You might think that maybe I’m running out of things to bitch about with this one, but I’m totally serious. If you have any experience with reading blogs and using feed readers, you understand a little of what I’m talking about here. But for those of you who aren’t aware, here’s a little example (all efforts have been made to protect both the innocent and the horribly guilty):
This is a snapshot of an offending feed in my Google Reader. You get the title of the post and a little “teaser” but you have to click through to the site to see the rest of the post. That? Makes me ORNERY. I can understand, especially on the more commercial sites, the need to have visitors come to the actual site and see all the shiny ads and whatnot. But you can put ads in feeds these days and there are other ways to encourage the visitor to click through to the site every now and then. When I just want to catch up on my blogs, however, and I come across a site that makes me click through… well that just raises my ire a little. And, I have to admit, I might skim the excerpt a little bit and decide if I really do want to click through or just skip over the post. Because I am “slackermama” and I am lazy. And having to click and open another tab is not on my list of things I want to do. Sorry.
The “experts” agree with me on this. Check out this article from Blogging Pro. One of their suggestions for getting more traffic and subscribers (and keeping them) is:
Offer a full feed, even if it means people visit the site less often. A person reading you is always better than a person not reading you. Make it easy.
Amen, brothers! You tell it! Besides, nothing makes me happier than seeing a favorite blog of mine has updated and I click it, only to be treated to the full post without having to click through to anything. It’s the blog equivalent of being able to kick off my shoes and put my feet up.
the feedreader equivalent of heaven right here… an entire post.
So, you know, in case anyone out there offers only a tiny snippet of their post and coudl have a heart and take pity on a poor, pathetic slacker like myself, I’d be very appreciative.
{ 4 comments }
Nancy (68 comments.) 05.24.07 at 6:05 am
I am guilty as charged — I did used to offer a full feed, but have since truncated it. However, I have a legitimate reason (I think it’s legit): Bitacle was stealing my content. Do you remember Bitacle? Yes, they would steal content from my feeds and post it along with Google ads that THEY would profit off of. So not only did they take MY ideas and writing, they would make money off of it whenever it was accessed.
So this is why — sorry if it’s inconvenient, but I am very particular about the ownership of my writing.
Zoot 05.25.07 at 11:36 am
I thought Bitacle stopped doing that?
I agree though, the truncated feeds make me CRAZY b/c a lot of time I can only see a site through my feeds - I can’t click through - so if it’s not the full thing, I can’t finish it!
Izzy (4 comments.) 05.25.07 at 10:24 pm
I don’t know if Bitacle is still doing it but I noticed with my other blog, Props and Pans, which had full feeds, that other entities besides Bitacle were taking our posts and putting them on pages full of stolen RSS feed content along with lots of Google ads. It was then that I decided to switch to summary RSS posts. I don’t like doing it but I was really pissed about the content theft.
ZOOTS MOM 05.29.07 at 8:12 pm
Oh I soooo ditto you. I’m restricted at work but I try to read “my reader” at lunch and those little teasers annoy the heck out of me I can’t read it all, can’t go to it to read the rest and may not get to reading at night…so annoying
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