reflections

Jul
3 21 Comments

FeedBurner Pro for Free

Are you using FeedBurner to push your RSS feed to your readers? If you’re not then this is why you should!

I’ve used FeedBurner since I started this blog, but I haven’t quite been able to justify the cost of using their pro features - so I was delighted to find out that Google (the new owners) will be making an announcement later today that they will be offering them for free!

TotalStats and MyBrand, both previously for-pay services, are going to be offered without charge. Stats Pro will allow you to see the number of people that have clicked on the individual content items in your feed, and also see the reach of your feed (an estimation of the number of subscribers that interact with your feed content on a daily basis).

MyBrand lets you use your own domain name for the feed, instead of the FeedBurner one. Totally pointless for most bloggers, but useful for companies that are thinking about running a corporate blog.

Edit: read all about it on the FeedBurner Blog.

21 fantastic comments...

Scot Smith July 3, 2007 3:50 pm

That’s some good news. I heard rumors of this in the past. Thanks for the link
Tolumi Adamson July 3, 2007 4:01 pm

LOL almost the same post with mine…
Paul July 3, 2007 4:04 pm

LOL! Great minds think alike…
Leanne July 3, 2007 5:14 pm

Thanks for the info, Paul! I just installed that plugin, too, I’m curious to see what happens.
Katie Konrath July 3, 2007 7:36 pm

Oh, that is exciting! I’ve used Feedburner for a while, but like you, didn’t want to pay for the premium version. I’m looking forward to using those new features though! Thanks for the tip!
Paul July 3, 2007 8:21 pm

Scot,

No problem! Thanks for a great article!

——

Leanne,

Anything that increases readership has got to be good! Let me know how it goes for you!

——

Katie,

Thanks for stopping by! I just hope that Google doesn’t start AdSense placement directly into our feeds, to balance out the loss of income from the free tools!
Katie Konrath July 3, 2007 8:52 pm

I don’t think they will. That will just make current users pretty upset. Plus, I don’t think Google will mind the elimination of paid services at Feedburner. I think that it wasn’t a widely-used service anyways, and they’re doing it to make people happier about their acquisition of Feedburner.
Paul July 3, 2007 9:12 pm

I hope you’re right - but I have a strong gut feeling that the only reason they bought FeedBurner was for the AdSense positioning - even if it’s an option for the blogger as opposed to a forced thing!
Katie Konrath July 3, 2007 9:59 pm

Hmmm… that could be right. However, I would think that they would only offer it up as an option for interested bloggers. At least I hope so! I’d be pretty quick to start looking for alternatives if they forced advertising into my email feeds!
Leanne July 4, 2007 5:43 pm

Hi Paul,

Just had a little heart attack at my place, my ticker said I had 38 readers yesterday. Have a look at it today.

Thank you, again!
Paul July 4, 2007 8:51 pm

Wow! That’s quite an increase! I’m really pleased it helped!
Kathy July 4, 2007 9:28 pm

Mmm free stats. Google is going to take over the universe.
Paul July 4, 2007 11:16 pm

Hi Kathy! Thanks for taking the time to comment! Your blog is stunning by the way - you have a new reader!

Google’s already taken over the universe though - they just need to issue a press release on the matter.
Damien King - Website Design Blog July 5, 2007 12:30 am

Sounds great! I was eyeballing the Pro section of Feedburner recently, but wasn’t sure myself whether the cost outlay would be worthwhile (seeing as the blog is so new, etc).

Come to think of it, besides Google Earth Pro I can’t think of anything that Google actually charges money for (AdWords shouldn’t really count, being advertising and that).
Paul July 5, 2007 1:16 am

I find it amazing that Google’s business model works at all! The bulk of their portfolio products are free, they pay out for AdSense, they go around snapping up companies for millions of pounds - and yet the two founders are listed in the top 10 wealthiest people in the world!?!
Tess July 5, 2007 4:20 pm

It seems they’re doing *something* right, if they’re in the top 10
I like feedburner but I only used it to redirect readers from a previous feed [different url] to my recent feed [current url], so I’m interested to see what the free options are like… And I do like free stats!!! especially since I seem to have a stalker; perhaps it will give me that tiny bit of info that I still need
Paul July 5, 2007 4:53 pm

I like to see stalkers as over-enthusiastic fans…

If you haven’t found it yet, then Reinvigorate is another good stats package.
Tess July 8, 2007 4:05 pm

Thanks for the tip Paul! About stalker: checking my blog every hour and spending hours on reading posts, tracking me down via Hyves and a search engine and showing up on my Flickr account too, doesn’t seem over-enthusiastic to me but more like over-obsessed

Downloaded the app, gonna test it, thanks again!
LaurenMarie July 31, 2007 1:23 am

Paul, I don’t suppose you’ve set up MyBrand? I am having the hardest time with this silly thing…
Paul August 12, 2007 11:07 pm

I didn’t see any real benefit to using MyBrand - sorry. Feel free to email me with the problem though, and I’ll see if I can help!
Science For Kids December 8, 2008 12:19 am

Feedburner has done alot to help the blog on my site bring in more parents who want to help their children with science. From there they end up staying around and my sign ups have increased as well.