If you have a blog or web site, you likely have an RSS feed your readers can subscribe to via a feed reader so they know when you’ve updated your site with new content. Traditionally, RSS feeds are read through a feed reader or news aggregator. Lately, though, more and more people are asking for feeds via e-mail. Answering that request is easier than ever and I’ll show you how.

Feedburner is the most popular tool for sharing your RSS feed. Feedburner is free, allows you to manage multiple feeds, and it’s easy to use. To include an e-mail version of your RSS feed follow these instructions:

1. Log in to your Feedburner account. If you don’t have one, you can follow these instructions on creating a Feedburner account.
2. Click on the feed you want to edit. A new page appears with the stats for that feed. This page also has tabs at the top: Analyze, Optimize, Publicize, Monetize, and Troubleshootize.
3. Click the Publicize tab. A new page appears with a list of services in the left sidebar.
4. Click the Email Subscriptions link in the left sidebar. The Email Subscriptions page appears.
5. Click the Activate button. The Subscription Management page appears and gives you a choice of either creating an e-mail subscription form or offering e-mail subscription via a link. You can place either option in your sidebar.
6. Choose either the form or link option.
   
   • If you use TypePad or Blogger, Feedburner can create an easy-to-install widget for you (just choose your blog platform from the pull-down menu and click the Go button).
   • If you use WordPress, copy the code and create a new sidebar widget for your blog.

   If you choose the form option, it will look similar to this:

   

   Your readers can simply type their e-mail address into the first box, then click the Subscribe button.

   If you choose the link option, it will look similar to this:

   

   Of course, {Blog Name} will reflect your blog’s name. When your readers click the link, the Feedburner Email Subscription Request page appears:

   

   Your readers will need to supply a valid e-mail address and type the CAPTCHA to complete their e-mail subscription request.

7. Click the Save button.

If you ever want to deactivate your e-mail RSS option, just follow the above steps, but at step 4, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Deactivate button.

Are you using e-mail RSS subscriptions in addition to traditional RSS subscriptions? How do they compare (in other words, do you have about the same number of subscribers for each?)?

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Thank you to everyone who left a comment to enter to win a copy of TypePad for Dummies (and possibly a year of free TypePad)! Here are the random numbers chosen at Random.org:

I will contact each of the winners via e-mail today. Winners must respond within three days or I’ll choose a new winner for that prize.

The winner of the year of TypePad and the TypePad for Dummies book is #22, Sarah at For the Love of Naps! Pack up your Blogger blog, Sarah, because you’re moving to TypePad!

Winners who will receive a copy of TypePad for Dummies:

Comment Number		Winner’s Name
21		Dominique
7		Angie
36		Carol
18		Scottitude
16		Moagie
28		Jennifer
10		Ricardo
30		Steff
6		Headless Mom

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Today I’m starting a five-part series about RSS and why you need it. Throughout the series you’ll learn

• what RSS is and why you need to make sure you’re offering it (Pt. 1)
• how to burn a feed with Feedburner (Pt. 1)
• how to offer your readers RSS via e-mail (Pt. 2)
• how to customize your RSS button and install it on your sidebar (Pt. 3)
• whether you should offer full or partial feeds (and what those are) (Pt. 4)
• what your options are for monetizing your feed (Pt. 5)

Let’s get started!

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication and it’s a way of letting your readers know when you update your site with new content. Your readers can subscribe to your RSS feed, set up an account with a feed reader (e.g., Google Reader), and then, when you update your site, the feed reader shows that content in your readers’ feed readers. This video explains RSS in the simplest way I’ve seen:

Now that you know what RSS is, how it works, and why your readers want it, you need to find out what your RSS feed is and make sure you’re providing a clear option for subscribing to your blog. Most blog platforms provide a basic feed for you when you set up your blog. These links will help you find the RSS your platform provides:

• How to find your TypePad RSS
• How to find your Blogger RSS
• How to find your WordPress.org RSS

While it’s true that you can use the default RSS your blog platform provides, most people opt to burn a feed with Feedburner. Feeburner is free, allows you to manage multiple blog feeds in one place, and provides statistics about your subscribers. Feedburner offers so many features I can’t list them all here, but I strongly suggest you take a look through your Feedburner dashboard (after you set up your account) and see what you’ve been missing.

