Comments on: 10 Steps To Google’s Real Social Search Results

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:32:00 +0000

I agree, Ruud. I believe that good content in a full feed will ultimately drive more people to the website than even good content and a partial feed. I frequently read that people who use feed readers tend to unsubscribe from sites that only offer partial feeds, as do I (unless I can use a get-around to make them full feed – and many people won’t bother to do that). And I would bet that there are others, like me, who will make a point (when I have extra time) to actually visit blogs I follow to enjoy their design, check out their side-bars, and to comment.

It’s my feeling that the use of partial feeds to drive traffic is not necessarily as successful as those bloggers think it might be.

Some of the most successful bloggers I’m aware of use full feeds. There are few who have as many followers as The Pioneer Woman, who has always provided a full feed. The number of comments she gets to a single post (and not just giveaways) is staggering and is testament to the quality of her content and her personal, engaging style!

By: Ruud Hein

Ruud Hein — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:04:47 +0000

In reply to Gabriella Sannino.

Good points, Gabriella. Traffic vs feed got me thinking though… With RSS being somewhat marginal and used by us special folks, maybe a full feed RSS helps other spread the news which in turn drives more traffic from regular people to the web site?

I know I tweet a lot of stuff that I come across in my Google Reader/FeedDemon.

By: Gabriella Sannino

Gabriella Sannino — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:33:53 +0000

In reply to Heather.

That’s a good point to ponder, Heather, and something that would make a good poll. Should RSS feeds be full or partial? I’m willing to bet that a lot of people simply read the full feed and rarely go back to the site, which, if true, would definitely lower traffic numbers. For blogs that count on advertisers and monetization, lower traffic numbers could seriously hurt them.
Having said that, the question of full or partial RSS feeds could be answered by the purpose of the site/feed. Are you blogging for monetization purposes? A partial feed might be better. Are you blogging to build authority? A full feed might serve you the best. It sounds like double speaking – but there’s really no straight yes or no answer.

By: Ruud Hein

Ruud Hein — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:43:05 +0000

In reply to Heather.

Thanks for reporting back and for the additional solution, Heather

By: Heather

Heather — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:27:27 +0000

Thanks, Ruud. I have tried that expansion tool for Google Reader and sometimes it just “disappears” on me. I don’t know where it disappears to but it doesn’t come back unless I redownload it and then it soon disappears again. Rather than struggle with this technical issue, I just (as in yesterday) found an even better solution (via Lifehacker) and that is this … http://fulltextrssfeed.com/. It allows me to change partial feeds to full feeds so I don’t even have to remember that they were ever partial feeds. I’ve had to diddle with the tool a bit sometimes but have been able to switch 6 partial feeds so far. I have one cranky feed that is resistant but I’m still working on it.

And yes, those who only provide partial feeds do, somehow, leave a bad taste in one’s mouth, which makes me not want to really follow them after all.

By: Ruud Hein

Ruud Hein — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:28:03 +0000

In reply to Heather.

I share your pain, Heather 🙂 I tend to unfollow partial feeds: waste of my time and somehow it just feels “cheap”.

Here are two solutions to get full feeds in Google Reader. Hope that helps at least a bit!

By: Heather

Heather — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 21:51:55 +0000

Is this the proper time and place to raise the question of full or partial RSS feeds. I’ve recently found some very good blogs I would like to follow and engage with but they only provide partial rss feeds, which makes it considerable extra work to actually be engaged with them. I’ve politely asked if they might consider providing full feeds and the response I typically get is that they they need site visits for their sponsors or they’re afraid of scrapers. Of course, it’s their blog so their choice but I do let them know how much I like their blog but that I’ll have to unsubscribe without their being a full feed.

Wouldn’t quality content still drive more numbers to their sites even IF they had full feeds?

Just wondering if you have any thoughts on this or if this is a topic for another thread?