do you offer a full-text feed? then advertise it!
hello there! if you're new here and like what you read, you may want to grab the rss feed so you can always be up to date. thanks for visiting!
there has been considerable debate as to which one you should use on your site, a full-text rss feed or a partial-text rss feed. while many people fail to understand the reasoning for why you should use full-text feeds (i.e. there is no loss in page views, and in fact by some measures full text feeds result in higher page views, more comments, and better discussions) many probloggers have embraced full feeds.
the list includes but is not limited to all weblogs inc. blogs (engadget, downloadsquad, tuaw, and so on), all gawker media blogs (gizmodo, kotaku, lifehacker, and so on), and all wired blogs (wired news, compiler, epicenter, and so on). without regurgitating the merits of using full feeds or going into details of how you can offer full feeds while ensuring all the benefits you think you get from offering partial feeds, here’s one thing you absolutely should do if you offer full feeds: advertise them!
you are already going the extra step for the sake of your readers’ convenience so why not let non-subscribers know that you offer the convenience? in fact, most readers prefer full feeds and i wouldn’t be surprised if just advertising full feeds would convert an occasional reader into a subscriber. i know from experience that though subscribers don’t always read your content, they obviously read it more regularly than non-subscribers, and once readers subscribe to your feed, they rarely unsubscribe.
with that in mind, go and advertise the face that you love your readers and offer full-text feeds.
p.s. i offer a full-text feed.
Technorati Tags: rss, full feed, partial feed, blogging
September 18th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
I completely agree with you that full text feeds result in higher page views, more comments, and better discussions. About advertising your feed, it depends on how popular your blog is.
My blog isn’t at the stage where I can start advertising my feed.
I’ve been offering full feed since the day 1. I really don’t see any point in forcing your subscribers to manually visit and read your blog. How is the RSS feed useful then? Seriously, even big bloggers need to understand the main purpose of RSS feeds.
People subscribe to your RSS feed because they can’t visit your blog all the time just to check if you’ve posted new articles or not. Partial feeds only annoy your feed subscribers when they realize that they can’t read your full articles.
In my own case, I recently unsubscribed from Mashable ’cause most of their blog posts (in the past few weeks) have been lists and they started forcing subscribers to manually visit their blog and read the posts. For the record, Mashable was @ #2 in my most-frequently checked RSS feeds list.
I’ve also been a long-time Smashing Magazine feed subscriber. These folks receive much more comments and diggs than Mashable but they’re still offering full RSS feed.
In the end: If your article makes your subscribers think, they’ll certainly stop by to leave a comment on your blog.
September 18th, 2007 at 1:34 pm
The most annoying thing for me is email comment subscriptions that don’t contain the comment information and expect me to click through to see if the comment was in some way related to what I wrote.
September 18th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Good point saleem. As a regular subscriber to blogs I come across and like, when the RSS is just giving me a partial post, I don’t subscribe!!
September 18th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
I generally will not click on the “view rest of entry” links when I’m not given a full entry. I assume the point of the partials is the whet your appetite so that you’ll go view the full site (and the ads, etc).
I actually have no problem with a small ad at the end of the entry, but the partial ones as it stands just causes me to not really want to read what someone has to say unless the intro is *really* good.
Btw, thanks for having a full feed
And I’m here commenting, so it’s clear that you’re right that you’re not losing page views!
–Josh
September 19th, 2007 at 5:56 am
Since the day Mashable has started providing only a partial feed, I have unsubscribed.
September 25th, 2007 at 5:01 am
[…] do you offer a full-text feed? then advertise it! - A good tip from Muhammad Saleem, advertise the fact you offer a full rss feed to subscribers. […]
September 26th, 2007 at 6:51 am
[…] partial feeds are better – either for end user’s or for driving more individuals to your blog. Here’s one blog article that encourages those who offer full feeds to advertise it. Check out the comments in response to the post – therein lie some interesting points. Most of […]
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:32 pm
[…] feeds are better - either for end user’s or for driving more individuals to your blog. Here’s one blog article that encourages those who offer full feeds to advertise it. Check out the comments in response to the post - therein lie some interesting points. Most of the […]