To burn your feed with Feedburner, just follow these instructions:

1. Go to http://www.feedburner.com. You’ll see a welcome page similar to this:
   
2. Type your blog’s URL into the text box under Burn a feed right this instant. If you’re a podcaster, check that box as well.
3. Click the Next button. You’ll see a page similar to this:
   

   You’ll see the name of your blog (Feed Title) and your Feed Address.

4. Click the Next button. You’ll see a note congratulating you on claiming your feed. You’ll also see your feed’s RSS link. This is the link you’ll use when providing a subscription link for your readers.
   
5. Click the Next button. You’ll see a page similar to this:
   

   This is where you can choose additional features for Feedburner to track for your feed. Check the boxes of the features you want to include. I suggest checking them all; if you find you don’t need the stats for those items, you can change your preferences later.

6. Click the Next button. You’ll see a page that looks like this (it’s actually longer and has more info, but my screen capture cut it off):
   

   This page lists several blog platforms (click on yours to integrate your Feedburner feed with your site) and provides links for you to get even more out of your feed (Publicize, Optimize, Analyze, Monetize, and Troubleshootize).

7. Choose your blog platform from the list and follow Feedburner’s instructions from there.

After you integrate your Feedburner feed with your blog, I strongly suggest clicking around under each option (Publicize, Optimize, Analyze, Monetize, and Troubleshootize) to see what “extras” you can find that are a fit with your blog. As your blog grows, you may find that some items are more helpful than others or that some items aren’t a fit with your blog. You can turn things on and off as you see fit.

This article was cross-posted at BlogHer.com.

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Every day I share links to all the tech articles I love on the Blogging Basics 101 Tumblr blog! Subscribe to the Tumblr blog and never miss another article.

• Win a Copy of TypePad for Dummies and a Year of TypePad! via Blogging Basics 101. Today’s the last day to enter to win a copy of the book I wrote with Shannon and free year of TypePad.

• The Camera LOVES Ya Baby! via feathers, freesia, and fishing tackle. This article shares some tips on using your digital camera. I keep thinking I’d like to take more pictures and learn this stuff. Then I realize I have more work to do and no free time. I offer this article in the hopes that someone will take pretty pictures and inspire others since it’s clearly not in my cards.

• Photoshop Tutorial: How do I maintain proportion and scale when I resize my images? via Life with My Three Boybarians. My friend Darcy is a whiz with Photoshop and she’s extra awesome because she shares her knowledge. Now that you’re taking awesome pictures with your camera (see link above), Darcy will show you how to make sure you aren’t making them wonky on your blog.

• Tiled Background Designer. This is an easy little tool that will help even the design-challenged (like me) create a quick background for your blog. I’ve found this can be a quick fix until a real designer can step in and fix things up.

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E-mail signatures are an easy way to promote yourself and your projects in your everyday correspondence. They’re fairly un-intrusive (if you keep them short and simple), but they let your peers know what you’re working on and how they can contact you via social media. I use WiseStamp for my e-mail signatures and I’ve had several people ask me how they can get the same type of signature. So today I’ll show you how to set up and use WiseStamp for your own elegant e-mail signature.

I like WiseStamp because it allows me to customize my signature with a few links, but it also uses icons for popular social media sites that I belong to. This is what my signature looks like:

The signature is short, informative, and, best of all, easy to set up! To set up your own signature, just follow the steps below.

1. Go to http://www.wisestamp.com/
2. Click the Download Now button. This will download the software to your computer (it’s safe) so you can customize it an use it. (You may have to re-start your browser in order for it to recognize you’ve installed new software.)
3. Find the WiseStamp icon in the bottom right corner of your browser (it looks like the old-fashioned ink stamp with a handle that they in their logo).
4. Click on the WiseStamp icon and choose Edit Signature. A new dialog box will come up with information you can customize. At the top of the dialog box are two tabs: General and Settings

The General Tab
This is where you’ll be able to see what your signature looks like as you build it. You can even build different signatures to appear on business or personal e-mails.

