Alternatives to FeedBurner – We Can Help!

Information & Options for Replacing FeedBurner

Most of you have heard the buzz regarding the FeedBurner service’s recent inconsistent numbers and uncertain future. We’re here to help! If you currently utilize the Feedburner service powered by Google, you’ve likely noticed that your numbers have dropped to zero and there has been a lot of talk about a possible shutdown in the near future. Google isn’t being particular forthcoming with relevant information and while they haven’t confirmed that they do intend to shut down the Feedburner service, I understand your concern if a shutdown would affect you. Google shut down its Japanese version without any warning and completely dropped the domain so users were left with lost email subscribers, dead feeds, and no way to recover them or the related statistics.

After considering all the alternatives, I’ve selected some of the most beneficial and widely trusted services and have packaged together alternatives that can be processed efficiently for everyone who may need assitance with the transition.

As a MailChimp user of 3.5 years (I signed up with them in April of 2009 and have used the service DAILY since then to manage multiple email campaigns across four different subscriber lists), I suggest using the RSS to email functionality to replace FeedBurner’s daily emails – you also have the option of creating a weekly, monthly, or on-demand mailing to your subscriber base! MailChimp is free for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month. If you sign up with them, be sure to use our affiliate link so that we BOTH get $30 credited to our accounts when you upgrade to a paid plan with unlimited email sends, which start at only $10 per month: http://eepurl.com/pLH4r. MailChimp also makes it extremely simple for customers to take advantage of their nonprofit discounts for organizations that qualify. :) We are offering complete setup and configuration of this service as well as newsletter/email customization and/or template arrangement.

MailChimp’s reports give you specific details about your delivered emails, including who opened them, how many times they were opened, the regional locations in which they were opened, and they even track when they’re forwarded. You get other details as well like how your statistics measure to industry averages. MailChimp’s API keys allow you to connect MailChimp with third party services and WordPress plugins fully sync your platform installation with the service. If you aren’t interested in having a customizable email output, you can also utilize WordPress’ JetPack for your email subscriptions, which is built into your platform installation.

Need an online feed service as well? I HIGHLY recommend using your website’s built-in feed (for WordPress users, it’s usually http://YOURDOMAIN.com/feed) – it can be subscribed to using ANY feed reader out there and when paired with one of the plugins I am going to link you to below, statistics are available right from within your dashboard. We do offer migration from FeedBurner and account setup if you choose to utilize a third party service. There are many options available, include the following:

• FeedBlitz is quickly becoming the go-to service when leaving FeedBurner behind and seems to be very widely trusted. It’s not a free alternative, but has reasonable pricing if you are willing to invest financially.
• FeedCat is a free service, but placing their button code is required to boost your feed there and in doing so, you agree to allow them to serve ads on your website. I like the layout of the online feed better than that of FeedBlitz as well as the subscription and statistics tracking options, but serving ads on my sites isn’t something I’m willing to allow them to do, so this is a choice you will have to weigh against the features. FeedCat allows you to choose to have it reread your feed data anywhere from hourly to weekly.
• RapidFeeds is a fully premium service and does NOT offer a free option after the initial trial period ends. It does have affordable pricing and many useful features, such as autotweeting your feed updates, iTunes support for podcasters, and advanced statistics.
• FeedStats is a WordPress plugin which utilizes your installation’s built-in feed to generate statistics about your RSS subscribers.
• Feed Stats for WordPress – WORDPRESS PLUGIN – This is for you if you find that FeedStats doesn’t work on your site and you need the plugin version that has been redeveloped for PHP 5.3+

As I mentioned before, the best thing to do is to encourage your readers to subscribe directly to your site RSS feed rather than going through a third party service. I always advise my clients to keep as much of your functionality being served from within your website as possible — it minimizes the chances that you’ll have to rework your way of doing things if/when those services stop being offered in the future, as is becoming the case with FeedBurner… and who wants to migrate to another service only to have to do it again later? We are offering all of these services to our clients and have packaged together three optional plans to fit each of the following unique scenarios and can help get you setup from start to finish:

• You wish to ONLY build an RSS to email campaign for your existing built-in website feed
• You would like to ONLY have your feed available for RSS subscribers through a third party service
• Your desire is to implement BOTH services together

If you would like to contract us to assist you,

CLICK HERE to contact us today for a quote and timeframe!

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