Blog Tip Sharing Project 9: RSS Feeds
Today I’ll be preaching from my podium about the joys of full RSS feeds. First of all, for those of you who don’t know what an RSS feed is or why you should subscribe to the blogs you read, go read Simple Mom’s explanation of RSS feeds.
Did you read it? Seriously, if you don’t understand RSS feeds, the rest of this post will make no sense.
First of all, I recommend setting up your blog’s feed through Feedburner. It’s very easy to do this, as you just follow the instructions on Feedburner’s site. Feedburner allows you to analyze and customize your feed, and track subscribers.
(I apologize, but I know very little about wordpress.com and Typepad blogs so this information may only truly apply to self-hosted WordPress and Blogger users.) If you’re a Blogger user and haven’t yet set up your feed through Feedburner YET, go set up your Feedburner account, then you can redirect your feed’s traffic! Learn how HERE! Self-hosted WordPress users can use the Feedsmith plugin that you can download HERE.
So now that we’re all set up with our RSS feeds, lets cut straight to the chase and talk full versus partial feeds.
A full feed is one where you can read the entire post in your feed reader. A partial feed is one where you get the first few sentences (and in some cases only the first sentence) and have to click through to the site to read the rest.
In a word, partial feeds are EVIL, or at least they are in my opinion. Evil is certainly a strong word, so possibly they just annoy the ever-loving crap out of me. Around the blogosphere there are raging debates and differing opinions. Certainly people should have the option of choosing whether to offer full or partial feeds, but as a reader, I’m HIGHLY UNLIKELY TO CLICK THROUGH to read the rest of your post. With over 300 blogs in my feedreader (Google Reader), I don’t have time to click through to every site. If I see a partial feed, those first few sentences will probably not lure me in and make me want to read more.
There are two main reasons that people choose to offer partial feeds.
1. They are afraid of their work getting scraped and republished elsewhere.
This can definitely happen, no doubt. However, if someone really wants to steal your content, they can quite easily steal it directly from your blog. One way to help deter icky thieves (and again, if they really want your content, they’ll take it anyway) is to put a copyright at the end of your feed. (You can do this if you’re feed is set up through Feedburner.)
2. They think it will get them more hits on their site.
False! Like I mentioned, it’s unlikely that I’ll click through to read the rest unless those first few sentences are irresistibly luring. What’s more likely to happen is that the number of hits on your site will go down. Period. People simply don’t have time to click on every single one of your posts, no matter how charming you are!
For more information on the full vs. partial feed debate, go visit Deb, Mom of 3 Girls, where she discusses it in plain language and includes MANY links to others who’ve tackled this debate.
Basically? If you want readers, OFFER FULL FEEDS! For the love of Betsy, offer full feeds! Be generous.
*************
Bonus discussion!
The other day on Twitter, several of us were having a discussion about our subscriber numbers and how they go up and down. Mrs. Fussypants asked me to explain the reasons behind this so….I’m going to explain this as I understand it. THIS INFORMATION IS BASED ON MY LITTLE UNDERSTANDING AND KNOWLEDGE AND MAY NOT EVEN BE ACCURATE. FOR REALS. If you have more accurate information, feel free to correct me…but do it nicely.
First of all, your feed count is updated ONCE each day, typically in the morning. This number will usually vary from day to day and is based on the number of people who access your feed (meaning: they simply opened their feedreader or logged into their Google account, where Gmail, Google Reader, and Blogger are all intertwined). The number of subscribers you have is based on the the PREVIOUS DAY’S information.
So let’s say it’s Monday morning and you notice that your subscriber count has gone down by 10 or 50 or 100. The most likely cause is that there are lots of people who don’t have time to read blogs on Sundays, so they don’t bother opening their Bloglines account. Therefore, Feedburner has no way of counting those people as subscribers since they didn’t even access your feed by simply opening their feedreader.
There are also days where Feedburner gets all wonky and somehow forgets to count all the people who read through Google Reader. I’ve woken up to a feed count 300 less than the previous day. Certainly it’s disconcerting, but it’s not because I actually lost 300 readers.
