FeedBurner has become the most popular way to burn an RSS feed because of the many features provides and the price, which is free. This tool is owned by Google and provides feed optimization, feed publication, statistics and so much more. You can even use it with Google Analytics. It's a necessity for any blogger using WordPress.
<h2>What Does FeedBurner Provide for Bloggers?</h2>
<p style="text-align: center"><img class="aligncenter  wp-image-6451" alt="Feedburner" src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Feedburner.png" width="260" height="281" /></p>
This free service provides plenty of great features for bloggers. Features include:
<ul>
	<li>RSS Subscriber statistics</li>
	<li>Optimization for your blog posts</li>
	<li>Multiple ways for subscribers to sign up</li>
	<li>Social proof</li>
	<li>Ping options for feed-reading services</li>
	<li>Easily use Google AdSense with RSS feeds for monetization</li>
	<li>Customization options for branding purposes</li>
	<li>And More!</li>
</ul>
It's easy to see how FeedBurner can add quite a bit of power to your WordPress blog.
<h2>A Step-by-Step Guide to Setting up FeedBurner for WordPress</h2>
Before you can set up your FeedBurner, you need to sign up for a Google account. Any Gmail account will work for the FeedBurner service.

Once you're logged in, you will see a section that looks like this:

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6452" alt="Add FeedBurner Feed" src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/AddFeedBurnerFeed.png" width="691" height="114" />

Simply post your blog feed address into this section and click "next." You will now get a screen like this:

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6453" alt="Naming Your Feed" src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/NamingYourFeed.png" width="509" height="491" />

This page will allow you to give your feed a title and a custom address. Once you've filled these two sections in, click "next." The next page will tell you the feed has been created and will give you the actual URL for your new RSS feed.

From this screen, you can set up additional features, if you want or you can go directly to your feed management section.
<h2>Optimizing Your FeedBurner RSS Feed</h2>
Now, you will want to optimize your RSS Feed. This can be done from the feed management section and the "Optimize" tab.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6454" alt="Optimize FeedBurner" src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/OptimizeFeedBurner.png" width="438" height="220" />

Make sure to activate the Browser Friendly option, FeedFlare option and the Smart Feed option. You can active other options, as well, but these three are the most important.
<h2>Publicizing Your FeedBurner RSS Feed</h2>
Next, you will want to use the Publicize option to add even more to your RSS feed. This option will allow your feed to be shard easier and will give you a subscriber count to show off.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-6455" alt="Publicize FeedBurner" src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/PublicizeFeedBurner.png" width="729" height="480" />

You want to make sure to turn on the Email Subscriptions, PingShot and FeedCount options. You can also turn on other options, if you want.
<h2>Monetizing Your Feed</h2>
If you have a Google AdSense Account, you will have a monetization option for your FeedBurner Feeds. All you have to do is activate this section and configure your ads. However, if you don't have Google AdSense, you will need to fill out an application and receive an approval before you can set this up.
<h2>FeedBurner Analyze</h2>
The other section found within FeedBurner is called "Analyze." This section will allow you to see the stats for your feed. It will take about 24 hours for stats to start showing up, but once they do, you can track how your feeds are performing from this section.
<h2>Integrating Your Feed with WordPress</h2>
After setting up your FeedBurner RSS Feed, you need to integrate it with WordPress. You want to start by creating a redirect for your default feed, which is usually, yourdomain.com/feed/. Use FD FeedBurner to set this up very easily. It can also be done in your .htaccess file, but it's much easier with the plugin.

Many of the themes found for WordPress come with FeedBurner integration already built-in. However, if your theme doesn't have this built in, you can use the FeedBurner Email Subscription Plugin.

If your theme does have it built in, you will need to get the code from the <strong>Publicize &gt;&gt; Email Subscription</strong> in FeedBurner. Once you have this code, you just need to enter it into the Widget or area designated for the code.

Whether you use the integration from your WordPress theme or you use the plugin to create a subscriber box, using FeedBurner is necessary for all WordPress bloggers.