13 April 2013

Autopost YouTube Videos (Uploads) to Blogger using Google FeedBurner

There are many easy ways to post your YouTube videos to Blogger using third party tools/websites such as ifttt.com, however the method I explain here relies solely on Google products (YouTube, FeedBurner and Blogger).

1. Enable posting to Blogger via Email

1.1) Login to Blogger.com

1.2) Browse to the section shown in the screen shot below:
1.3) Enter a secret word for your auto blogging via email.

1.4) Click "Save settings" to make the changes permanent.

From now on you will be able to create blog posts via sending emails to this secret email address.

2. Find the URL of the RSS feed for your YouTube uploads

This is an example my YouTube account so make sure you replace my username(jenson) with that of your own.

This is the URL of my YouTube uploads which retrieves them as an RSS XML file. Replace my name(jenson) with the name of your YouTube channel.
http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/users/jenson/uploads?alt=rss&v=2&orderby=published&client=ytapi-youtube-profile

here is a simpler alternative URL for the same purpose:
http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/base/videos?orderby=published&author=jenson

3.  Add your YouTube RSS URL to Feedburner


3.1) Go to feedburner.google.com


3.2) Enter the URL from step 1 into the only text box on the webpage, as shown in the screen shot below:

3.3) Click Next and you will see the screen below:


3.4) On the above screen you can safely ignore the given options(As these can be changed later if you wish to do so). So click next once more and you will be presented with the below screen:


3.5) Click Next once more and you will see the screen below:


3.6) In the above screen you can ignore all options and click next. (I have checked all the available options to be able to see some more stats about the feed but this is irrelevant to what we are doing here). So click Next one last time!

4. Enable Email Subscription for your newly created RSS feed on Feedburner

4.1) Click on the "Publicize" tab and you will see the screen below:

4.2) Click on "Email Subscription" link on the left hand side and you will see the screen below:
4.3) On the above click the activate button to enable this feature. You will see a success message as shown below:


4.4) Click the RSS icon in the top left corner to view your newly created Feed(e.g. http://feeds.feedburner.com/JensonTaylor) on feedburner. You will be presented with the page displayed below(containing a list of your YouTube uploads. I have cut the screenshot short):

4.5) Click on the link that reads "Get Videos delivered by email". A popup will appear, so make sure it is not blocked by a pop-up blocker.

5. Subscribe to your FeedBurner RSS Feed using your secret Blogger email

5.1) Enter your secret blogger email address in the popup window and click "Complete Subscription Request" button:

4.6) You will then see a confirmation message which you can dismiss it by clicking on the "close window" link:

6. Confirm the subscription

Once you have subscribed to the feed on feedburner, an automatic blog post will be made to your blog that looks like the following:

6.1) Click on the confirmation link in the above Blogger post (which was automatically created on your blog)

6.2) Go to your blogger interface and delete this blog post because it will no longer server a purpose and it makes your blog look bad. 

7. Enjoy

From now on any YouTube video that you upload to your channel will be posted to your blog.

Potential Problems:
  • Updates can take up 48 hours to happen but not longer(This is the worst case scenario) because:
    • Feedburner emails are only sent once every 24 hours(The time of day that emails are sent can be chosen by you)
    • YouTube API extracts your uploads through its search mechanism which lags behind the uploads of users, hence the extra delay in this part as well
  • The unsubscribe link is displayed at the bottom of the blog post so anyone of your blog readers can stop this from happening on the next occasion. 
  • The emails that are sent to Blogger create ugly blog posts which look a bit spammy, although you can modify the email content to some extent through Feedburner(see below).

Tips

1. In step 1 of this guide you can choose the "Save emails as draft post" option in the settings which means your posts will not be automatically posted to your blog but saved as a draft blog instead which means you can review it and modify it before you actually post it. One important editing task here would be to remove the details at the bottom of the email/post which allows public readers of your blog to unsubscribe your blog from receiving these auto posts.

2. I recommed changing the Feedburner email title to something more suitable as shown on the screenshot below:
I have marked where you need to click and what you can enter to change the email title and logo. I believe it's easy to follow and also I am feeling lazy so I haven't explained it in more details but if you need clarification please let me know. 

As always any questions, suggestions or comments are most welcome.

8 comments:

  1. Thank you very much. Very very explicite and helpful

    ReplyDelete
  2. arikel you and thank you for this very useful

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have not received the confirmation post. I have add email to feedburner on 19 nov 2013

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. check your spam folder and let me know if it's still not there.

      Delete
    2. hey, you must be missing something.
      you should subscribe using your new email with secret word which ended with @blogger.com not @gmail.com
      I've also experienced this. Now, the auto email works fine in my blog

      Delete
  4. Will feedburner send the Video or just an image and description with link of the Video ?
    I need the video to be automatically embedded to my blog...

    ReplyDelete