Making the Switch to Feedblitz

I've been blogging for a little over two years on Municipal Minute and about a year on this blog, Strategically Social.  All bloggers understand the importance of "getting the word out," and I'm no exception.  Shortly after starting Municipal Minute, I began using Feedburner to "push" or deliver my blog posts to email subscribers.  Feedburner was easy to set up and once I input my scheduling preferences, it didn't require anything more from me.  

 

Everything worked quite well until a month or two ago, when I noticed that I was not getting regular email updates from my own blogs.  Although I was posting daily on Municipal Minute and weekly on Strategically Social, at least once or twice a week, I was not getting the blog post delivered via email.  I reached out to a few of my email subscribers and learned that some were experiencing the same inconsistency while others continued to receive all email updates.  I couldn't find any solution on Feedburner's forums nor was Feedburner responding to my requests for help.  It was time to change.

 

After much research, I chose to switch to Feedblitz.  I must not be the only former Feedburner customer to make that choice, because Feedblitz has put together a "Feedburner to Feedblitz" migration guide that walks you through each step of the process of moving your subscribers over to the new service.  I hit a few snags with the integration process (first, I had to learn what migration and integration meant - I'm a lawyer, not a techie after all) but Feedblitz support was so helpful - customer support promptly responded to every email I sent with helpful tips on getting everything working.  Within 30 minutes, I had all of my email subscribers for both blogs switched over and within a day or two most of my RSS subscribers are coming over too.

 

So, all in all, this process has been fairly painless.  There are a few things about Feedblitz that I'm not crazy about, but unreliable service is no longer an issue fortunately.  First, you have to pay for Feedblitz where Feedburner is a free service (some would say you get what you pay for).  Second, those who subscribe by RSS directly through Feedburner cannot be automatically migrated over to Feedblitz - you have to "encourage" them to switch over.  Three, you can only link one Twitter account to your blog feed, meaning that you may still have to use a third party service like Tweetfeed for multiple Twitter accounts.  On the other hand, Feedblitz provides the user with a lot more data than Feedburner.  My first blog post using Feedblitz was delivered seamlessly.  You can send messages to your email subscribers through Feedblitz without posting on your blog.   

 

I'm still figuring it all out, and it may take a week or two to get used to the new service and to learn all of the new features.