ConverStations: Create Your Own FeedBurner FeedFlare

I'm going to lose my reputation as a non-code guy soon.

Creating a Personal FeedFlare is easy and can add value to your site and feeds. Why? Because as time goes on, more of your audience is going to read your content without visiting your site. But still, if you have a business blog, ideally you'll get some business from your blog, right?

Thanks to Seth Mazow and Marshall Kirkpatrick, I was recently compelled to create a new FeedFlare for the Interplast feed. Notice that at the bottom of each post in Interplast's feed, there is a link to "Make a Donation to Interplast."

I'm now implementing this for several clients (where appropriate).

Here's a sampling of the code. You can change the Title, Description, Text and Link to whatever you desire.

<FeedFlareUnit>
      <Catalog>
            <Title>You Can Name This Anything</Title>
            <Description>You Can Name This Anything</Description>
      </Catalog>
      <FeedFlare>
            <Text>This Will Appear at the Bottom of Feed so Keep it Short</Text>
            <Link href="http://www.letsbuildablog.com" />
      </FeedFlare>
</FeedFlareUnit>

Save and publish your XML to a web page. Most blogware allows you to uplaod files. In Typepad, go to Control Panel>Files. Remember what you call the file, save it in the root directory. You will not be able to see the file after uploading it, but it's there. (Though this site is ConverStations.com, any files I upload to the root are at mikesansone.typepad.com - this is important to remember)
Sign in to FeedBurner.
Navigate to Optimize>FeedFlare and place the URL of the XML file in the box next to Add New Flare.
Save at the bottom of the FeedBurner page.

That's it. One thing to keep in mind - Don't Over Do It. Pick just one item to hang your hat on and point to that.

If you're a speaker, point to the web page that offers your speaking service. An author can point to where to buy the book. If you're an artist, point to your portfolio or shopping cart.

As another example, can be found at OwnYourBrand. Mike Wagner is a national (soon to be international?) speaker. Now, his audience can navigate to his "Book Mike to Speak" right from the feed. Take a look at his feed page.

If you need a hand at getting this done, let me know. Or come to the next workshop. The FeedFlare link is below:-)

Technorati Tags: FeedBurner, FeedFlare, Business Blogging, Interplast, Marketing