*******
Discuss. Tell me your thoughts of full feeds (YAY!!) and partial feeds (*glaring*). Also, let me know if the subscriber count thing is understandable now.
Homework: Next week I’m going to focus on your unanswered questions about the topics I’ve already covered or anything else blogging related. I need you to EMAIL ME your questions to playgroupie at gmail dot com. In the subject line put “Question” so that I don’t lose it. Please don’t leave your questions in the comments section! (Unless it’s a question about today’s post!) Also, let me know if you want me to link you with your question or if you’d rather remain anonymous. No question is a dumb question. I don’t promise to know the answer to every question.
You can read more of my blog tips HERE.
Am I really the first commenter? That feels weird. I just had to say that I’ve just started using google reader and I HATE partial feeds. Like you said, no one has time to click over every single time. But, if I can read the whole post, I’ll click over and comment a lot more! Just my two cents.
anymommys last blog post..Just One Year
Thanks for linking to me! And I completely agree - full feeds are the only way to go.
ProBlogger has a good article where he interviewed some bigwig with Feedburner and asked him to explain the fluctuating numbers. Here it is:
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/08/16/why-does-my-feedburner-subscriber-count-fluctuate/
Still a little confusing, but it makes some sense.
Toblerone @ Simple Moms last blog post..Forming New Habits: Approach the Goal Gradually
Hmm, I wonder what your take is on partial feeds… LOL
I totally agree - I’m so behind on keeping up with the blogs in my reader that if I see a partial feed I tend to go right for the ‘mark all as read’ button instead of clicking through to read everything.
Thanks for the link!
Thank you so much for this post! I keep meaning to do a similar one at my site, but haven’t gotten around to it. I shared your item, though, so maybe it will be read by even more people.
You have lots of readers, so I expect to see more full feeds popping up here in the near future
Devilish Southern Belles last blog post..Now that the boys are back
OK babe, I have a question about RSS feeds and feedburner. I have managed to have THREE separate feeds to my blog. The main one and then another 2 with less than 20 subs. I have tried combining them to no avail… any idea what to do?
And partial feeds? Unless someone is a HUGE blogger and I know the post is going to be mindblowing, I will mark as read and eventually unsub. I tend to skim a post in my bloglines and then click through if I want to comment.
I had that little number thing up for a couple weeks after I got on with Feedburner, and just took it off. I “lost” over 80 readers in one day and it kinda bummed me. I didn’t know why and I thank you for the explanation. I’m not putting it back, though. LOL
SECRET AGENT MAMAs last blog post..Photohunt: Clouds
@Kelley: Hmmm, I really don’t know . I suppose…don’t DO THIS without more research, but if more than one feed is through feedburner, you could try just deleting those extraneous feeds? Of course you could possibly lose those subscribers. Or maybe you could redirect those extraneous feeds to your main feed? Have you checked out Problogger to see if they’ve tackled this question?
ANYONE??? ANYONE??? If you’re reading this, can you give us the answer??
I tried redirecting and Feedburner said ‘no way woman’.
I ‘could’ delete them and hope that the readers realise and re sub…
Yeah, I checked ProBlogger, and found nothing.
You, my lovely, are freaking awesome. Love ya!
Thanks for the clear up on how the numbers work with feedburner. I actually NEVER knew.
As for partial feeds. I tried it for 2 days and many of my readers were upset saying they were less likely to read. I went back to full.
I usually scroll through my reader during breakfast…. lurking. I love my full feeds.
ohmommys last blog post..Lies my mother told me.
Another great one! YAY!
I just wanted to say, I have always allowed full feeds, but I did worry about someone snatching up my material, so thanks for mentioning to add your copyright to the bottom of each feed. It’s a small detail, but a great idea!
brittanys last blog post..Where’s my wingman?
Yes. Thank you. Partial feeds are totally annoying. Ever since you said you were going to write about this, I have been waiting patiently so I can read it and nod and say, “Yes! Yes! For the love of all that is holy, yes!” As soon as I saw that this was the post, I clicked through from my reader so I could comment. See? Case in point.
Full-feeders, unite!
