The Feed Reader Debate
December 24, 2008 by BloggerNewbie
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We had a lively discussion in the comment section of a previous post – RSS Reader or Website? The previous post pondered whether you read posts in a reader or whether you go directly to the website? Do you prefer to read the post in the reader? Some bloggers make that decision for you. Some offer only the title of their post in the reader while others will give you a little sneak preview with an excerpt. Of course there is always the option of the full post being available in the reader. This choice is set up by the blogger, not by the reader.
I thought we would further the discussion in another article after a little more research. I decided I would examine all of the blogs in my reader. I wanted to get a consensus as to which option is more widely used.
I have 100 blogs in my reader. I know, how do I have time to do all that reading? Well a majority of the blogs don’t post on a daily basis. In my Google reader, the posts are sorted by the most recent update. As you can see from the following graphic, the name of the blog is first, the title of the post, then the date or time.
I view the title and choose the most interesting ones first. I have a few blogs that I visit whenever they update. I click on the title and don’t necessarily even read the excerpt or any of the post. I like to click straight through to the site. I like to check out everyone’s site, see what they are doing different and join in the conversation.
Often, I make decisions for my blog based on my own preferences. I prefer to go directly to the blog to read the posts. Therefore, I list the excerpt for my post in the reader. I don’t trust my talent that the title will be enough and I don’t want to list the whole post as I want my readers to come to my blog. I reviewed each blog in my reader and I was very surprised with the results of my research.
Title only ~ 1% of the blogs in my reader list the title only. No surprise there. You would have to be overly confident with yourself to list just the title. The title is the only part bringing your reader to your blog. For the record, I rarely click through to that site.
Excerpt ~ 11% of the blogs in my reader list just the excerpt of their post. For the blogs that I read on a regular basis, I click through to the site regardless of the excerpt. In fact, I don’t bother with the excerpt, I just click through to their blog. I like to see what, if any, changes they are doing with their design or ads. It is also a sense of community and I like to join in the discussion if possible.
Full Text ~ 88% of the blogs in my reader list the full text of their post. To my surprise, an overwhelming number of blogs choose this option. I have all types of blogs in my reader from beginner to the seasoned pro. Choosing to use the full text went across the board. Again, this is neither a benefit nor a deterrent to my routine of reading blogs. In the discussion on the original post ~ RSS Reader or Website? Tsunami and I exchanged a few comments on this topic.
Tsunami and I were both of the same opinion in regards to using the excerpt. My thinking is that I hope to use a creative title to get readers to click on my post in their reader then my second hope is that the excerpt is interesting enough to get the reader to click through to my site. I want to encourage readers to go to the site to build community and hopefully create loyal readers.
I have since changed my opinion of how my post will be listed in a reader based on my research for two reasons.
The first reason is the overwhelming number of blogs that offer the full post. 88%? That speaks volumes. In my reader, 21% of the blogs I subscribe to are categorized (by me) as the “A” list. ALL of them offer the full post. With the combination of their years of experience and their thousands of readers, I try to follow their lead.
The second reason is the choice of clicking through to my blog should be the readers choice not mine. The majority of the reason we all write is for people to read our brilliant words, right? So shouldn’t that be a blogger’s main objective? If the post is compelling enough, the reader will click through to your site. Wouldn’t it be nice if the reader had control over the option? Give that option to your reader.
One other interesting “factoid” I discovered – only 17% of the blogs in my reader have ads in their posts. I thought that was low.
Wow, this post was interesting to research and quite an eye opener. I am glad we had this discussion on RSS Reader or Website?
What do you think? Has this research changed your mind? Do you have any thoughts to add? Any arguments for or against this debate? Keep the discussion open!
Toodles – Blog Happy!
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“Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler…”
~ Albert Einstein
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i scan my reader..most of the blogs i read, i just go to them anyway, without even logging into my reader. i do hate partial post feeds because sometimes i want to read the entire thing there. even if i do though, i go to the blog anyway to leave a comment.
