Genesis?
Did you just buy a single theme?
I bought the developer licence and am just getting into it.
Some great videos in the Studiopress help forum – not a patch on yours though John. LOL
April 17th, 2011 at 2:58 pm
Hi Keith, thanks for the compliment!
Yes I bought a single theme from StudioPress. I was going to use it for a new site I’m designing, but I opted for OptimizePress instead. I’m sure down the road I’ll use the StudioPress theme. I just have to remember were I stored the download. LOL.
May 30th, 2011 at 10:39 am
Hi John
“BRILLIANT”
I’ve been struggling to get that sorted for ages I just could not get the installation right
Its easy when you know how
I will be back
Many thanks John
Bob
June 5th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Hi Bob. Awesome. Glad you got it set up.
August 26th, 2011 at 10:13 am
Hello John,
I had been trying to figure out for so many hours how the Feedburner works as I just set up my self hosted wordpress blog a few weeks ago and is so glad I came across your tutorial on youtube today.
This note is just to appreciate your time and efforts spent in putting the tutorial on a video clip which clearly explains all the important steps we need to activate.
You are a star, so thanks for making life easy for most of us.
With warm regards,
Violet
August 26th, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Hi Violet,
I’m glad it helped you out. I remember when I was first starting out how long it took me to figure things out which I knew other people could do quickly. Thanks for stopping by and saying hi and the nice compliment.