To start building your signature, choose whether this is your personal or business signature, then start typing your information into the text box. This is the info I included (but you can use whatever is relevant to you):

You can use the dashboard to add formatting to your signature. Just highlight whatever you’d like to format and choose the related button from the dashboard. For example, if I wanted to bold my name, I’d highlight Melanie Nelson, then click the B button on the dashboard. To add a link, highlight the URL or word(s) you’d like to make into a link and click the link button (looks like the earth with a chain link). Then type in the URL or permalink you’d like to include. In my own signature, I linked all of the URLs to their respective web sites and the title of the book to Amazon.

Once your text signature is complete, look underneath the text box and start filling in the relevant social media accounts, IM, and RSS information. I like to include my Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts. I also included links to the BB101 Tumblr blog and the BB101 Amazon store. If you look at my signature above, you’ll see the social media icons for each item.

Settings Tab
The settings tab gives you even more options relating to how your signature will display. I won’t go into each of the options because that would take too long. However, you can try things and tweak or change them as necessary until your signature looks exactly as you’d like it to appear.

A version of this article was posted at BlogHer.com.

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It’s here! After months of hard work, Shannon and I are so pleased to announce that our book, TypePad For Dummies, is now on bookshelves. Want to know what you can expect to find inside?

• A basic explanation of blogging technologies, geared toward newbies to get them up to speed. We explain RSS feeds, Rich Text, SEO, and more.
• We explain why TypePad might be a good fit for you (and why it might not), breaking down its features in comparison with other blogging platforms. We show you how to set up your TypePad account and determine the pricing level you need, and we tell you how to import your existing blog to your TypePad account.
• We explain every single element on your TypePad dashboard, walking you through left-to-right, top-to-bottom. You’ll be navigating the newly redesigned dashboard easily before you know it.
• We explain setting up your blog (and what all those optional settings mean), writing your posts, and how you can read your stats on your dashboard.
• We give you some solid ideas on what makes a good blog post and we show you how to maximize your use of your Compose Editor — you can format your font, insert files and images, and change how and when you schedule your posts to publish.
• Social butterflies will appreciate two chapters devoted entirely to interactive aspects of blogging: comments and other social media (such as Twitter). We tell you how to integrate all of this with your TypePad blog.
• Want to customize your blog design? TypePad’s design module recently went through an overhaul, but we walk you through the new module step by step. We show you how to make the most basic design changes (such as applying existing themes) to the much more complex (tweaking your own CSS). We explain how to put an image, text, or list in your sidebar.
• Want to earn some money via your blog? We explain some of your options for monetizing and show you the tools you need to make it happen.
• Lastly, our “Parts of Ten” section lists our top ten blogging tricks, our ten favorite TypePad resources, ten Typepad bloggers we think you should watch (and learn from!), and ten blogging etiquette tips to help you make your (positive) mark in the blogosphere.

This is just a sampling, of course; the book covers a huge range of TypePad-related issues (400 pages’ worth!). If you’re a beginning-to-moderate TypePad user, we feel confident you’ll find plenty in this book to help you make your TypePad experience even better.

The TypePad Giveaway

Now, a giveaway!

• One lucky winner will win a free copy of the book plus a free year of TypePad service which is good for any level of TypePad except Business Class (approximately a $145 value).
• Nine winners will receive a copy of just the book.

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. I’ll close down comments Friday night and draw ten random winners. I’ll announce the winners on Monday and contact them via e-mail. At that point, winners will have three days to contact me or I’ll have to choose another winner.

Thanks so much for your support! Shannon and I do what we do because of readers like you and we appreciate you.

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Every day I share links to all the tech articles I love on the Blogging Basics 101 Tumblr blog! Subscribe to the Tumblr blog and never miss another article.

• Tutorial: How to Create an E-Book Cover with Photoshop via Standout Blogger. I always wondered how to do this and now I know. Beware, though, the instructions assume you have Photoshop and know how to use it. Design skillz not included.

• Small Biz Social Media Summit in Hutchinson, KS! My friend @DebWorks has put together an opportunity for small businesses to discuss how to use social media effectively. It’s going to be phenomenal. You won’t want to miss it. Make plans now to attend June 5-6!

