Paul Chaney - Internet Marketing Social Media Consulting

FeedBurner RSS feed transition to Google, what you need to do

FeedBurner, which was acquired by Google in 2007, is now forcing a migration of its feed data into Google and anticipates completion by February 28. (See Google's FAQs to learn more.) To say people are unhappy about it would be an understatement. For example...

Many, many people, including TechCrunch's Micheal Arrington, reported losing some or all of their subscribers. You may have noticed similar problems.

If you have a Feedburner feed tied to any of your blogs, in true handyman style this post outlines what you need to do in order to make the transition. It's really pretty painless.

Step 1: Log into your Feedburner account.

Step 2: Note the following statement. Choose "Move your account now." (As if you really have any choice.)

Step 3: Sign in using your Google account. (You do have a Google account right? If not, you'll have to set one up.)

In all likelihood you're already signed into the one you want, so click the "Next" button and you will be presented with this screen. (Well, of course it will have your feeds listed, not Bizzukas.)

Step 4: Click the "Move feeds" button. FeedBurner's server will start talking to Google's server and you should see this screen.

If all goes well, and it will (fingers crossed), you will next see this screen.

You will receive a detailed email from Google confirming that the transaction has taken place, along with other information relative to the matter.

Once you've made this transition, you can never go back to the old FeedBurner account. (Awe!!!) From now on you will log in via the Google version, http://feedburner.google.com. Well, actually, you can go to Feedburner.com for the time being, but it will redirect to this new URL. After February 28 that won't be the case.

If you happen to be a Blogger user, you are at an advantage. Because Blogger, like FeedBurner, is owned by Google, they offer a one-click migration. Everyone else has to follow this routine.

Lastly, there is a new URL for the feeds, http://feeds2.feedburner.com/yourblogname. You may want to go ahead and change the URL on your blog. However, Google does indicate in the FAQs that they intend to maintain backwards compatibility as long as the service exists.

In a second post, I'm going to discuss some of the proposed benefits from making this transition and offer my opinion on alternative solutions. For now, I'd go ahead and make the transition. No need to wait to the last minute.

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Email and social media, a better fit than you think

For years I've been harping about how I think blogs and email play well together as marketing tools. Now, a B2B Ask the Expert article aptly suggests email has a place within social media as well. Who'd thunk it!

"E-mail marketing could not be better suited to enhance your social media efforts; in fact, it is the key ingredient in launching a successful social media marketing campaign," states the article. "The rise of social media is pushing the evolution of e-mail marketing from blast campaigns to more personal, one-to-one engagements."

How do most Facebook, Ning and other online communities keep members informed? Email is the obvious choice. For example, I manage the IBNMA Facebook group and use FB's email messaging component all the time. It's ability to proactively "push" content is the key -- as opposed to the more passive RSS feed.

Speaking of RSS, in spite of the fact it's been around since 1995 (a long time in Internet years), it's rate of adoption among non-techies still pallors in comparison to old-fashioned email.

Those who prophesied email's demise must surely chagrin (if they even remember what they said). Email is far from dead. In fact, I can't see a time when it will die, even with RSS, Twitter, Friendfeed and all the other choices.

The bottom line is that, today, we have multiple options for how we receive information. The fact that email is still one of them - and a significant one to boot - is a good thing.

What do you think?

The SEO value of a PRWeb press release

My company Bizzuka sent two press releases today via PRWeb, one at the Media Visibility level and one at the SEO Visibility level. If you google the phrase bizzuka you'll notice that one is already on the front page just beneath the returns linking to our Website.

Twitter is my new RSS reader

When it comes to faithfully consuming RSS feeds in Google Reader, I suck! The things pile up after days of neglect to the point where I simply click "mark all as read" and be done with it.

I'm far from being without recourse however. Twitter, and to some degree Plurk, have become my new RSS feeders of choice. For example, just today I received the following tweets...

• To my 'dotcomrades': Check out these newly minted words: http://tinyurl.com/5ftgjm
• MarketingProfs Avoiding the CAN-SPAM buzz kill: http://tinyurl.com/65fzty
• This Conversation is Making me Dizzy: http://tinyurl.com/67mjtn
• Oldie but goodie: " How to Successfully Moderate a Conference Panel, A Comprehensive Guide" http://tinyurl.com/2kmnbt
• Traveling around the U.S.? Have time to kill between conferences? Check out Crocs' www.citiesbyfoot.com website for walking destinations! (I'm a big Crocs fan btw)

All that within just a few minutes. So, tell me, what do I need Google Reader for again? Has Twitter, Plurk, Friendfeed and other such apps changed the way you consume RSS feeds and gather your information?

The Flow

If you've been blogging for a  few years you've probably noticed that where your traffic comes from is changing.

When I started in 2004, most of my traffic (once I actually had any) came from two places, Google and other bloggers. Though I still see traffic from those sources, more and more it's coming from Twitter, Facebook and an assortment of other social networks. In fact, some days that's where the majority comes from.

Not only that, but the conversation that used to take place almost solely on blogs via the comment thread has morphed over into divergent number of social media sites, namely Twitter.

Solving my RSS feed reader dilemma

For years I've had a love-hate relationship with my RSS feed readers (first Pluck, then Bloglines, now Google Reader). I love them because they bring me all that linky goodness, but hate them for the very same reason as it turns out.

Here's are the issues...

Volume
Though, from time to time, I parse through my list of feeds and delete as many as I can based on whether I'm actually reading them or not, I still find myself bogged down in a mire of content that's too wide in topic and too deep in commentary, opinion and analysis to ever extracate myself from.

Relevance
The main issue is trying to determine what information is most pertinent and which really demands my attention. It's often difficult to tell from the headline just what the content of the post contains. Truly, parsing through a feed reader is, to borrow a phrase from Lee Lefever, the "old, slow way. Boooo!"