Stimeys last blog post..What’s Going to Happen
I DESPISE partial feeds……I will usually only click over like once a week or so and then catch up all at once. Then I am so tired of reading I hardly ever comment.
How do you add the copyright at the end of the feed? I use feedburner.
abunslifes last blog post..Great News!
Full feeds are the only way to go. I tend to delete if it’s a partial feed.
Feedreader is absolutely awesome.
Another fabulously written tutorial. Great job Jennifer.
I have the same question as abunslife about the copyright.
Thanks for all the help sweetie.
Rachels last blog post..Shades of a Memory
Amen to the partial feeds. I can’t stand them. Thanks for the explanation of the feedburner numbers, I knew it was something like that, but it makes more sense now.
catnips last blog post..perfectly perfect
thank you so much for all your amazing tips.
Im still stuck in the AM I DOOMED TO BE NOT SUCCESSFUL (and what does that mean anyhoo? :)) IF I FOLLOW NONE OF THE PROTOCOLS?
no social media groups
feed burner
rss feeds
twitter
plurk
any of it
and just simply write.
who knows.
MizFits last blog post..odds & ends.
I had posts at Central IL Life scraped and republished in German so I switched to partial feeds. On that blog I get most of my traffic from googlers, so I’m not really too worried about subscribers. I know google traffic is low quality traffic, but these days I’m more concerned about having fun than providing the be all and end all service.
Rayne of Terrors last blog post..Scenes from a Mac attack
I had several feeds when I signed up for feedburner. I was able to direct all my feeds through the feedburner feed in the settings section of my blog.
Mamaspheres last blog post..I’m More Evil Than I Thought I Was
The sad thing is that there’s a small few of partial feed bloggers that I really like but dang it ,they obviously won’t change their ways to full feed.
I’ve also noticed that some other bloggers that I read have finally changed from partial to full..bless them I just want to kiss them now.
Should a person have a button for each kind of feed reader to get their peeps to subscribe? I haven’t really made it a big deal about people subscribing on mine since I’m such a small fry blogger. Does feedburner accomodate for all types of feed readers? Do I even know what I’m talking about?
Jean@workingmomma247s last blog post..This Just In
I’m not trying to bring the vibe of your blog down, but I have an account on Maya’s Mom, where you feed your blog. You only have a partial feed on there. Just thought you’d like to know. I know it’s possible to put up a full feed, many people do it. Since you’re so anti-partial feed, I thought you’d like to know that your blog is being partially fed on that site.
Thanks for all the good info on feeding. I know a lot of people get upset about partials because they have slow computers and having to click opens a new window on some sites and ends up slowing their computer down even more.
Another reason people hate partials, especially when they’re fed to networking sites is because it looks like the blogger is just trying to get hits on their site, not trying to interact on the social site.
I’ll click on a partial, but only if the first few lines are really interesting, or if it’s from someone I like a lot already. When I see a full feed, I make sure to comment on the actual blog, instead of the site it’s fed too, that way, they’re getting some love from me for making it a full feed.
Lisas last blog post..2 woo-hoos for the price of one!
wonderful!
I stumbled.
Now everyone needs to start stumbling!
Alli ~Mrs. Fussypantss last blog post..Fight the Frump -Astringent Woes?
@abunslife, @Rachel:
To add a copyright on the bottom of your feed through feedburner…go read this:
http://internetducttape.com/2008/04/17/put-a-copyright-notice-in-your-rss-feed/
It will explain exactly what to do!
@Lisa: Hmmm. THANK YOU! I’m glad you brought up the point about my feed being partial in Maya’s Mom. This is definitely not intentional, and I assumed it was just the way things were on the site. Since you say that other’s feeds are full feeds, I’ll investigate and see if there is anything I can do to change it. If not, I’ll probably delete my account because that’s how much I despise partial feeds.
Thanks again for bringing this up.
I had no idea about the full and partial feed debate!! I just switched to full feeds - sorry!!
Devans last blog post..Day 7: We arrived!
@Jean@workingmomma247: Feedburner does accomodate all types of feedreaders. You can even set your feed to make it “browser friendly” under Feedburner’s “Optimize” tab so that it’s easily read in all feedreaders.
