Feedburner

It was only a few months ago that I really looked into using Feedburner.  Not that our blogs don’t already offer RSS feeds.  In fact, I have even written code for some sites that creates customised RSS.

But somehow Feedburner adds an extra dimension to those feeds.  Not only does it optimise them for different readers, but it allows readers to subscribe to the blogs to receive new articles by e-mail.  I even started using that function to make backup copies of the posts!

It also allows me to monetize the feed by adding small AdSense ads into it and a more recent addition even allows me to automatically send details of new posts to Twitter.

So after trying Feedburner out, I decided it definitely needs to be added to all of our blogs.  No easy task as it is not a simple case of a plug-in, but also setting up each feed and the associated options in the Feedburner administration.

For example, I want to send e-mail updates from a dedicated e-mail address on each feed, but Feedburner defaults to my Googlemail address, so I have to change that each time I setup a new feed.

I’ve made a start on the process with this blog, so please help my be clicking on THIS LINK and either subscribing with your RSS reader or by e-mail.

I have also added Feedburner to my wife’s AllThingsBritish.net blog and the Computius project was already added last year.

The next step will be to add the rest…

Re-vitalising blogs in 2010

After taking a long hard look at 2009, I have decided that I want to do more blogging in 2010.  One inspiration may have been the book “Beyond Blogging” that came out only a few days ago and which I am currently reading, but another has been that although we put a lot of effort into our blogs and they are certainly making a nice amount of money, it is not enough to live on and I feel that more is possible.

Also, I often feel that I have lots of ideas for content and just don’t have the time to write posts that could be useful to our readers.  I would like to write more about places to visit in Germany that I can recommend, or computer tips on our Computius site.

The Cymeradwyo Project has, with the exception of the .de site, been laying dormant for most of the year.  Whilst I have allowed some guest posting on it, and may continue to do so, I have rejected a lot of posts that were submitted.  I would like to re-activate the project and thus dedicate a lot more time to blogging and podcasting.

The first step will be to re-work a lot of the plug-ins and themes on some of our sites to bring them up to date.  I will be documenting this on Cymeradwyo.net, so please stay tuned to this site (via the RSS feed for example) to see what happens over the coming months.

Would you pay for information on blog building?

After I recently purchased a WordPress plug-in to automatically add affiliate links to my blogs, I was offered a further product from the same author: the $365K Blog Traffic Formular.

It is the sort of e-book that I see advertised so often, and I always wondered what sort of “secret” information these books contained, that I did not already know.

Until now, I had not even contemplated actually buying one, but this time my suspicion got the better of me.  I wanted to know what all those professional bloggers had said and was prepared to take a gamble, after seeing the quality of programming that had gone into the plug-in.

My first reaction was one of disappointment, because after making the payment I was forwarded to a screen, which told me that the e-book contained all the interviews with the bloggers, but it did not contain the tools needed to carry out the steps that they recommended.  This was going to cost me another $67 (apparently the tools are worth over $200) and this time I declined, feeling rather cheated.  Then I was offered a slighly smaller package for $47.  Again, I declined, and was finally able to download the e-book.

Now, the book itself is actually rather interesting.  There are some interviews where I felt, that I did not know anything new, and others where I actually gained a few ideas and even some links to tools that I had previously not been aware of.

Therefore, I would say that it is probably just about worth the $37, and anyone who has been running a blog for a while should consider buying it.  It is not a guide on blogging if you are just starting out.  And you will need to decide for yourself, whether you want to invest in those tools that will inevitably be offered after the initial purchase.

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