Natural´s last blog post..You’re So Vain You Probably Think This Post Is About You
I probably do the most of my reading in my RSS feeder. Very few of the sites have a partial feed (mostly news). I think you really have to be confident in your place to only offer a partial feed.
I’d even say that a partial feed , for the most part, is useless for me and seems more like advertising so I generally won’t subscribe.
Most who use a reader are somewhat tech savvy already so they wouldn’t click on your ads on your site anyway. You might as well make as easy as possible for them to read. That person who sees your full feed post might be the one who decides to link to you!
FFB´s last blog post..A Mother’s Struggle Between Work And Kids
Well i prefer to subscribe by email and not through feeds. Partial feeds is not the way to go if you have not more than 2 articles a day.
Money Money Money´s last blog post..Audi R8 Launched In Hyderabad
80% of the blogs I subscribe to come through my feed reader. My posts come through in full length. I know this because I subscribe to my own blog. The majority of the blogs I read all show the entire post in my reader. I can think of only one that displays only the title. I had no idea I could control how much of my post shows up until I read your post. Even with that knowledge I am keeping things the same. While I do not have a lot of comments at the moment, my readership is growing ever so slightly and I am pleased with that.
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Natural:
My reader keeps me organized. I have my favorites all in one place and listed first, then my resource blogs, etc. I always go to the blog itself, but that’s just my preference so I decided to give the choice to my readers rather than choosing for them. That is annoying!
FFB:
I have only been using a reader for a few months and just the opposite of you, I usually go right to the site. I use the reader more of an organizing tool to have all my favorite blogs in one area.
I disagree about the savvy reader not clicking on ads. Ads aren’t trickery, they can be useful information for certain people and hopefully they are matched with the right person at the right time.
My site lists my full post in the reader so feel free to sign up for a reader subscription!
Money, Money, Money:
I actually have more readers via email than subscriber and I can see where a partial feed would be very annoying. People just wouldn’t take the extra time to click through unless the post is very compelling. I didn’t really give that enough thought. Thanks for the tip.
CJ:
I have only used WordPress for my blog platform and there is an option in Settings – Reading that lets you choose partial or full feeds. I think the default is full feed. Should have taken the hint right there. When you read the full post in your reader do you ever click through to the site? If yes, why?
I tend to do a little big of everything. Depending on the blog, I sometimes just read a paragraph before deciding whether or not to open the blog. I usually do that with the blogs that are not related to my niche or business (blogs for entertainment). Everything else, I just open without reading the preview. My Google Reader isn’t very organized though – at least not yet.
With my own blog, I have the entire post viewable on the reader.
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I read blogs in the feedreader, unless they use an excerpt or just a headline, then I go to the blog if it’s something that looks interesting.
I go to blogs from the reader when there is something that I want to comment on or if I would like to see what others have to say about the post.
I provide the full feeds for my blogs and I prefer blogs that have full feeds. There are a few in my feedreader that use excerpts and I find it a little irritating when the full feed isn’t there.
I realize from this topic that, if I want people to come to my blog from their feedreader, I need to give them a reason for visiting, like posing a question that they’re gonna want to answer in the comments or writing an engaging post that elicits comments.
This is an interesting topic — and one that I’ve seen discussed before. In fact, it was because a previous discussion that I went to full feeds.
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Carla:
I spend half my life trying to be organized, I think it just keeps me busy, like I’m being productive or something..I used to have blogs for entertainment but now, too busy. I think I need to get back to different blogs just because I want to. I now have my full feed in the reader.
Hello Mike:
You make a great point and one to really give some thought to. If the blogger wants the reader to go to the blog, rather than putting an excerpt in the reader, hopefully they write a post compelling enough to get a reaction out of the reader to make them want to go to the blog.
I also realized, from this discussion and from the previous post I mentioned about RSS readers, that it should be the reader who decides if they will be going to the blog, not the blogger. Therefore, the full post of my blog is in the feed reader. The blogger’s responsibility is, as you say, making the post compelling enough for the reader to want to go to the blog.