Great question!
I’m lame…I still click onto sites from my blogroll. My blogroll which is horribly out of date.
I have readers but I really like seeing the individual blogs…I feel more connected. Like the difference between talking to a friend on the phone vs. having coffee with them at their home.
But I gotta get back into my reader. I just get so behind!
Christines last blog post..An open letter to Kathy Griffin
Question about readers- I have a feedburner button. Should I also have a “read me in your in box” button? I’ve seen some with, some without, and some with both. What’s your opinion?
Headless Moms last blog post..3 days left!
When I first started my blog, I had it set for partial in Readers, but my daughter set me straight pretty quickly about how annoying that was, so I switched it to full. Now that I have Google Reader myself, I see what she meant. I have partials and rarely click through unless they have a really great first sentence or two.
Mrs. Whos last blog post..For Fun Friday August 1, 2008
And of course I meant “hate” and not “have”. Hate when I click before I spell check!!
Mrs. Whos last blog post..For Fun Friday August 1, 2008
I was a partial feeder for a long time, mainly because when you read a lot of those “how to drive traffic” articles they tell you, entice your reader with partial feeds. Make them come to your blog instead of just reading it through a third party reader. And it works, to a degree at least.
What changed my mind? Using a a feed reader myself. I found partial feeds really annoying. I don’t always have time to go to each individual blog and read posts there.
As far as subscriber numbers - you have over 300 subscribers?!? Holy crap! I was just happy with my 28!
okay…here’s something i don’t get.
i just set up a feed using feeburner. and according to it, i have ZERO subscribers. what happens to all the people who are subscrived to my feed from before??? i know i have tons of subscribers…so is using feedburner just basically starting over? do i have to tell all my subsribers to resubscribe?
alis last blog post..balls, balls, balls.
Okay, so now I’m confused. Are feedburner and sitemeter doing the same thing? Or would I want both for different things?
Also, I figured out how to set up a reader for my fav blogs - thanks! I hope the reader allows me to get around the Great Firewall over here in China. BUT - how do I put the little “subscribe to me” doohickey on my own blog? Ideas?
Sorry to be such a pain. I keep hopping in with questions, and I think I’m being overly needy. I’m just so excited to find someone with all the answers, that I can’t stop asking questions….
Donnas last blog post..Small Victories
@Headless Mom: It’s up to you…as long as you have some sort of subscribe button, I think you’re fine. If you’d also like to put up a button that says to subscribe by email, that’s fine, too.
@Donna: Sitemeter and Feedburner do completely separate things. Sitemeter tracks the last 100 visitors on your site. It cannot tell you the number of subscribers you have, only the number of visitors.
Feedburner can tell you the number of subscribers and visitors.
@Donna: I didn’t finish answering your question, oops! To learn about subscribe buttons read my BTSP post about sidebars:
http://playgroupsarenoplaceforchildren.com/2008/06/28/blog-tip-sharing-project-6-sidebars/
@ali: I don’t know! Where was your feed set up before? I assume you can redirect the old feed to the new feed… Are you sure that you didn’t have a feed set up with feedburner already???
Also if you JUST set up your feed, it takes at least 24 hours to count your subscribers.
Thanks, Jennifer!
And thanks, too, for the instructions on how to add the copyright notice. Consider it done!
I agree that partial feeds are harder for me to keep up with — I have two favorite websites that do it, and at first, I would let the posts pile up and then just visit their site directly to get caught up. But I have to admit that this is getting harder and harder and I don’t even visit very much anymore.
Best,
Stacy
Stacy (mama-om)s last blog post..Will the real Godzilla please step forward?
Thanks for this, J! I didn’t know about that feedsmith plugin, but now it’s my new BF! I thought I had 12 subscribers (in Reader), but turned out I had 49. Kewwwwl!
Wendys last blog post..manpris — coolness or just plain dumb?
