How To Create A Custom FeedBurner Flare

Did you know you can add a “Personal FeedFlare” or Custom Feed Flare to your FeedBurner account, and that it’s not that hard to do?

Login to your FeedBurner account and look for the area where you can add a new Flare.

To create your own Flare, just follow this template:

http://www.feedburner.com/fb/variableflareunits/GenericFeedFlare.jspx?
text=Some+text&link=http://www.somelink.com

So for example it I wanted to print “Download Your Free Ebook” in my RSS feeds, all I need to do is put in a link like this:

http://www.feedburner.com/fb/variableflareunits/GenericFeedFlare.jspx?
text=Download%20Your%20Free%20Ebook&link=http://www.easywordpress.com

(Please use the whole thing in a single line, I had to put it in 2 lines here to keep it visible)

Note that the %20 text is required encoding for any spaces in your text, and you have to include this so FeedBurner will recognize the entire text. Otherwise it will only use the first word in your text. You can see it live on your FeedBurner page if it’s working as you wanted it to, and you can even move it around.

So what exactly can you use this for?

Simply put, creating your own flare lets you create any sort of link or text that you can display on your RSS feeds, and even on your blog. Here are some suggested uses:

1. Display Copyright - Quite straightforward; it displays the copyright info of your blog
2. Download Links - This is quite interesting. Lets say you offer a free ebook to anyone who subscribes to your RSS feeds via Feedburner email subscription. Then, when they receive their first email from your Feedburner email service, they will be given the download link. Now you can turbocharge your RSS subscriptions instead of just putting a form.
3. Members Only Area – Quite similar to number 2, but your downloads are in a Wordpress page with a password. You can display the link to the member’s only are of your blog, along with the password to access it. It can also be a private page without a password.
4. Alternative Contact – Now you can display your Skype ID, Yahoo Messenger or Facebook profile links in your RSS feeds

This is powerful stuff folks, and when used the right was you can build your RSS subscribers faster than ever before. Think creatively, and put the custom flares to good use!

The only downside is that you can’t delete the flares you’ve created, so if you screw up many times you’ll end up with a really messy page with flares you don’t need.