As a Typepad subscriber, if you've ever had a question about blogging, chances are you've either perused our handy Knowledge Base, browsed the archives here at Everything Typepad, or opened a Help Ticket in your Dashboard. Our Community and Support team receives many of these every day, and in this special series, we'll be answering some of our best, most Frequently Asked Questions.
How do people subscribe to my blog?
Subscribe, follow, email - whatever terminology you prefer, it is recommended that you make it easy for readers of your blog to be notified of newly published posts. Using the blog's feed, updates can be sent to subscribers through a variety of ways.
What is a blog feed?
A feed, also known as RSS, is a format of your blog that makes it easy for content distributors to syndicate your content.
For Typepad blogs, the blog's feed is the blog's URL followed by atom.xml or rss.xml. Both the RSS and Atom feed contain the same content, and it typically does not matter which feed URL you use. Some examples:
http://example.typepad.com/my-blog/atom.xml
http://www.customdomain.com/my-blog/rss.xml
http://www.exampledomain.net/atom.xml
At Settings > Feeds, check the box to publish the feed for Blog Posts and save changes. The feed for your blog updates immediately when you publish a new post and the feed can be used in a number of ways to send out updates to subscribers. Learn more.
How do readers find the blog's feed?
You can add the subscribe link to the sidebar or Navigation Bar. To add the subscribe link to the sidebar, go to Design > Content, select the Post Feed module, click the Add This Module button, and after arranging the module in the sidebar, click Save Changes to update your blog.
To add a subscribe link to the Navigation Bar, go to Design > Content, click the pencil icon next to the Navigation Bar module, add the feed URL, click OK, and click Save Changes. Learn more.
What are some ways readers can subscribe?
Readers can subscribe to your blog and be notified of new posts by adding the feed URL to a feed reader, signing up to receive email alerts, receive links in their Facebook news feed, and more!
We recommend adding a subscribe link (more info), a form to subscribe for email notifications (more info), and a Facebook Like button (more info).
How can people be notified by email when a new post is published?
You have a number of options for sending out new posts to readers via email. We recommend FeedBlitz, but other popular services, including MailChimp and AWeber, can also be utilized with your Typepad blog.
For FeedBlitz, we have step-by-step instructions for adding the email sign up form. Learn more.
For other services, you'll submit your blog's feed URL to their service, and then you'll receive code for the sign up form. You can add this form to your blog's sidebar using the Embed Your Own HTML module at Design > Content. Learn more.
How do I subscribe to see updates in my Facebook newsfeed?
At Settings > Sharing, click to connect to Facebook to add the Like button. Anyone who clicks the Facebook Like button added to your blog will see any updates to your blog directly in their Facebook newsfeed. Learn more.
Facebook also has other Like button options if you would prefer a simpler Like button or a Badge.
What is the Follow Me module?
The Follow Me module allows other members of the Typepad community to see the activity of the blogs they follow in their Typepad account dashboard. Only Typepad members can follow a blog in this way, but you do not have to use Typepad to take advantage of the other subscribe options mentioned above.
To add the Follow Me Module to your blog's sidebar, go to Design > Content, select the Follow Me module, and click Add This Module. Learn more.
Why does the feed URL display code in my browser?
A feed is not meant to be viewed in a browser window, and not all browsers have a feed view feature. The latest versions of Firefox and Safari will show you an easy to read HTML page when you attempt to view the feed URL directly. Chrome and some other older browsers may show you the feed code which does not indicate a problem with your feed.
By connecting your blog to FeedBlitz, anyone who tries to view your blog's feed URL directly in any browser will be presented with an easy to read website with options to subscribe to the feed. FeedBlitz's feed enhancement services are free and easy to enable for your Typepad blog. Learn more.
Why is my feed not working?
To troubleshoot feed issues, you can run the feed through a feed validator which will present you with any errors that need to be corrected. If you aren't sure how to correct the errors, open a help ticket in your Typepad account, and we can help you!