Since Google acquired Feedburner in 2007, things have been all but smooth. Sure, Feedburner is a good service and provides the option for users to Subscribe to RSS feed via email.
There are a few problems with email subscriptions as I wrote some time back. Since then, I have been trying hard to find a good alternative for the esteemed readers of ProgrammingKid.com so that they can use the convenience of Email without being bugged by frequent updates.
Hopefully, we’ll be providing with NEW email delivery options wherein you can choose the frequency for the Newsletter say like daily or once a week, and various other configuration options to choose for specific categories and opt out of the rest.
This has resulted due to the problems of Feedburner. Even though some “experts” have claimed that RSS will be dead in 2010, I feel the average reader would like to subscribe to any blog via email as most still are not conversant with the concept of syndicated feed and RSS Feed Readers. Email, therefore remains the most handy and convenient way to follow your favorite websites for updates.
Why FeedBurner Email Subcriptions are no good
Update : As result of the discussion following the comments, I have updated the below points to elucidate further on the idea.
1. Frequency and Preferred Time of Delievery
Although Feedburner has the option to select the preferred time of delivery but The delivery time should be set from individual subscriber’s preference. A Webmaster can choose 8PM-10PM but their might be people who would want it to be delivered in the morning. Here, I am also taking about the frequency – MOST subscribers would not like an email daily. Some might want a digest every 7 days or so. So, the time of delivery (Date + Time) is not according to the Subscriber.
2.Support for manual email confirmation (Webmaster can not confirm any email account)
Considering some people forget email verification, there are times when you are sure the person exists but forgot to verify. There should be option to start the subscription both after verification and also from the owner’s side. I agree with the SPAM threat but I think that’s how even WordPress registrations work, they have both owner provided and confirmation email.
3. E-Mail Confirmation Message
The use of CAPTCHA for Email confirmation is annoying to say the least. There are better options available like, “The Sum of 2+7 is : ” , the confirmation email is also weird although that can be customized. Its just not right.
4. No welcome Email after confirmation
After confirmation, most Email newsletters send out a Welcome Email but not Feedburner. I think its very important to welcome the subscriber and give him a small introduction the newsletter.
5.No Support and change of settings options for subscribed readers
Its just that once you have the full control of your Blog using WordPress, its natural to demand the full control of Feed delivery options too (from the subscriber’s perspective) like the option to subscribe to only a few categories, like a Keyword specific updates. Yes, One can always go about creating a Yahoo Pipe! but thats not something every user can do. I feel its the Blog Owner’s responsibility to provide a convenient mechanism for feed delivery.
6.Email Subject remains the Same everytime.
Due to the above shortcomings of FeedBurner. I am on a lookout for an alternative for the sake and benefit of my subscribers and readers alike.
Alternatives to Feedburner
There are some substitutes available like Awber but that’s a paid service and not a cost-efficient solution until unless the email subscribers are greater than 200. Then there are some free alternatives but their support and reliability is a question (a big matter of concern).
In the view of the above, circumstances, I am on a look out for a personalized Maling List Solution that can be self-hosted on the server of ProgrammingKid and deliver the updates in the form of a newsletter.
We are working on the said solution, and if all goes well, we would come-up with a better email newsletter system for our readers/subscribers.
We are good at Programming! Remember?
Related Reading :
- 4 Reasons to NOT use Email as your Feed Reader
- Automatically tweet favorite feeds from Google Reader
- Problem with reading feeds on RSS Readers
We would like to hear from our readers. Do you have any suggestions on how you would like the Mailing List Solution to be implemented?
Ben
AnnNonymus
Arun Basil Lal
Bhanu @ HackingAr...
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Vaibhav I might not agree with many points here .
1. No option for selecting the preferred time of delivery : This option is there for webmasters. You can select the preferred time of delivery according to the time zone of your reader base.
2. No support for manual email confirmation (Webmaster can not confirm any email account) : I could not understand this fact, why do you need manual email confirmation. ? And if you mean , that bloggers can manually add email address and confirm the subscription. if such thing will be allowed system will be spammed badly. Email confirmation is best way to make sure, no one spam this free service. More over any other service like Aweber or mailchimp, all need email confirmation.
3 Hideous Confirmation email message verification : The only thing which I dont like here is captcha verification method. Kind of increase the clicks and therefor less opt in. I agree with this.
Email Subject remains the Same everytime. : With the latest update, you can change the email subject to the latest article title. I have already written articles on this things and using it on my blogs.
No doubt feedburner was always targeted by people, reason being its free. Can you really think of anything is free like this and can be so powerful.
But in your case, if you not satisfied with it, you can try aweber. Which will give you all the control you need , or you can also use latest Google friend connect newsletter.
Thanks for the detailed comment Harsh.
1. The delivery time should be from individual subscriber’s preference. A Webmaster can choose 8PM-10PM but their might be people who might want it to be delivered in the morning. Here, I am also taking about the frequency – MOST subscribers would not like an email daily. Some might want a digest every 7 days or so. So, the time of delivery (Date + Time) is not according to the Subscriber.
2.Considering some people forget email verification, there are times when you are sure the person exists but forgot to verify. There should be option to start the subscription both after verification and also from the owner’s side. I agree with your SPAM point but I think that’s how even WordPress registrations work, they have both owner provided and confirmation email.
3. One cannot customize the way one wants to present the Subscribe to Email updates page.
4.My bad! You can customize it. Thanks for pointing out.
Its just that once you have the full control of your Blog using WordPress, its natural to demand the full control of Feed delivery options too (from the subscriber’s perspective) like the option to subscribe to only a few categories, like a Keyword specific updates. Yes, One can always go about creating a Yahoo Pipe! but thats not something every user can do. I feel its the Blog Owner’s responsibility to provide a convenient mechanism for feed delivery.
Comments of Harsh and Vaibhav helped me in understanding this post better than the article itself.
that’s right .. i enjoyed the discussion
…. anyways i use feedburner but i will be changing it soon .. to some other service …
I am on the lookout for a FREE alternative, will keep you posted on this.
I am with harsh on some points but vaibhav i agree there are certain basic limitations in the options provided.
i hope google is reading this article.
I read some posts about why it is bad to use feedburner. Some of them make a good point that feedburner is a third party service. So if it shuts down, you end up losing all of your readers. And it it runs in hundreds or thousands, you are in trouble. So it is better to use your own feed hosted on your own server even if you cannot get a fancy chicklet counter to display. That has left me confused as to what I should do. Should I continue using feedburner or should I switch back to using my original feed. What about my subscribers? If I do revert back how do I make it the least painful to them?
I tried PHPList which is a self hosted Email Newsletter Service based on PHP. Its good but the learning curve it steeap and is best suited for programmers only. Its Open Source and lots of customizations can be done. Though, its needs to be tweaked before it can be used for RSS to email subscriptions.
As such, if you can handle it. Its nice. I myself am on a lookup for alternatives and will keep you posted Kevin. Bookmark this post for updates.
Nice discussion! I was getting very confused on choosing feedburner for my email subscribers.
I’m looking to go with mailchimp or aweber. Can anyone give some pointers on which one should i choose?
I think mailchimp is a good start. Aweber is expensive but offers good feature set