BuzzBoost is a simple publicity service that allows you to cross-promote the content of your feed - be it a blog, podcast or commercial newsfeed - any place where you can display HTML. For example, you can display the latest headlines from your blog on your website, podcast site, or on a partner site. BuzzBoost is FeedBurner's answer to RSS-to-HTML transformation.
What does BuzzBoost look like when it is implemented?
BuzzBoost can take many forms and be displayed anywhere you can copy and paste a short snippet of HTML. The Los Angeles Fire Department is using BuzzBoost on its main website to display the latest entries from its News and Information blog. FeedBurner's CTO, Eric Lunt, is using BuzzBoost in the right side of his blog to display recent movies he's watched, books he's read, and current music selections.
Who needs BuzzBoost and why?
BuzzBoost is perfect for anyone who wants to use their feed content to gain exposure. As you know, more exposure can often lead to more subscribers. If you have several blogs or other sites that have their own feeds, BuzzBoost provides a simple way to cross-promote them.
What will it help me do that I can't or don't want to do today?
Today, if you want people to see the latest entries from your blog, they need to actually read your blog or be subscribed to your feed. But we realize that you have other means of communicating and promoting content to your target audience. BuzzBoost helps your content go further.
Why was BuzzBoost created?
BuzzBoost launched on July 11, 2005 as a way to help online publishers promote the content in their feeds.
What makes BuzzBoost different from other solutions?
We think the BuzzBoost bee is pretty cute. We also think that the care and feeding of your feed should be left to people who live and breathe feeds for a living (that's us!)
What are the technical requirements to us BuzzBoost?
BuzzBoost's job is to redisplay your feed content anywhere you can copy and paste a short snippet of HTML code. The actual BuzzBoost code is just a short line of JavaScript that displays content items and information from a FeedBurner feed according to settings you provide. You get to control how BuzzBoost displays the following elements:
- Feed Title
- Item publication date
- Individual item headlines, headlines and plain text, or headlines and original HTML
- Plain text item excerpt length
- Your original site's favicon, if it has one
- Link to download podcast or videoblog enclosures (if available)
Here's a detailed how-to for customizing BuzzBoost and other tricks.
What if I want to customize my BuzzBoost even further?
You can customize BuzzBoost to your heart's content if you are familiar with the inner workings of CSS. Add a logo, apply a custom color scheme, make BuzzBoost sing and dance. Find out more in our entry on using and customizing BuzzBoost.
Okay, you've convinced me. How do I get started with BuzzBoost?
Simply sign in to your FeedBurner account, select the feed you wish to "boost" from My Feeds and then configure the BuzzBoost service from the Publicize tab.