Smart bloggers and businesses recognize that while content is king it is useless without people to consume it. Doesn’t matter how sharp, witty or insightful you are because without readers it is useless and worthless. Might as well write your posts in a diary that you shove underneath your bed.
That is why I offer multiple methods for people to follow what I write here and it is why I am saying goodbye to Feedburner and hello to Feedblitz.
Feedburner is Dying
Feedburner is dying. I haven’t seen any official news from Google but I have heard from more than a few credible sources that Google is wrapping things up. Even if I hadn’t my recent experiences are enough to make me question what is going on.
There is no official support there and there hasn’t been for quite some time now. The forums are occupied by echoes and the sounds of crickets chirping. I have asked a few questions and they have gone unanswered.
These were important questions that had to do with troubleshooting problems with my feed, but no one ever answered them. It may be a free service but there is a minimum level of service I expect with everything including free services and this just didn’t meet that requirement.
This is too important to mess around with so when I heard about some potential alternatives I did some investigating and decided it was better to move my feeds sooner than later.
What About Lost Subscribers?
Will I lose subscribers in the move? I really hope I don’t but fear of losing some isn’t enough to prevent me from making changes that will help provide a solid foundation here.
That quote I used back here when I talked about building the blog still applies:
“You know, we just don’t recognize the most significant moments of lives while they are happening. Back then I thought, Well there’ll be other days. I didn’t realize that was the only day.” Archibald (Moonlight) Graham
Field of Dreams
Bloggers shouldn’t fear change. We work in a fluid environment in which change is not only constant but relatively easy. I don’t believe in doing it willy-nilly but nor do I see a need to spend ridiculous amounts of time thinking about it. Remember we are working to prevent paralysis of analysis.
Other Perspectives and Opinions
There are a host of others making the change now too. Here are links to five other blogs that talk about why they made the same move from Feedburner to Feedblitz.
Stay tuned and I will keep you posted as to how this all works out. As always if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comments.
BTW, you can find my new feed right here.
(Update March 22, 2015: There used to be links to 5 posts from other bloggers about why they moved but since two people shut down their blogs it left me with broken links so I removed those.
Feedburner hasn’t died and I understand some people still use it. Consider this post ‘proof’ that not all rumors are true.
I may be in the wrong mindset, but I’m going to wait until I know for sure that Feedburner is going away to act. Man, I’ve loved that program as it’s worked well and given me a few stats that I like. It’s going to be depressing when I lose that. Sigh…
Hi Mitch,
I don’t know that I would call it the wrong mindset because nothing has officially been shared saying that FeedBurner is going to go away. It has been a very good tool and it has been free so I have very few complaints.
I am just reading between the lines and trying to take advantage of some new opportunities.
Hey Josh,
I’ve been hearing a lot bloggers have been migrating from feedburner to Feedblitz. I’ve also heard that Google is planning to close the service. Though, I’ve had no issues with the feedburner, but that may be because I don’t really use all the features it has.
I think it’s the right time to move to the FeedBlitz.
Thanks for sharing your insights, Josh.
Hi Devesh,
Welcome to the blog. Overall I had a good run with FeedBurner and I was slow to move but I wanted to try to do things ahead of the curve as opposed to being behind it.
I am only a few days into the move but I really like the experience thus far. It was an easy migration and I like all of the tools/resources that FeedBlitz comes with. It has been quite enlightening.
I am loving Feedblitz; there are so many features I have no clue about and when I see my RSS feed in my in box, it looks so official and professional. There are too many tweaks to make, though, and it’s a tedious process.
I hope Adrienne stops in to join the contest because 3 lucky winners will get FREE IT help to migrate to Feedblitz.
Gosh, wish I had that! Anyway, it’s a good move; just takes time to master, like everything does.
It really is pretty cool. I have been impressed with it and am enjoying learning all the ins and outs.
Oh crap Josh, another one biting the dust!
I love Feedburner and honestly I’ve had no issue with it overall. Okay, I have had some problems finding things when I was searching for them because their site isn’t the most user friendly one I’ve encountered.
I’ll really be anxious to hear how the change goes and if you are happier after the fact. It’s pretty obvious you’re changing anyway but would like to know if it’s a smooth transition or you lose all your feeds. Man, that would suck for me.
Okay, I’m up for change. I know it happens and there isn’t much I can do about it at times. To be honest with you, I had heard no news about Feedburner heading out the door but I guess I’ll soon find out right.
Thanks for sharing this and will look forward to your update.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
I think the reason you have had trouble locating the information you want because they stopped updating it quite some time ago. I have had a couple of experiences during the past year in which I needed help from them and was unable to find any support via Feedburner.
It is a free service, but even then you expect to have a knowledge base that is relatively current and theirs really isn’t.
I had a nice run with them but I can’t rely upon them so change was necessary. I’ll be happy to keep you posted on how it goes.