• Money Will Flow Like Aquafina If You Can Come Up With A Better Idea Than Pepsi During SxSW via TechCrunch. Get your marketing thinking caps on. If you win, it could mean big bucks for you.

• The Definitive Guide to Choosing a Topic for Your New Blog (Pt. 1) via Skelliewag. I’ve been a Skellie fan for a long while. In this article she explains that choosing the right niche is important because your niche will “play a significant role in shaping the content you create, the people you communicate with, the readers you gather and how you reach out to your target audience.”

photo credit: selva

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Yesterday I shared some of the main tips from the Blissdom Wisdom Workshop SEO & Counting What Counts presented by Kelby Carr and Angela England. Today I want to give you the rest of the tips they shared, but it won’t be quite as detailed as yesterday’s recap. I love bulleted lists and this is just the time to share a few.

The Quick & Dirty List of SEO Tips

Blog Posts

• Use a good, clear title that tells reader what the post is about.
• Use bold subheads for clarity (header tags have more authority than bold).
• Focus your post(s) instead of writing about several topics at once.
• Make sure your link text includes keywords, and not just “click here”.
• Update your blog frequently — Google comes if you’re updating regularly.
• Instead of using a weekly generic post title (e.g., Works for Me Wednesday), use a descriptive title w/a dash (e.g., SEO Training in Two Minutes – Works for Me Wednesday).
• Make sure your popular posts have a call to action (ask your readers to answer a question, link to another related article, etc.)

Pictures

• Use captions for photos w/your keywords.
• Rename your pictures to reflect your keywords or what the pictures show (Google image search can drive a lot of traffic!).
• Use dashes, not underlines, when you name your pictures.
• image captions can be the same as your Alt info.

Meta information

• Use tags as a navigational tool and to help w/SEO for posts that have SEO-unfriendly titles.
• You don’t need to use META keywords in your <head> or <body> tags because search engines ignore them completely.
• Google dislikes text link ads so make sure they are NoFollow.

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Panel Name: SEO & Counting What Counts by Kelby Carr & Angela England

I attended Blissdom ‘10 in early February and loved that the event offered Wisdom Workshops a day before the real conference began. These workshops were offered in four tracks: Business, Writing, Creative, and Geek. As you can imagine, I stayed in the Geek room. One of the best sessions I attended was the SEO panel. I’m a technical writer by trade and things like usability and findability were drilled into my consciousness for four years so by now SEO comes naturally to me. But I just knew you all would appreciate my notes from this panel. If you’re going to learn SEO, Kelby Carr and Angela England are two women who can teach it to you. What follows are my notes and thoughts on the panel. I’ve integrated my own thoughts throughout this recap.

Are Your Keywords the Right Ones?

My advice to anyone who wants to make sure they’re doing SEO right is to use the same terms within your article that you’d search for if you wanted to find that information. Think about which search terms you would type into Google to find your topic. Can you incorporate those terms into your post’s title or as some of the links within your article? Kelby and Angela agree and they suggest you even go to Google and type in your search terms to see what’s popping up. Try a few different combinations of terms to see what yields the most relevant results — those are probably the words you want to try to use in your post. Beware though: You don’t want to overuse the terms in a single article. If you do, your post will read like an SEO vehicle rather than a blog post. Try to find that happy medium where you’re still writing in your voice, but incorporating some important key words as well.

Kelby and Angela also suggest using the Google Keyword Tool to see how particular keywords rank with other, similar keywords. For example, they suggest typing in “mom blog” and “mommy blogger”. Then look at the Global Monthly Search Volume to see which words or phrases are being used the most.

Take Away Tips:

• It’s important to point out that, while you want to be sure people are searching for the terms you’re using, you don’t always have to use the top-ranked keywords.
• Type in variations of a theme. For example, search for picture, photo, image, etc. to see how each keyword ranks.

Fix Your Blog’s Title Bar

The screenshot below shows you where the title bar is, your blog’s title banner, and the post’s title.

The default for most blogs is to have the name of the blog (e.g., Blogging Basics 101) in the title bar of the browser. To encourage search engine bots to “see” your articles individually, rather than as a single blog site, change this to reflect the post title – blog name (e.g., Blissdom Recap: SEO & Counting What Count — Blogging Basics 101).

Take Away Tip:

• If you want search engine bots to register each of your pages separately (and you do), ensure that your blog’s page title shows the name of the article, then the name of your blog.

Google Analytics

If you aren’t running Google Analytics, you should be. It offers so many ways to track how readers are using your blog and gives you an overview of your blog’s trends.

Kelby and Angela suggest looking at

• what keywords are working for your blog (and continue to use them)
• which posts are most popular (then make sure they’re linked to other articles within your blog to encourage people to stay longer)
• the top referring sites and see what campaigns are working (e.g., did that ad you bought really bring in some extra traffic?)

Take Away Tips:

• If you’re not using Google Analytics, start. If you are using GA, pay attention to how your readers are using your site.
• Make sure you have plenty of internal links to more of your writing goodness to encourage people to stick around longer.

Tomorrow I’ll have a few more SEO tips from this useful panel for you. In the mean time, make sure you’re following Kelby Carr and Angela England on Twitter.

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Linking, whether you’re linking to another site or your site is being linked to, is an important part of SEO (search engine optimization). How a site treats links is important because it can determine how search engines treat those links as well. Specifically, I’m talking about whether a site uses NoFollow tagging within its links.

What do NoFollow and DoFollow mean?

When you create a link within your blog, whether it’s on your sidebar, within your article content, or in a comment, a regular link will be coded similar to this (obviously the URL and link text will be your own):

<a href=”http://www.bloggingbasics101.com”>Blogging Basics 101</a>

If a link is tagged as NoFollow, it will look similar to this (again with your own information):

<a href=”http://www.bloggingbasics101.com” rel=”nofollow”>Blogging Basics 101</a>

The part that defines the link as NoFollow is the rel=”nofollow”. If you take that out, your link becomes DoFollow. There is no actual DoFollow tag. The absence of the NoFollow tag makes the link DoFollow.

If a blog or web site doesn’t use the NoFollow tag, the search engines acknowledge the link; if a site does use the NoFollow tag, the search engines do not acknowledge the link. Why does this matter? In a previous article, I explained Google pagerank. Basically, if a site with a high pagerank links to you, Google increases your authority, and in turn, your pagerank. Those links can be links directly to something you wrote or links left in comments (since most commenting forms allow you to include your URL). But what if that site with the higher pagerank is using the NoFollow tag and not sharing the love? Well, Google ignores the fact that the site links to you and you don’t get the increased authority or pagerank. It is therefore desirable to interact with DoFollow blogs or web sites.

Is Your Blog DoFollow?

Most web sites have the NoFollow tag automatically enabled. Check out these article for tips on figuring out whether your blog is DoFollow or NoFollow:

• How to Tell If Your Blog Is Do Follow via Newru
• How to Tell if a Link is NoFollowed via Search Engine Guide
• How Do I Know if a Blog Is Do Follow? via DoFollow Blog Information

Should You Use the DoFollow Tag?

Your readers will appreciate it if you don’t use NoFollow tagging. After all, you’ll be building their authority. It’s a way to give back to your community. Like everything, though, there’s a downside to being a DoFollow site: spammers may inundate a DoFollow blog with comments and links. If you choose to become a DoFollow site, be aware that you may experience an increase in spam comments and it may take more time to filter out the spammy stuff.

If you decide ditching the NoFollow tags is worth it, here are some links to help you change your blog to DoFollow:

• Self-hosted WordPress
• TypePad (you’ll need to have Advanced Templates enabled)
• Blogger

When should you consider using the NoFollow tag?

Not every link is created equal. Every site has links that are less important or link to pages that don’t change (e.g., a site map or your About Me page). Use the NoFollow tag for those links. In addition to low priority links, Google suggests using the NoFollow tag for untrusted content and paid links. If you have text link ads on your site, make sure they’re tagged as NoFollow.

Further Reading

• Debate: DoFollow vs. NoFollow Links via Blogussion
• DoFollow FAQ via PageRush
• Nofollow Links – The Good Side and The Bad Side via All Blogging Tips
• NoFollow vs. DoFollow: Who Wins? via Free Blog Help
• Understanding What the “No Follow” Tag Can Do For You via eVisibility

A version of this article was also posted at BlogHer.com.

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