How To:Use Google Feedburner on your Travel Blog

Introduction

This "How to" guide gives a rundown of the steps needed to create a Feedburner feed and how to use it together with your Travellerspoint blog.

Instructions

Create Your Feed
1. On the Feedburner homepage enter your blog's web address in the big input box in the middle of the page right under "Start Burning Now". In our case, as indicated in the below screenshot, we will be 'burning' the Travellerspoint blog feed.

Don't check the "I am a podcaster" box as this functionality is not offered on Travellerspoint blogs.

2. On the next page (should start with "Welcome!"), make sure the Feed Title and Feed Address are values that you like. You can change these here if you like.

3. Right underneath the Feed Address you will see the option to create an account or sign in if you already have one. Assuming you don't have a Feedburner account, enter a Username, Password and supply your Email Address here. For convenience sake you might consider choosing the same details as you have on Travellerspoint, but it can be anything you like.

When you've supplied all the required information on this page, click Activate Feed ». A "Congrats!" page should appear.

4. Read all of the information on this "Congrats!" page, then click Next » to continue with the setup process. Configuration options for FeedBurner stats services should appear.

5. On the stats configuration page, select the level of feed stats detail you want. We're stat nuts and considering these extras are free (thanks to the purchase of Feedburner by Google), we're going to tick all of them.

Click Next » to finish the setup process and enter the feed management interface. You're now ready to make your FeedBurner feed available on your Travellerspoint blog!

Redirecting Your Travellerspoint Feed to Your FeedBurner Feed
Because you are already using Travellerspoint's excellent travel blogging system, you will already have an XML feed (full or snippets only) for your blog by default. Travellerspoint can make sure all feed traffic for your blog content automatically starts going to your FeedBurner feed. This helps make sure your FeedBurner stats are much more comprehensive and accurate; even subscribers to your original Travellerspoint feed are routed through FeedBurner!

To redirect your feed:

1. In a new browser window or tab, sign in to your Travellerspoint account.
2. From the "My Blogs" area, choose the "Settings" link for the blog you wish to promote and redirect the feed for.

The Settings page for your selected blog should appear. Underneath the main blog settings area, there are a number of optional settings you can choose from.

3. Type your complete FeedBurner feed address into the "Feed redirect URL" text field. Make sure you type in your entire feed address including the "http://" portion. If you forgot the exact feed URL, you can find it under "My Feeds" or by clicking the "Edit Feed Details" links on Feedburner.

4. Click "Update Settings". You should see the message "Your settings have been updated".

5. Travellerspoint will now redirect all feed traffic for your blog to your FeedBurner feed. Just like that. Log in to Feedburner to check out your subscribers and see how many readers are clicking through, amongst others.

Enjoy!