Adding Email Alerts to Your Blog

Want to use your blog as a newsletter? I asked our own Andy Wibbles how, and here's the scoop.

• First connect your blog to your Feedburner account.
  
• Log in to Feedburner and click on the feed you want to add email alerts to. The Dashboard for that feed will display.
  
• Click on "Publicize" and then "Email Subscriptions".
  
• Select Feedburner and click "Activate". Feedburner displays a success screen with your subscription form HTML.
  
• Underneath that is a "Use as a widget in" menu. Select TypePad and click Go. Feedburner then sends you into TypePad.
  
• Select the blog that you want to add the subscription form to and click Add Widget. TypePad adds the subscription form to your blog.
  
• Click "View Weblog" to see it or click Change Content Ordering to change where the form appears in your sidebar.
  
• Test it: Subscribe to your blog and then tomorrow you should get an alert if you write a new post.
  
• Other options under Feedburner include: being able to configure the activation email for subscribers, the fonts and colors of the email alerts, adding a logo and what time of the day email alerts should be sent.

Comments

[Editor]

Thank you Ginevra. I followed the easy instructions, and added this widget. I also added the link to my navigation bar. I already had a FeedBlitz email widget. So I guess having another one (especially by Google - :)) doesn't hurt...

[Account Deleted]

There's another great feature Feedburner can give you: "Email this to a friend" underneath every post.
You find it under Optimize Tab - FeedFlare.

Make it easy for your readers to spread your word ;-)

(Note: if you make - forced - switch from Feedburner to Google some feeds will be resend and your readers might receive loads of 'new' old alerts. If you are using AWeber for blog-alerts, set 'Send Automatic' = NO for the time being)

Karin H (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

[Jean Tsai]

This is so helpful, thank you! I am a newbie, and the instructions were so clear, even I could figure it out. I'd just started wondering about feeds, so your timing is impeccable. Thanks again!

[Ginevra]

thanks so much for this! I really appreciate when the community can help each other out. :)

[Ginevra]

I'm so glad that it was helpful! Another colleague of mine suggested that we bullet-point the format for this post, so it's more readable now too.

[Ginevra]

awesome! Make sure you read Karin's comment below on this post, she's sharing some more tips for Feedburner. :)

[Editor]

Karin H,

You can also sign up for 'ShareThis.'

And it allows you to email, feed it to another social marketing site, or link to them (including Facebook, FriendFeed, Twitter, etc...)

A great tool with plenty of options...

[Karen]

I've been connected to Feedburner for a while, so it was easy to add the email link - thanks! I first had to move my Feedburner account over to Google, but I have a question about that. My feed at TypePad is in the form http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogs/blahblahblah, but the email I got from Feedburner says "Your old FeedBurner feeds, found at feeds.feedburner.com, will automatically redirect traffic to their new addresses on the feeds2.feedburner.com domain. You may still want to update any links or buttons on your website to use the new feeds2.feedburner.com address." How would I do that last part, change the link at my blog to the "feeds2" address?

[Andy]

I'd try to disconnect your Feedburner account from TypePad. Then reconnect it with the new Feedburner URL.

[Andy]

Yup! Here's a video on how to add ShareThis to TypePad: http://everything.typepad.com/blog/2009/02/social-media-sharethis-typepad-digg-facebook.html

[Karen]

Hmm, I just tried that, but when I went to reconnect, I didn't know which feed to choose -- the email I got from Feedburner listed 3 different feed addresses for my blog. I chose the first one, but how can I add the other 2?

[Karen]

Never mind, I think I figured out which is the "real" feed.

[David Saunders]

Superb!

David