[Please read the previous posts in this series, What Does “Burning A Feed” Mean? and Setting Up A FeedBurner Feed in order to properly set up a Subscribe Via Email gadget.]

Now that you’ve set up your blog feed at FeedBurner, you can allow your readers to subscribe via email.

Why Subscribe Via Email?

Although you may already have the standard subscribe icon or link in your sidebar, this is generally utilized by readers who already use an aggregator such as Google Reader or Bloglines.  It allows them to easily subscribe to your blog and the new posts appear in the reader.

But the genealogy blog reader audience skews a bit different than most blog readers.  Many of us set up our blogs so family members can read about their family history.  Most of these readers won’t be using an aggregator and will want to be notified via email when there is new content on your blog.

Activating Email Subscriptions on FeedBurner

• Make certain you are logged in to your Google and Blogger accounts.
• Go to FeedBurner and log in. Locate the Publicize tab and click it.

• Once the Publicize screen appears, click Email Subscriptions in the left sidebar.

• Click the Activate button at the bottom of the screen.  The Subscription Management screen appears.

Create Subscription Gadget

• The first option is to create a gadget on your Blogger blog that allows readers to subscribe via email.  Set the Use as a widget in drop-down list to Blogger and then press Go.

• The Add Page Element dialog appears.  If you have more than one blog on Blogger, use the Select a blog drop-down list to select your blog.  The Title field will display Subscribe via email – you may edit this and add your own language.  Click Add Widget.

• View your blog.  The Subscribe via email gadget appears in the sidebar.

• Here is what your readers will see when they enter their email adress and click Subscribe:

What About WordPress Users?

WordPress users cannot automatically add a widget to their blog from FeedBurner.  You must copy the HTML code and paste it into a Text widget on your WordPress blog in order for the subscription via email function to work.

Previous posts:

What Does “Burning A Feed” Mean?

Setting Up A FeedBurner Feed

Next post:  Customizing Your Email Subscription Settings

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee