Feedburner: It’s Simple Really

Just off Chicago’s Canal Street in an open loft office, the easiest and most energetic folks spread the news of millions of blogs. They call themselves Feedburner and just a few months ago had the foresight to sell themselves to Google for $100 Million. What was it that Google saw?

Techcrunch has a great Feedburner profile.
I only want to mention what makes Feedburner an outstanding and successful Chicago business.

What blogger doesn’t know that ubiquitous orange button? It’s one one that means to subscribe to a Feeburner feed. It’s simple signage that serves a purpose. The quest for subscribers lead some publishers to make it bigger than the name of their blog. How better to turn customers into evangelists?

Really Simple Syndication. That’s what they call it. It has to be one of the most brilliant, really simple ideas. Give bloggers a really simple way to spread their content. Give readers a really simple way to take what they need. Then in a really simple formula. Do it for free. Make the sign up easy, seamless, and also really simple.

Offer a Pro Version for folks who need extra at reasonable costs.

Think about what Feedburner does right.

• It’s simple to use.
• It’s simple to find.
• The page that my readers see is simple and elegant.
• The stats for my feeds are simply stated and simple to use.

The Feedburner magic is to pack every feature with we love what we do and the people we do it for. Then they smile every time a customer calls.

It’s simple really.

–Liz Strauss