Google's Feedburner Burns Me

Okay, I have to say, even though someone kindly mailed me a Blogging For Dummies book, and even though I read that entire book, including the chapter about Feeds, I still don't understand the concept.

As in what is the point of burning a feed? And why do people subscribe to a feed? Rather than just going directly to a blog, if you like that blog?

Soon after I started this blog I, to use the vernacular, burned a feed of this blog, using Feedburner. At that point in time Google had not yet acquired Feedburner.

Feedburner had a 'monetize' option. It seemed easy to set up. You could use your Google AdSense code. However, Feedburner had you adding code to your blog layout. This was totally screwed up. It did not add the ads to the Feedburner feed. Instead it messed up the ads in the blog. So, I removed the code from the layout.

Time passed and Google bought Feedburner. I was then told I could manage Feedburner ads from my AdSense account. So, I did so. I enabled ads for feeds. But the ads still did not show up in Feedburner. They showed up in the html code for Feedburner. You could see the space where the ads should appear. But no ads appeared in the feed.

But. The Google ads do appear in other feeds. Like Google's News Reader. Why does Google have both Feedburner and Google News Reader? I can't help but wonder.

Are some Feedburner geeks annoyed at being eaten up by the Google monster and retaliating by messing up the Feedburner code?

Another Feedburner thing that bugs me is the number of subscribers. The number goes up and down, constantly. Yesterday it was 47, today it is 45. 45 subscribers? And that's just with Feedburner. And yet when I look at my AdSense account, like I just did, it shows there were only 6 Feedburner page impressions. So, I've got 45 Feedburner subscribers, but of those 45 only 6 pages were looked at? I don't get it.

Anyway, can anyone enlighten me out of my ignorance regarding this Feedburner conundrum?

Google Feedburner Burning Me

Some of this blog stuff I really don't get. Like why does one want to burn a feed? And then subscribe to a blog feed? Why not just read the blog like you would any ol' website?

Even though I don't quite get the point, long ago I used Feedburner to burn a feed of this very blog you are looking at right now. I soon found I had subscribers. The number of subscribers goes up and down.

When I log into my Feedburner account there is a tab you can click on called 'Monetize.' I tried to monetize my Feedburner feed a long time ago, because I'd noticed that the Feedburner feed of my blog did not have the Google ads.

So, the Feedburner account supposedly ties in with the Google AdSense account. When you monetize and choose your ad style, Feedburner then generates some code that you have to insert into your blog's layout code.

I did so. And what did I find happened? No ads appeared in the Feedburner feed of my blog. But new ads were placed under each of my blogging posts in my regular ol' non-feed blog, thus screwing up the rule that you can place no more than 3 add units per page.

So, I de-monitized my Feedburner feed.

And then, about a month or so ago, when I'd log into my AdSense account, there was an option to add AdSense ads to my blog feed. So, yesterday I did so, thinking, once more, that ads would show up in the feed thing. Google had me burn a new feed, even though my Feedburner feed was part of my Google Account, since Feedburner is part of Google.

The Google AdSense thing burned a feed of my blog and gave me it's URL and told me it'd be active in about 10 minutes. Now a day later this is what you see if you go to my new Google AdSense feed where ads are supposed to appear. That's right. It's a blank page.

I thought maybe the ads show up if you subscribe to my feed, which is something I'd not done before. So, for the first time I clicked on 'subscribe to this feed.' I then chose Google Reader as my feed reader. My blog then opened up in Google Reader. With no ads.

I've no clue what to do. Google is not the best at getting back to you with answers to questions. As in they never do.

Maybe I should delete these feed things. Why would I want people reading my blog ad-free? I want them to click on ads. It's as if they are subscribing to a TV Feed and then getting to watch TV shows with no commercials.

Very vexing.