Connect your blog feed to Feedburner

Feedburner, owned by Google, is a very useful tool. If you redirect your blog feed through Feedburner you will have access to detailed stats about your feed subscribers, plus there are many tools within Feedburner to help promote your blog.

First of all you'll need to find your blog feed. This varies from one blog platform to another. In Blogger, for example, it will be in the format

http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default 

(be sure to substitute "blogname" with your blog's name, for example this is the feed for this site - http://bloggingforcreatives.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default - not very pretty, right? But it won't be - the feed is simply a representation of your blog's posts (or other element, such as comments) which can be read by other blogs and by 'feed readers'.

For example, I subscribe to blogs in Google Reader, and I read them in Feedly (which is powered by Google Reader but with a more user-friendly interface.)

If you have a hosted WordPress blog on WordPress.com, the format of your feed will be

yourdomain.com/wp-feed.php

and if it is hosted on another server the feed address should be

 yourdomain.com/wordpress_install_directory/wp-feed.php

Remember, your blog's feed is not the same as its web address or URL.

Once you know the address of your feed, get it redirected via Feedburner.

Go to http://feedburner.google.com/  if you have a Google Account you can sign in here. If not, hit 'Sign up'.

Once you're into Feedburner, you'll be prompted to 'Burn a feed right this instant.'  Just paste in your feed address and burn your feed.

You will be presented with your Feedburner feed address, which in the case of this blog is http://feeds.feedburner.com/BloggingForCreatives

Then you need to go to your blog dashboard and enter this as your new blog feed address. In Blogger, go to Settings - Other, and click on 'Post Feed Redirect URL'.  In Typepad, go to 'Settings - Feeds'. With a hosted blog you'll generally find it under 'Settings'.

If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog, there is a Feedburner plugin you can install for easy configuration with Feedburner.

Once you're all set up, go back to Feedburner and start exploring all its functionality! More about Feedburner features in another post.

Tech Tip: Pages vs Posts

One of the first things you need to learn as a blogger is the difference between Pages and Posts.

Posts are the life and soul of your blog - the new material you post to it, usually date and time-stamped, like diary entries. When you log into your blog dashboard you are usually prompted to 'create a new post.' Over time, your posts build up into a library of stuff, which is stored in date order. When someone subscribes to your blog, they generally subscribe to your posts.

This is a typical heading to a blog post, with the date stamp. (From designer David Airey's site)

When you create a post, put it into a category if you can. Categories act as repositories for related posts, and make it easy for people to find themed material on your site, rather like in a real library. (Blogger.com doesn't have Categories as such, but it uses 'Labels' to categorise posts. More about this in another blog post!)


A Page on a blog is static, that is, it is not date-stamped, it stays in place and doesn't appear in your blog archive. An example of a Page would be your 'About' page. Use pages for information or other 'timeless' material. Usually your Pages appear on a menu that's separate from the blog entries.

On the left is the sidebar menu on www.davidairey.com. Designer David has created Pages with the headings 'Hire me', 'My portfolio', 'About me' and 'A few good books'.

Below this menu is a list of categories (which he has called 'Blog Topics') under which you will find all his blog posts.

With some blog software it is possible to make the homepage of your blog a static page, instead of the usual post. This means visitors to the homepage always see the homepage, and to access the blog posts they need to click through. This can be useful is your blog is also your main website/business.

Tech Tip: Hosted vs self-hosted blogs

Choosing your blog platform is a big decision. Many experienced bloggers go through a number of different platforms as their blog grows and their demands change.

The easiest way to start blogging is to choose a hosted platform, such as Blogger.com (where this blog is hosted), Wordpress.com, Typepad or Tumblr. 'Hosted' means that everything you post to your blog sits on that company's servers. A basic hosted blog is usually free to set up, comes with plenty of online help and support, and allows you a pretty good amount of customisation.

Textile designer, crocheter and online shop owner Emma Lamb
has a beautiful Blogger blog at http://emmallamb.blogspot.co.uk/

With so many blogs hosted on these platforms they are communities in themselves, and the software has built-in tools for connecting with other blogs. For example, Google owns Blogger, so it's easy to befriend other Blogger blogs and see their latest posts on your Blogger dashboard.

New Zealander James Squires' internet comic Moonbeard
is hosted at Tumblr - http://moonbeard.com/

If you go for a 'self-hosted' option, that means you need to download and install the blogging software on your own webspace. This means you are completely in control of your blog design, content and functionality - but you are also responsible for keeping the software and any plugins you install up to date, hosting, security, promotion and everything else to keep your blog up and running. One of the most popular self-hosted software solutions can be found at Wordpress.org (not to be confused with Wordpress.com - the same company, but the hosted version of their software.)

Lori Lange's Recipe Girl - http://www.recipegirl.com/
 is a self-hosted blog using the Wordpress platform.

If you are tech savvy, or planning to blog in support of an online business (for example), you may decide the self-hosted option is for you. My own business website is in fact a self-hosted Wordpress blog in disguise, whereas this blog is on a simple template hosted at Blogger. It has a lot less functionality, but  it was easy to set up and it serves its purpose pretty well.

There's more about this topic in Chapter 2 of Blogging for Creatives, and plenty of tips and advice to be found in the blogging community. Do some research and have a think about what is going to be best for you before deciding. Changing blog platforms isn't impossible, but you can't be doing it every few months!

Tech Tip: Colour Tools

Today's Wednesday, so it's time for the first Tech Tip!

One of the ways you can make your blog's look unique, even if you're using a free template or theme, is with colour. If (like me) you're not always 100% sure which colours will work well together, help is at hand.

Colour tools are great to play around with and experiment with different looks. Adobe Kuler is one of the most popular. You can create your own combinations, see what other people have created and even rate them, which makes it a community in itself:

Another one to check out is Color Scheme Designer. You can choose a palette, then see how it might look on a webpage. There are loads of other things you can try too, including checking to see how your colour scheme looks to someone who's on the colour blindness spectrum. Amazing.