Setting Up Your WordPress Blog Feed
- In This Quick Guide:
- Create a Feed Using Google
- Burning Your Feed
Feeds are a great way to get information and updates from your favorite websites quickly and easily, and are one of the most powerful additions you can make to your blog. Best of all, you can set up your WordPress blog’s RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed within a few minutes, and adding subscription links to your blog’s sidebar takes just a few minutes more. Here’s how you do it.
Create a Feed Using Google
Using a tool like Google’s FeedBurner (feedburner.google.com) you can create (or burn) your blog’s feed for free.
Log in to your Google account or create a new account to burn a feed.
If you have a Google account, sign in. If you don’t have a Google account, click the Create an account button to open the Google Create an Account page.
Complete the form to create a Google account and get started with FeedBurner.
Enter your information in the Required information for Google account and Get started with FeedBurner fields, read the Terms of Service, and click I accept. Create my account. to create your new Google account and open your new FeedBurner account page.
Enter your WordPress blog’s URL in the text box to burn its feed.
Burning Your Feed
To burn your WordPress blog’s feed, enter your blog’s URL (in www.myblogname.com format) in the Burn a feed right this instant field and click the Next button. A new Identify Feed Source page opens where you might be asked to select a feed source.
Select your blog’s main feed to burn a feed of your post content.
WordPress blogs typically have two feeds you can burn, one for your blog post content and one for comment content.
To burn the feed for your post content, select the radio button next to >> Feed and click the Next button to give your feed a title.
Type the title you want to use for your feed.
Type in the title you want to use for your feed in the field provided, and click Next to burn your feed. A new page opens where you can see your blog feed URL.
Congratulations! Your feed has been burned!
Click Next to configure additional FeedBurner stats.
Check the boxes for additional stats you want to track.
If you want to set up your FeedBurner account to track some of the additional statistics related to your feed, check the boxes next to those options now. If not, you can always add the options later. Click Next to finish configuring your feed and open the page where you can start the process to integrate your feed into your blog.
Once your feed is configured, you can publicize it on your blog.
You can take time now or in the future to review the various options available through the tabs across the top of the FeedBurner feed page. For example, you can review analytics, configure additional settings, add Google AdSense ads to your feed to make money, and more.
For more helpful information on setting up your WordPress blog, check out our Quick Guides on Placing Ads in Your WordPress Blog and How to Find and Hire a Designer for Your WordPress Blog. Have fun, and happy blogging!
From The Complete Idiot’s Guide to WordPress by Susan Gunelius
