Saint Arnold Janssen YCC: Create Recent Comments Widget Using FeedBurner BuzzBoost and CSS

Create Recent Comments Widget Using FeedBurner BuzzBoost and CSS

Posted by Posted by RØN™ On Thursday, February 19, 2009

It always happens that while the diamond is still in your backyard, you will always be searching for the silver coins which are much less valuable than the diamond and searching for which takes much of your time. This happens with me when I was searching for a Recent Comments widget for my blog. I searched through out the web, all the blogger blogs who have nice blogger tricks and tutorials for a good recent comments widget. I got some, but uses javascript and are much harder to control.

recent comments widget for blogger through CSS and feedburner BuzzBoost

FeedBurner's BuzzBoost feature can be used to create excellent Recent Comments widget

While doing my routine surfing yesterday I found the real diamond, which was always there, but I never thought of it. I stumbled upon a blog which showcases the diamond and I was thinking what a fool I was. If you have a FeedBurner account, which normally most of the bloggers have, you can easily create a Recent Comments widget for your blog, using the BuzzBoost feature provided by FeedBurner.

Below shown is the current Recent Comments widget that I am using right now, which entirely made up with the FeedBurner BuzzBoost feature and some CSS.

Here is how I did it. If you want to have a Recent Comments widget for you blog, follow these steps. Before doing anything read this article about editing your blog template. You need a FeedBurner account for this widget to work. You can register for FeedBurner here.

How to create Recent Comments Widget using FeedBurner BuzzBoost

STEP 1 : Copy your Blogger Comments feed. This normally comes like this.
http://YOUR-BLOG-NAME.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default
Replace YOUR-BLOG-NAME with your blog name.

STEP 2 : Log in to your Feedburner account.

STEP 3 : Under the existing feeds in your Feedburner account you will find this text box to burn a new feed. Paste the blogger comments feed you copied from STEP 1 in this text box and click Next.

STEP 4 : In the next page click on the Activate Feed button.

STEP 5 : Click Skip directly to feed management link, which is shown next to the Next button on the next page.

STEP 6 : In the next page click on the Publicize tab which is show below the name of the feed you just burned. It appears near the top.

STEP 7 : Select the BuzzBoost feature from the menu items shown in the left side.

Activate the BuzzBoost Feature

STEP 8 : Make the Feed Settings in the resulting page and click Activate.

STEP 9 : Copy the HTML Code for the BuzzBoost provided by FeedBurner.

STEP 10 : Go back to your Blogger Home.

STEP 11 : Click on Layout >> Page Elements

STEP 12 : While on the Page Elements page click on Add a Gadget Link in the sidebar of your blog template.

STEP 13 : Select an HTML/JavaScript gadget and paste the code you copied from FeedBurner BuzzBoost in the textarea.

STEP 14 : Click Save.

STEP 15 : Bingo! You are done. Now you will see the recent comments in your blog displayed in the gadget you just created.

You can customize the BuzzBoost gadget or list by yourselves by adding some CSS Styles in your blog template style sheet. The article about how to customize the BuzzBoost appearance will help you to do further customizations in the BuzzBoost appearance.

If you have any queries, issues or suggestions regarding this feel free to post them in the comments section.