That Tall Dude.com

There has been a hot topic debate for as long as blogging has existed, over how much of your blog post should be published in your feed.  Some argue that you need the full feed, to make it as easy for your readers as possible.  Others argue you need to publish a partial feed, so your readers come to your site, helping you page view and ad revenue potential.  After much thought, I have a different take.

As an avid feed reader and information junkie, I take in lots of blogs every day, mostly through Shyftr and Google Reader.  When I start reading a post that I like, I will open it in a new tab, then move on in the no no hair removal reviews feed reader.  Once I’m done going through my feeds, I’ll go through all my tabs, and can easily leave a comment on site for the author.  It’s my way of supporting content I like, and it fits into my workflow nicely.

Now here is why I say to publish a combination full/partial feed:  annoying your readers.  Some of you out there are fine with a full feed, some are fine with a partial feed, some of you need to look at what you’re doing to us.

When I’m scrolling through my feed readers, and I come across something I that doesn’t grab my attention, or is part of an echo chamber, I’m not going to read it.  Now when that item is VEEERY LOOONG, and I have to scroll for what seems like FOOOREEEVEEEERRRR, I get annoyed.  If you do it repeatedly, I might unsubscribe from your feed.  If it happens on back to back posts, it will be obvious to me that you’re a culprit.

So for most content, go ahead, publish that full feed.  But if you put up a blog post that goes on and on and on, split that bad boy up, give me an excerpt.  If I want to read it, I have no problem visiting your site.  If I don’t want to read it, I don’t want to spend the next 15 seconds of my life scrolling past it.