RSS Thoughts- Full or Short

[chris.whiteley]

I am curious what your preference in RSS feeds that you subscribe to. I have found that my subscription numbers really fluctuate. I do not know if it is because of my style and content.

My main thought is that it is because my RSS feed is set to only display half of the post in a reader, then one must head to my blog to read the full article. Am I loosing subscribers because of this?

If anyone has any thoughts please share.

[jshaffstall]

I prefer full feeds. That gives me the choice to read the entire post in my feed reader, or to head to the blog if I want. You might lose readers who have the same feelings when they find out that your feeds are only half the post.

That said, feed numbers fluctuate all the time because they are based on the number of people who access your feed. That changes as people do not access it for a while, then catch up on the posts since the last time they read it, etc.

As long as the overall trend is upward, then you are probably not really losing any subscribers.

Jay

[AMomSpeaks]

I also prefer full feeds. I get frustrated when I start reading and then have to stop to go to the actual page. I don't unsubscribed because uses the short feed but I do tend to get a little frustrated with it.

[Judge]

It seems like too much of a tease to have feeds shortened. Like you suckered someone into subscribing with the thought that they didnt have to visit the site to read stuff, only to use shortened feeds to lure them back to the site to read the article. Whats the point of subscribing?

[clinky]

I think full length feeds make more sense actually. You may have just inspired me to change mine Thanks.

[Ben Barden]

I prefer full feeds too, although recently I was asked whether I could also provide a "title only" feed for mobile users. This would save bandwidth for those people. I may provide it at some stage in the future.

[KiwiPulse]

The RSS feed should be only a summary of your content. If you put the full rss feed, I don't think you will drive traffic that way. I post a short rss feed that I cut between the pictures i.e I have ton of pictures. Its up to you! :P

[sukosaki]

If you have many posts per day, a short feed will do, but if you are putting out good content, go with a full feed, your readers will appreciate that without a doubt.

[Bloggeries]

Originally Posted by sukosaki

If you have many posts per day, a short feed will do, but if you are putting out good content, go with a full feed, your readers will appreciate that without a doubt.

Great point; if you have many many per say and they are short then do short; if it's 1 or 2 a day I prefer long; sometimes the "teaser" doesn't tease ME but something further down catches my eye.

[MarketLeverage]

I personally like a full RSS feed. I like to be able to read the entire post without having to go to the site. I can see the point of wanting your reader to go to your site. You can't monetize your site (unless you have ads in your RSS) unless the reader goes to your site.