7

I'm setting up a blog for my OSS/startup and I'm wondering whether using Feedburner for blog feeds is still the recommended way to go? Is there enough value in using Feedburner over just using the built in RSS feeds in Wordpress?

Also if so what wordpress plugin people are using to get it working with the current version?

2
  • Posting a link to the cross-post for others to follow: answers.onstartups.com/questions/25800/…
    – blunders
    Jun 2, 2011 at 19:53
  • Personally, I just use feedburner for their email subscription wigit/service: for the actual rss feed I use wordpress' built in rss feed.
    – user6901
    Jun 2, 2011 at 20:10

2 Answers 2

5

Yes. I still recommend using feedburner. It offers a number advantages over the standard setup of RSS in Wordpress. One of which is that you use Google's bandwidth rather than your own (or your webhotel's) for all the RSS feed requests. Feedburner is also very customisable.

Of the advantages, one of the notable ones is turning on Pingshot in Feedburner to enable Pubsubhubbub support - that can really speed up how quickly your content is indexed and distrbuted to your readers.

A little while ago I wrote a guide for how to enable Pubsubhubbub with Wordpress for your wordpress site.

2

The FD FeedBurner plugin still works as a means to redirect requests for the default WordPress feeds to your FeedBurner ones.

FeedBurner is worth using purely because it makes moving your blog without losing subscribers so easy. Should you wish to move from WordPress to tumblr, for example, you just update the feed address in FeedBurner and you're done. No need to tell your 26 subscribers that they'll have to update their feed to continue getting pithy insights entitled 12 Reasons You Should Try Dog Biscuits.

FeedBurner's 'subscribe by email' feature is useful too, largely because civilised people regard RSS readers as little more than online whack-a-mole, so it's handy to offer them a way to procrastinate via their inboxes instead of in a dedicated app.

The statistics for opens and overall subscribers are pretty, but largely useless unless you need to prove how popular you are to advertisers, your literary agent, or your mother.

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.