Configure FeedBurner MyBrand with 1and1 Host

This past weekend I was very excited that I was approve to access the FeedBurner Pro MyBrand. The email they sent explained on how to create MyBrand with my own domain. This is great because now it can make my blog feel official; the feeds are under my own domain and not feedburners.

What is FeedBurner MyBrand?

MyBrand lets you use your own domain name to host your feed instead of feeds.feedburner.com. It puts you in even greater control of your own content with FeedBurner and best of all, MyBrand is now free. Prior to the Google purchase you had to pay for this feature.

Within the email they state that MyBrand:

What MyBrand Does

MyBrand lets you create an alias at your domain so that you can “mask” your feed URL at FeedBurner. For purposes of this e-mail, we’re going to assume that your domain is “yourdomain.com” (yes, we’re clever), and you have a feed that today is at feeds.feedburner.com/BestFeedEver. Once MyBrand is active, you can use feeds.yourdomain.com/BestFeedEver instead of feeds.feedburner.com/BestFeedEver. Cool, right?

Please note: This does not in fact change where your feed lives. The feeds.feedburner.com address is still valid, and feeds.yourdomain.com is just an alternate URL that users can use to access your feed. That’s good news: all of your subscribers today will continue to get your feed content without having to resubscribe.

Several of you asked whether you could “redirect” your existing subscribers away from the feeds.feedburner.com address to the feeds.yourdomain.com address. Not really, no. Since they’re both in fact the same feed (you’ve just created an alias that points at the FeedBurner URL), redirecting from one to the other would in fact create a loop. And nobody likes loops.

Well when I was reading the email I was lost, very lost. Half the explanations they explained did not even work with my host, which is 1and1. I did everything, tested lots of aspects, I even went to forums and email. No one helped me!!

Here is a screen shot of the steps (by feedburner) on how to create and setup MyBrand, Click Here. I will show you an alternate way with 1and1 hosting, as these steps do not work.

Well after some configuration and trial and errors I finally figured it out and I decided to post it on my blog just in case someone needs help with it, because the directions for 1and1 are totally different than what feedburner states.

To start:

1. Log into your 1and1 account
2. Click On Domains
3. Create a Sub Domain (name it rss, feeds, syndicate, whatever you want)
4. Wait like 30 minutes - 1and1 does a take a while to finalize a sub domain
5. Once completed, check the box under name, this will highlight your sub domain
6. Within the control panel you will see DNS
7. Click it and chose DNS Settings, You should see this
8. You will check off (radio button) CNAME under General Settings
9. Under CNAME Settings will be feeds.feedburner.com
10. Check Off “I am aware and accept that all current DNS settings, e-mail addresses, and forwards will be disabled” and Save.

You are done with the 1and1 hosting, and now we need to adjust FeedBurner’s settings to assure your feeds will be properly adjusted.

Now go to feedburner.com and login. Once logged in please follow the below directions:

1. In the upper left hand corner you will see My Account, click on that
2. Near the mid page left side column you will see a link MyBrand Pro
3. Click Here to view the image again, because you need to locate number 3 and add a domain
4. There you will insert your sub domain and your main domain as you see in the picture, for example if you created sub domain “rss” then your url will be rss.blogblog.com
5. Click Activate/Save

Your done! Now give it about a minute to configure and test it by going to your sub domain and your feed address. Let’s say your feed address is feedburner, then you URL will be http://rss.blogblog.com/feedburner

This should show your feed as it would if you used feedburners url and your feed burner address. Also if you go to your sub domain address without the feed burners’ address, it should direct you to the feedburner homepage. Example: http://feeds.ianfernando.com

Important Notes:

• With 1and1 hosting you do not need to create the CNAME to: feeds CNAME feeds.feedburner.com. <- notice the period after and the feeds CNAME prior
• All you need to do within 1and1 is just adjust the CNAME settings to “feeds.feedburner.com” NO trailing period
• Make sure you add in your domain within feedburner
• Make sure you use the SAME feedburner address

This should be it and you should have your brand with your feed! You can view mine below:

http://feeds.ianfernando.com/failurestosuccess

OR

http://feeds.feedburner.com/failurestosuccess

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.