I was just wondering about this! Thanks for the info! It is a big deal to me when I lose a reader…I don’t have many to begin with ?
ourcrookedtrees last blog post..100 Things 100 Readers 100 Comments $100
OH! I just remembered something about partial posts. If you use Google Reader and have Mozilla Firefox as your browser, you can install an add-on that lets you preview the actual blog page from within your reader.
So when I click the title of a partial post in Google Reader, the page refreshes and I get a little window within my reader that looks exactly like the blog would if I were to visit it directly.
Not a total solution, since it still requires a reload and can take time, but I thought I would mention it.
You can find the add-on here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6424
Stacy (mama-om)s last blog post..Will the real Godzilla please step forward?
@Stacy (mama-om): Thanks Stacy! It’s a great work-around for those you still want to read despite their partial feed status!
Oh my goodness!! I had no idea I was committing such a faux paux!!! I shudder to think of what else I may be doing wrong. Shit.
I did change to full though. Thanks for the tutorial!!
Awesome. Thanks. I SERIOUSLY don’t know anything about anything. So this helped me know a little something about something.
(You can ignore me. Really. I get that a lot.)
Debs last blog post..Twits? Tweeters? Twats?
I feel like a total bonehead because I just realized that I had a partial feed. Ack! But, thanks to you, I have fixed that!
Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE your Saturday tips?
Maggies last blog post..Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner
This was way over my head this late at night, so I will have to come back and look at it in the AM…..
BUT better than that…SITE of the WEEK! Dang girl, color me blushing! In the midst of unpacking, I might have to get creative! Thanks so much…
tommies last blog post..My favorites
I definitely am a full feed kinda gal. I thought I would get more traffic, but read many incredibly thoughtful posts on the positives of full feeds. So I kept it. Hope I make all 40 of those subscribers giddy with joy.
And btw, if you are in blogger and go to customize, there is actually a direct link now to have feedburner through blogger, not like going through their site is hard, but it’s a new feature.
Oh and one more thing. I found the courage to post my small readership number. We’ll see what happens, I was inspired by you. So thanks. Eek.
Denise @ EatPlayLoves last blog post..Got Old Pots & Pans, Create Some Family Music!
@tommie: You’re welcome!
@Denise @ EatPlayLove: Thanks for the info on Blogger! How handy!
And I’m telling you, my numbers really went up after I posted my subscriber count. I hope it works for you, too!
I’m on it! I feel like such a big girl now!
lauries last blog post..Great America bled me out . . . for free!
[...] use them so I never actually checked to see if mine work. It doesn’t. Heh. Thanks to Playgroupie, I think I can actually get this working! And when I say I, I really mean B because he is the [...]
Thanks for the info. I went onto feedburner and added a subscribe button to my blog. I hope I did everything correctly! I look forward to more blog tips!
The Mrs.s last blog post..30 is old?
@The Mrs.: You did it correctly!
Until just a few days ago I was a full feeder. But then I snipped it because I was getting emails, and saw for myself a few feed aggregation sites that had my content on them. No link back, no nothing.
I have my CC on the bottom of my feeds but it didn’t hinder them. Emailing them did no good, I was ignored. Bleah.
So today, I installed the a plugin that puts a warning at the bottom of my feeds, and I think I’ll be making it full again. I dunno. I’m just annoyed.
Marias last blog post..No one wants the lil’ black kid.
Hi. I use Google Reader and have my blog through Blogger. I read the info about feedburner, but My question about feedburner is this: Does feedburner direct people away from blogger.com to somewhere else, or does it take people from somewhere else and direct them to blogger.com? It sounds like the former but I would prefer it to be the latter. Also I have NO idea what Stumble It is. I think Feedburner could stand to have some more info out there; I recently asked my readers to answer the question of “what is feedburner?” and I had lots of people tell me, “Well, I’m subscribed to it but I have no idea what it does.” Also, how do I post my subscriber numbers in my sidebar?
Texan Mama’s last blog post..No More Boring Breakfast!
I HATE partial feeds. Hate, hate, hate them.
midlifemommy’s last blog post..Babytalk
I am loving your blog!! I have read the same (most of the same) books and have given them the same grades as you. Stop by sometime!
Christina’s last blog post..Do you do Crocs?