Credit: Feedblitz.com
There’s one thing that’s dead for sure — Feedburner, without a doubt. One day this week, Feedburner stopped sending my blog to Triberr and anywhere else. My blog was dead, too, because no subscribers or RSS feeds were getting my material.
Why? Because Google bought Feedburner for $100 million in 2007 and shut it down.
As a blogger concerned with the front end and nice words you see on these pages, I didn’t pay attention to the hubbub surrounding Feedburner…until I was forced to pay attention.
I am proud to say that all by my lonesome I migrated with one simple ebook that appeared miraculously in my email box and I downloaded immediately — The Feedburner Migration Guide.
If you follow this book, page by page with its excellent screen shots and simple, plain English instructions, you will be able to do this in about four to five hours. Now, mind you, this blog has no traction when it comes to a database, subscribers or even an RSS feed. In fact, I’m not even sure what I’d put in an RSS feed beyond my blog posts or how that gets populated.
If your blog has hundreds of well-earned subscribers, you’re probably going to want to ensure you interact with Feedblitz tech support, and they are very helpful. I emailed a question to a general email box, and they got back to me after fixing my mistake and even looking at my blog.
Here are a few tips to make your migration smoother:
1. Uncover your log in and password to Feedburner; this is the first thing you’ll need.
2. Do not delete the feed from Feedburner unless you’re done setting up Feedblitz first.
3. Use the ebook and nothing else to guide you and follow the steps. I can’t say I understood everything in it; I just extrapolated the sections that I knew pertained to my use of RSS, and it worked. The screen shots are wonderful.
4. Don’t forget to go into your widgets and click on RSS. Change the feed source url to Feedblitz.
5. Download the Feedblitz plug in and activate it AFTER you delete the Feedburner plug in.
6. Write a quick test post and see if it appears on sites where your posts are republished, like Triberr and Social Media Today and Alltop, for example.
7. Go to someone’s blog like or Craig McBreen who have CommentLuv and see if your test post is picked up.
8. Don’t forget to add your new Feedblitz source feed url to all the sites/settings where you re-publish your blog — see 6 above.
If you have any questions, don’t ask me by any stretch! Use the book and the fabulous support desk at Feedblitz.
Here’s one more disclaimer, I have no idea how to use 1/4 of the solutions and options Feedblitz offers, but people have to learn somehow, right? I can’t tell you whether this is the best option for your blog, but just went there and if he migrated all of his subscribers, well you can, too.
My feedburner has not broken yet. But I hear that FB is dead to the world and Google will be shutting down the API. Which means they will not be supporting any functionality for it, even if they do not outright kill it. This is why I hate when I hear that some product has been “:acquired”. Usually means it won’t be around much longer. I am still not sure what Facebook did with Dropio when it was purchased. I still mourn the loss.
@susansilver Hey Susan! My first official post just went out today via Feedblitz, and I am shocked at how much is included in the feed; it’s a true RSS feed and includes social sharing, tweets, and all other activity.
I encourage you to make the switch now. There is a nominal fee; perhaps less than $5? But, when I see how powerful this is, hands down you’re getting nothing from Feedburner. I’m so naive when it comes to the back end, too.
Look at you, Jayme, helping everyone else with this step-by-step tutorial. You rock.
I’m still using Feedburner and not having any problems (I subscribe to my own blog so I can keep an eye on it), but I have had issues with Triberr importing my blog through a straight RSS — just here and there, though. I know Dino and Dan want folks to use the Triberr plugin, but we’re planning to try out a new WordPress theme soon and don’t want to add anything new. Sometimes there are conflicts with other plugins when they’re updated, and I already have way too many that need attention. You know how that goes with the cobbler’s children and all. Poor kids.
Maybe you can get the guys over here to tell us what’s great about the Triberr plugin?
@New England Multimedia Like I mentioned to Susan below, your feed will quit soon. Google is shutting it down. How do companies buy “competitors?” for $100 million and then shut them down? Is that a good use of $$? Of course, Feedburner was free; Feedblitz has a trial period and then a very small $$, but looking at my feed today; woah, I am impressed with what now goes out with it! More optimization; more social sharing than I ever saw before.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing I remember reading about these “takeovers” in Entrepreneur Magazine. The article was about preparing an exit strategy as a business owner, so when a competitor comes knocking, you’re ready to hand over the keys and walk away with a nice bank account, then use that cash to start a NEW business — or whatever!
$100 million? Is Feedblitz a Google product? (If so, Feedburner was a thorn in their side, with so many users who are hard-pressed to switch, especially from a free to a paid product.) You are the tech queen, Jayme. Thanks for staying up to speed on everything that comes down the road and giving the rest of us a heads up!
@New England Multimedia ME?? A tech queen!! Now, that would be the absolute last descriptor I’d use for moi!! But, what a compliment. I have in the past mastered some scary tech, I guess, and then write all about it so you guys don’t make my mistakes!
Google bought Feedburner in 2007 for $100 million!
I’m following the founder on Feedbliz @phollows now; he’s an entrepreneur and very accessible to peeps. In fact, I think he fixed my tech problem yesterday.
That said, does anyone want to buy my company for $100 million? Oh, yeah, I am the company.
Hurts my head just to think about reading book for 5 hours, let alone some techy crap.
Dang!
@Mark_Harai Well, it just took me 2 days b/c I couldn’t do it all at once. But, I think all told, maybe 4-5 hours is not unrealistic? The book goes fast; lots of screen shots. I would migrate now, especially IF you have many subscribers to the feeds. Me? Hardly anyone, but they all are getting the blog via email now, so I think I did it right!
Oh no! This isn’t good.
And I’m wondering and am with Mark on this one … isn’t there an easier way?
Dang is right, but thanks for this, Jayme.
@Craig McBreen @Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Maybe if we’re really nice, Jayme will come over and do it for us – hehe!
@Craig McBreen Guys, I may be the most fearful of tech, but I hammer on it until it does what it is supposed to. That’s why it takes me awhile. I prefer to try myself so I can walk the talk (like writing a post on it), but the seriously easy way is to hire someone…your developer/programmer would have no issues with installing this for you in about 20 minutes, I’d imagine.
That said, you’ll need to know how to access your feed url, though. That means logging in to your account and grabbing the url that is right there. That’s what you’ll copy and paste into other sites where you publish, like Social Media Today — Craig, if you’re not already registered there, I suggest you do that!
Jayme, is this working? If my latest post shows up under my comment is Feeburner doing its job or are you saying No ONE knows I am out there? I know you are not the expert but since you noticed this issue i thought I would ask. Anyone? I really am techy challenged.
@rdopping Actually, I need to see if your feed appears in Triberr this week. Are you planning to post Monday? If you are then do it and give me a shout to check the Triberr stream. That’s what is going to be affected. Not sure about Lifefyre comments? Did we need to add our feed to it? For sure, you can hit Craig’s or Josh Wilner or 3Hats who have Comment Luv, and if your post doesn’t appear, then your feed is not working.
Some are not affected yet; better be early than to be in crisis.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Thanks Jayme. I went to Craig’s and it is working fine. I am posting on Tuesday so i will give you a shout out to see what goes on. Everything was fins last week and I just checked my feedburner feed and it seems to be working. Whew!
Sorry to hear you had trouble with it.
@rdopping Glad it’s working for you…NOW. Please don’t ignore this situation; it’s not going away nor will it stay working for you. What’s that saying about the early bird? Have a good evening!
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Okey dokes. Will keep an eye on it. Talk to you soon I am sure. Cheers.