Otherwise entitled: Should You Have Your Setting Set To Show Only A “Teaser” Amount Of Your Post In An Aggregator So People Will Be Forced To Go To Your Blog To Read The Rest? (But that was way too long for the real title).
Open letter to all you bloggers out there. Especially to the bloggers that I read:
To my wonderful co-bloggers,
I love the blogosphere. I like both writing my own posts and reading yours. Your posts (whether funny or serious; short and to the point or long and detailed) give me new insights to…well, whatever it is you’re writing about. I want to ready everything you have to say on whatever you’re saying. BUT (there’s always a but isn’t there), I have so many blogs to read, and other real chores to do in life, that I do not always have time to actually venture over to your blog to read the whole post.
This is where your blog settings become very important–to you and to me. If you set your blog to only show a snippet of your post in my feed reader it is highly unlikely that I’m going to continue reading the whole thing over at your blog. Unless your catch line is absolutely catchy (offering me a million dollars or guaranteed free shoes) I just don’t have the time to click over.
As I write this I am subscribed to about 75 feeds. I read my subscriptions in Outlook 2007. Being able to read posts in my email program is pretty darn convenient. I don’t even have to open up my internet and then go to my feed reader to read my subscriptions. The posts come directly to me in my email. So, do you understand why it’s frustrating for me to have to go through several more steps to get to a complete post?
Don’t get me wrong. I do want to visit your blog. But I want to visit it on my own time. I know that most of you care about what your blog page looks like. I feel the same way and am wondering how to get people to visit my actual blog on occasion instead of just reading my posts in a reader. And I want to get an accurate count of readers. I’m not going to make my readers jump through hoops though. They’d stop reading. Maybe once I’m famous and a household name I’ll provide only teaser intros and force everyone to visit my actual blog.
I know I’m not the only one out there that feels this way. Are you losing readers because you don’t allow your whole post to show? Please reconsider your blog settings and make me and a lot of other readers happy!
Signed,
Your faithful reader (when it’s complete in my inbox)
Not So SAHM 
you know… i don’t have a clue as to how mine is set up…. or if mine is even one of those in your reader for that matter! 😉 if it is and mine is screw-y… will you let me know please?
Yeesh, I’m so 2003. Because I go to notsosahm.wordpress.com everytime I need my Vicki fix. It’s probably gonna stay that way, too. I like being old-fashioned.
I’m with you, Vicki
I like reading the whole thing–I read mine on my dashboard. I haven’t figured out how to do it in my Google webmail, but I’m sure it can’t be that difficult. It’s tough remembering to make all the rounds. I do like to leave a little comment, though, so you know I’ve been here. 🙂
God’s Strength,
Cindy
Ha – I am one of those who belong in the “I have no idea what my settings are” club. I don’t even have any RSS feeds I subscribe to, although Windows Vista has a handy little “RSS” feed right on my desktop. *shrug* perhaps I should investigate 🙂
I love NOTSOSAHM, so like the others, I will continue checking your page out the old fashioned way. I guess I have too much time on my hands 🙂