Never send out a partial feed

You know, it is easy to tell which bloggers out there actually read other people’s feeds.  I am not going to point any fingers, but I am convinced that if you knew what it was like to get a sentence and a half from a post in your feed, you would never do that to your subscribers.

Let’s be honest about this.  It is time somebody said this loudly and clearly.  Stop being selfish and hording your feeds and let me see the whole thing!

Which of these looks more like something you would enjoy reading? 

(notice if you can, the “…” at the end.  I’m not bothering, would you?)

Note: I obscured the text in the image above so as to not bring undo embarrassment upon the blogger who I personally admire.

Or our second snap shot:

This second shot is from the feed of ClickNewz.com by Lynn Terry, an excellent business woman and someone I am happy to call friend.  But more importantly, she clearly knows the importance of feeding out good content!

So why the shortened feed?

I know the logic behind it, hell its extremely logical.  You want them to come to your web page, so you give them a little taste with the hope that they will click through for more.  The problem is, you are really only going to upset people and make them remove you from their feed reader.  If you really think about it, this is actually more logical.  There are some good reasons to send out a full feed.

Reason 1 - People read their feeds in their free time.

I like to go to my google reader in my free time (what little of it there is) and browse through my feeds.  From there I can keep up with what I care most about, and when it is especially well written or engages me, THEN I will click through to comment or see the discussion.

I don’t have the time to click through just because your first two sentences were compelling, and if I do, you had better engage me!

Reason 2 - The web is mobile.

Let’s face it, most people these days take their blackberry or their iphone out with them.  If they find a few minutes waiting for lunch, then they can browse their feeds.  If you use a mobile data service, you know what it is like to constantly be tripping across pages.  But in most good readers, you can read the content all in one place without waiting on pages to load.

Please know, If I see you on my PDA, and your feed is cut off, I will not be visiting that link - EVER!

Reason 3 - it is just courteous. 

I have written before on the importance of being considerate of others.  These days, we all know if your feed is cut off it’s because you want traffic to your site.  If all I am to you is a statistic for your traffic counter, then I really don’t want to read your blog.

I am a visitor, treat me with generosity and hospitality, give me your best service.  And If you do, I will tip generously.

A word of compassion

For those of you new to blogging - First, understanding RSS might be helpful for you.  Second, subscribe to your feed so you can see what it looks like in a reader.  I understand that many blogging platforms default to a truncated feed.  This is easy to change.  It is in “settings” in Blogger, and “options” in WordPress.  If you use another one, go find it.  It is important to be familiar with some of these things you can do from your respective blog dashboard.

And for those of you who are shortening your feed for the sake of traffic.  I know why this is tempting, but please understand that it is essential that you serve up good content generously.  If you do this, I can assure you that you will see a higher payout in the long run.

If you aren’t using feedburner you could be making a Huge Mistake

I haven’t spent much time here talking about feedburner for your blog feeds. Maybe I will go into more detail soon about all the great stuff you can use it for and why you really really are doing something terrible if you aren’t taking advantage of this incredible free service!

Feed burner will let you manage your feeds better, learn to reach your subscribers more effectively, and even place ads in your feeds!

Just take my advice, if you are spinning out feeds try it out! It is free after all.

Any thoughts? Are you using it? have you chosen not to use it? Let us know!

The Story of the Twitter monster - Web 2.0 Genius

So I use twitter.  I think I have made that clear in some previous posts.  Myself and about 10,000 other people are enamored with this tool…. that’s not to mention the millions of others who use it, but just don’t see its full potential.

A tweeter I follow goes by the name “Patrickcurl.”  Patrick wrote a blog post tonight suggesting a sort of meme where commenters would have to subscribe to one another’s RSS feeds, then follow then on twitter, then post a blog.  Simple enough, but it goes beyond that.  This will work - and don’t miss this because

… Here is the significant thing you must realize…

Twitter has the ability to boost subscriptions and community in minutes not hours! Did you know that news of the last earthquake in China was on Twitter before it was on CNN?  It’s true!  Did you know that it is more profitable to watch twitter than the news if you really want to know whats happening at the next convention?

I was going to put together a political blog - until twitter made that whole concept obsolete!

So what Patrick has demonstrated with this excellent new tool is that using web 2.0 tools in a revolutionary way means employing these with ingenuity! You see, following the crowd makes you - well - a good employee.  Now I know that not very many of you who read this blog really give a rip about being a good employee do you?

You want to be sharp, you want to stay ahead of the game - you want to use the tools you have to create something.  Take an example from Patrick who took something that was there (Twitter) and used it to create something that wasn’t (more subscribers).

Check back.  As soon as I hear how this worked out I will let you know.

How about RSS for me

If you blog already emit a feed. So all you need to do is find it and promote it! Feel free to grab either of these buttons. If you aren’t sure what your feed url is, then look at the instructions below.

Simply right click either of these, and save them to your desktop, then upload them to your own site. Wordpress has a wonderfully easy way to do that and insert images. Go ahead and try it!

thanks to Aweber communications for these helpful instructions.

Where Do I Find the RSS Feed URL?

In order to have your blog articles sent by email using our Blog Broadcast feature, you need to get a hold of the URL address of the RSS feed of your blog.

This can prove to be a bit difficult without a little guidance. To help you to find this address, we’ve put together the instructions below. If you still have issues finding it, feel free to contact our customer solutions team for assistance.

How to Find Your RSS Address

The easiest way to get the address, no matter what web browser you’re using, is to look at the HTML source of your page.

How you view it in your web browser will differ, but in most browsers, you’ll choose the Page Source or Source option under the View menu near the top of the window.

Once the window appears with the HTML for your page, use the “Find” feature (typically Ctrl-F on a PC, Command-F on a Mac) and search for “RSS” (without the quotes).

You should be taken to a line that reads something like:

<link rel=“alternate” type=“application/rss+xml” 

title=“Example” href=“http://www.aweber.com/blog/feed/” />

The RSS feed’s URL address is found between the quotes after href= . In this case, it would be:

http://www.aweber.com/blog/feed/

Where to Find the Address in Firefox

Alternatively, if you’re using the Firefox browser or have it installed on your computer, you can click on the RSS icon in the toolbar.

You’ll now find the URL address in the toolbar.

What about RSS?

Would you go to a doctor if he told you he hadn’t read a medical journal in several years? Why not? Probably because when you are looking for expert help you expect them to keep current in their area of knowledge.

Well, I find that some of my readers don’t exactly understand what RSS is and how to use it. That just won’t do. Perhaps this is a shameless plug for subscribers, but in all honesty my desire is to help you build your business and be successful online. Many people I hear from think they can break something on the internet. Well its harder than it looks. You must be a regular reader of content in your niche and in any niche that interests you.

So here is what you need to do. You need to have an RSS reader that you use to follow all your news and regular content. When you see a button like this -

or

On a page you like, CLICK IT. It will allow you to add it to the content reader of your choice. Personally I recommend Google, I know that will get me in trouble with some geek snobs that prefer to use technorati or another fancy reader. But I like to add a bunch of content to my google homepage and see everything with one look. But don’t take my word for it! Test out your options!

Go ahead,

Try it now!

Note: If this was helpful, you will definitely want to read What About RSS for Me?