UPDATE: As of August 15th 2021, Google’s Feedburner subscription service, the part that allows your readers to receive an email when you create a new post, is being discontinued and will no longer work. An alternate will need to be used. My advice is to use MailChimp, MailPoet, AWeber, or another good subscription service plugin via the WordPress Repository. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Written on: May 2, 2016
There are many subscription newsletter mailing list platforms that you can use with the Genesis Enews Extended Widget: FeedBurner, MailChimp, MailPoet, AWeber and more. This tutorial will show how to set up the widget with Feedburner.
If you come across any issues or confusion with this tutorial, please contact me.
Step 1: Sign in to your Google account. If you don’t already have one, go here: Sign Up for a Google account.
Step 2: Visit http://feedburner.google.com/.
Step 3: Copy and paste your website link into the Burn a feed right this instant box.
IMPORTANT: Include the http:// portion of the address. Follow the link with: /feed. Example: https://theposhbox.net/feed
Step 4: Click on the NEXT button (shown above).
Step 5: On the next page is your feed title and feed address. Write down exactly what is shown in the box for feed address for later use.
TodaysLessonTheme
Step 6: Click on the NEXT button (shown above).
Step 7: Technically your feeds are now created and you do not need to follow the NEXT button. However, you can click the next button to configure more options, but this tutorial does not cover any of those options. For this tutorial click on the Skip directly to Feed Management link.
Step 8: On the next page, click on the Optimize tab.
Step 9: Now we will work on optimizing your WordPress Blog Feed. You need to make sure that you have both the BrowserFriendly and SmartFeed options activated. You can activate other services later as this tutorial does not cover those options. BrowserFriendly makes subscribing much simpler. SmartFeed ensures maximum compatibility with all feed reader applications.
Click on BrowserFriendly. The default options are fine, click on the activate button at the bottom.
Click on SmartFeed. Click on the activate button at the bottom.
Now both the BrowserFriendly and SmartFeed options have a checkmark to the left of the titles showing they are activated.
Step 10: click on the Publicize tab.
Step 11: You need to allow Email Subscriptions on your site because there are users who prefer to get email updates rather than using a reader. PingShot must be activated because it notifies services when you post. You can activate the other options later as this tutorial does not cover those options.
Step 12: Click on Email Subscriptions. Click on the activate button at the bottom. On the next page scroll down to where you see a checkbox with Send me an email whenever people unsubscribe (will be sent to your “reply-to” address). Check that if you want, then click the save button. Otherwise go to step 13.
Step 13: Click on PingShot. Click on the activate button at the bottom.
Step 14: Email Subscriptions and PingShot are now active, you will see a checkmark to the left of the titles.
Step 15: You are now done with Feedburner and ready to add the Genesis Enews Widget to your WordPress site.
Step 16: Log into your WordPress site dashboard.
Step 17: Under Appearance, click on Widgets.
Step 18: On the left hand side under Available Widgets, you will see the Genesis Enews Extended Widget. Drag and drop that widget to your Primary Sidebar on the right hand side.
Step 19: Under the Primary Sidebar area, click the down arrow for the Genesis Enews Extended widget to open it up and fill out the options.
Step 20: Options to fill out:
Title: Title for this Widget
Text To Show Before Form: Any text you need to appear before the form.
Text To Show After Form: Any text you need to appear after the form.
Google/Feedburner ID: This is the Feedburer address that I had you write down above in step 5. If you did not write it down, go to step 21.
Button Text: You can change the button text to Go, Subscribe, Sign Up Now, etc.
Be sure to click on SAVE before moving on.
Step 21: If you did not write down the Feedburner Address/ID as instructed in Step 5, go back to Feedburner.com.
Step 22: Click on the Feed Title link (in blue).
Step 23: On the next page, at the very top under the Feed Name, you will see a Edit Feed Details.. link. Click on that.
Step 24: On this page, copy what is in the Feed Address box and paste it into the Genesis Enews Extended Widget Feedburner Address/ID box. Be sure to click SAVE on the widget.
Step 25: You are now done! That didn’t hurt too much did it? You should test out your subscription form by subscribing to your own newsletter.
