With the looming discontinuation of Google Reader just around the corner many of my fellow bloggers are scrambling to find alternatives but even if, like me, you’ve made the switch to Bloglovin’, the fate of your RSS feed still remains in Google’s hands. You’ve changed how people are “reading” your feed but not where your feed actually “lives”.
Right now your feed’s URL probably looks something like this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RabidReads. But what happens, as many bloggers fear, if Feedburner gets shut down as well? There’s a way to protect yourself and to use your own domain name (self-hosted blogs only) to host your feed. It’s called MyBrand. It only takes 5 minutes to set-up but in the long run it might save you a world of hurt so here’s what you need to do:
1 – Head over to feedburner.com and click on “My Account” in the top right corner.
2 – Click the “MyBrand” link in the left navigation menu.
3 – You’ll see a screen with 3 steps explaining how to activate MyBrand. Take note of the text in yellow. You’ll need that information later.
4 – Before you go any further, go to your hosting account. For this example I’ll be using Go Daddy but the principle is the same regardless of which provider you use. On the Go Daddy dashboard, click the “Launch” button beside your web hosting account.
5 – From the top navigation menu, mouse over “More” and select “DNS Manager” from the dropdown options.
6 – Be VERY careful while making changes on this screen! Find the section called “CNAME” and click on “Add New”. This is where that yellow text from earlier will go. Under “Host” enter “feeds” and under “Points to” copy/paste everything in yellow that comes after “feeds CNAME” except for the last period at the end. When you’re done, click “Save Zone File”.
7 – Now head back to the MyBrand section of Feedburner, the 2nd item on your to-do list is to enter your feed specific domain name. Mine’s “feeds.rabidreads.ca” so yours should be feeds.mydomain.com. Now click “Activate/Save”.
8 – If you’re CNAME is correct on your hosting account, you’ll get a confirmation that your account has been successfully updated. If you get an error message, wait and try again later. It can take up to 1 hour for your CNAME changes to come into effect.
And there you have it! You now have greater control over your feed and if Feedburner does go bye-bye your RSS subscribers won’t be left out in the cold. Make sure to update any links on your blog that are pointing towards feedburner instead of your domain name (i.e. replace http://feeds.feedburner.com/RabidReads with http://feeds.rabidreads.ca/RabidReads).
Owner, designer and main blogger behind Rabid Reads. Avid book reader, snowboard bunny, video gamer and Supernatural fan. I love all things paranormal, werewolves especially. Oh, and I’m Canadian, eh!
When I enter my info on #3 it tells me it’s not right even though I copied and pasted it. Grr
I will e-mail you because you’re “special”. 😀
Great tip Carmel! I’m going to have to take care of it this weekend…you’re here for…um…tech support right 😀
Sure am! You know where to find me. LOL
can you do this is you are with blogger? I have my domain name through them
If you own your domain name I believe you can. You’ll have to log-in to your DNS manager through Google Apps.
Thank you for this tip. I need to make the change from blogger to WP but… I’m afraid of the many things that can go wrong.
Haha well I’m available for hire if ever you’re interested. 🙂
This is great, Carmel. In switching the feed over from Feedburner, does MyBrand or Go Daddy cost money?
MyBrand is free but Go Daddy costs money.
This is definitely an awesome feature to take the extra step in customising and “branding” your feed. But just to clarify : if Feedburner does shut down then your custom MyBrand URL won’t magically keep working! That URL still relies on Feedburner’s services and functionality. It just has a prettier URL. 🙂
It’s true that for the time being this will keep your feed with feedburner but should it become absolute you can redirect your new URL anywhere. That’s not an option with feedburner’s standard address.