FeedBurner: Burning Feeds on Gasoline - Details, Please!
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In this section we are going to describe briefly the most remarkable services of those four distinct categories. First let's begin with the publicizing segment. In this section the services all improve the way your feed looks and behaves, making it easier for users to subscribe, and maximizing the content that they can get out of the feeds.
You can incorporate the E-mail Subscription feature that supercharges your feeds with additional delivery options. The users that are following your feeds can subscribe to this function and opt in to receive updates regarding their chosen feeds via e-mail. This is an amazing way to keep your readers up-to-date, and publishers really take advantage of it.
Then we've got PingShot, a function that notifies feed aggregators and directories as soon as new content is syndicated via your feeds. This function basically "wakes up" the feed readers, forcing them to update automatically. Headline Animator adds a sense of style by creating an animated signature or banner on your websites. It scrolls through your published articles and/or entries in the way you customize.
FeedCount is really useful for already successful publishers because it serves as bragging rights. With the help of this service you can "show off" your statistics in HTML. With blogs, it shows the number of readers, while with podcasts it's the number of listeners, and so forth. MyBrand is a pro-feature (premium) that enables users to publish their already burnt feeds right from their own domain.
The following services go into the optimization category. They all work toward the same goal: improving the quality and efficiency of your feeds, making them "look good" on all kinds of platforms and aggregators, and managing the load during spikes. Let's enumerate them. SmartFeed handles feed compatibility, "making sure" that readers won't struggle while accessing/viewing/understanding your feeds. SmartCast can transform feeds into podcasts in order to serve a wider audience.
BrowserFriendly, frankly, speaks for itself. This service analyzes the structure of feeds, making sure they correspond to the standards of various browsers and aggregators. This feature complements the aforementioned SmartFeed. Links and Photos Splicers combines published content from various other services such as del.icio.us, Flickr, and more. One link works with one feed for a lot of mixed content instead.
The third category contains all of the stats and analytics-related functions. Honestly, there's not that much to talk about in this area. For an extensive list of "what it does" and "how it looks," just check out the official documentation; it should suffice.
(Image Courtesy of FeedBurner)
The monetization part comprises two major advertising opportunities. First, there's the so-called FeedBurner Ad Network. It is composed of reputable networks of publishers. They do their best to promote your content and attract fans. The second option for advertising has to do with Google. This has not been possible for very long; basically, it's all about Google AdSense integration into feeds.
All of the aforementioned features make FeedBurner an amazing product that can truly help bloggers, podcasters, and publishers from all around the world. Lately its popularity has been soaring upwards phenomenally, with a booming 385% growth rate. This rate is higher than Digg's or MySpace's. The most important concept behind "burning feeds" is that you are in control when it comes to enhancing your feeds.
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