As an avid blog reader (seriously – over 400 in my google reader!) of course I want EVERYONE to have full feeds, so I can read as much as I can in one place…it has cut back on my commenting, but I have made a better effort as of late, and I love finding new blogs to follow in people’s comments…
…and, I understand when bloggers choose not to use Full Feeds. They want the page views, they want to avoid scrapers (bots who copy and republish your content without your permnission), and they want to benefit from the ad revenue that blogher or other “pay by the eyeball” ads can generate.
However, as a blog designer, I will tell you what I tell my clients – the benefits to full feeds far outweigh the drawbacks. I tend to unfollow many blogs that only publish partial feeds (or in a few instances, NO feed at all-just a title!). It feels like I am being FORCED to click through if I want to enjoy the post of my favorite bloggers – and who are you to tell ME what to do? : P Not that hard-headedness is a character trait *I* possess (STOP laughing!).
Switching to full feeds may result in a few less page views at first, but people who read and clicked through their reader will eventually continue to do so. You will probably notice an upswing in the number of subscribers you have (you DO have feedburner to tell you how many subscribers you have, right?!?) – which are becoming just as important to advertisers and PR people as well. Feed reader readers (try saying THAT 5 times fast!) are practically a captive audience!
Which brings me to advertising – if you are currently taking private advertising or posting affiliate ads, posting a discrete graphic ad or two or a few text ads aren’t obtrusive and has resulted in significant extra clicks on the feed ads I have placed on The Apronista.
Ultimately, it’s a blogger’s own choice, and every blogger does things their own way. It’s what makes us all interesting, isn’t it?
PS – I love to share my favorite posts with my friends, and you can see those in my sidebar – which is on my blog -which you have to click through to see…which, um…crap. Oh! Unless you already use Google Reader, then you can find me there under domesticchicky (DER) and my shared posts will pop up in your reader too!! (whew – I nearly negated an entire post in one fell swoop!)
PSPS – I will love you forever if you know the connection between this post and the picture at the top of it
Feed me seymour! LOL
As an avid blog reader, I agree with your statements above. Yes sometimes I just read and move on. But if I read a post that I want to comment on, I will click through (like i did here!)
It bugs the crap out of me when someone only shows the title of their post in the feed. I just wont read it at all. I am kinda upset because one of the blogs I (used to) read every day switched to just allowing a title through on their reader and now I don’t read it at all. I read a lot of my blogs on my iphone and sometimes my connection isn’t the best (thank you AT&T) so having to click through and open a browser to read a post on my tiny screen just isn’t worth it. I like having them all in one place to read. I don’t mind when it’s a partial post and you have to click through to read more. I think it forces the writer to have more dynamic first paragraphs to get me to click through too.
Great post 🙂
Amen!
I often feel that partial feeds defeat the purpose. I don’t even click per post to even my favorite blogs. Instead, I wait until I have time, click through to the main blog page, and scroll through the last several posts at once.
And sometimes I lose track of them altogether!
.-= Meredith´s last blog ..A Nutcracker Ballet Party =-.
Kgroovy beat me to it. 🙂
I publish a full feed, and I still don’t know how I feel about it! There are some blogs I read that don’t, and I always click over. I have unsubscribed from others for that reason, too, but I guess that’s because I wasn’t really into the content to begin with.
I agree 100%! I rarely click through on partial feeds and they annoy me to no end… and yes, I’ve unsubscribed for that reason as well. I always publish full feeds myself and I’m glad *most* of my favorite bloggers do as well.
.-= mikki roo´s last blog ..it worked =-.
Totally agree with you on full feeds — I am almost certain to remove them from my reader, avoid commenting and click-throughs, and generally give up. I can’t for the life of me understand the philosophy — I would much rather have 100 readers on feed and 25 on site than have 25 on reader and 25 on site because I don’t full-feed.
I make it a good policy to click-through and comment when I have something to say. The blogger just has to write something compelling, ya know? 🙂
.-= Nathan Pralle´s last blog ..Reversed Needs =-.
I’m with you! If I subscribe to a blog that only allows partial feeds into the reader I usually end up just passing over it and deleting it all together eventually. Just because it is in the reader doesn’t mean I’m not going to comment!
Thank you! I end up skipping partial feeds, too.
.-= Bridget´s last blog ..There are words. =-.
I agree, I feel bad about it, but a partial feed in my reader will probably be passed over. I just want the option!
.-= Kimberly´s last blog ..Just a Quick Update =-.
Firefox addons make it so easy to read through a reader. I can comment from my reader too. In theory, I don’t have to click through the the actual blog unless I really want to. I’ve had a post taken from my site without permission, but only once. I’ll keep the full feed unless something prompts me not to.
I see more and more people making their blog designs smart phone friendly which, I’ve been told, almost requires partial feeds for proper formatting. Do I have incorrect information?
.-= Melanie @ Mel, A Dramatic Mommy´s last blog ..I’m Tired of All the Ugliness in Social Media. A Letter to Those Determined to Ruin the Internet for the Rest of Us =-.