Feeds: Full or Partial Text?

There are many blogging tips that successful bloggers swear by. This is not a problem for those who want to learn from the masters until they contradict one another. And this happens more often than you would think. One such duo of discrepant tips concerns the question of offering full- or partial-text feeds.

Some bloggers insist that you should offer partial-text feeds in order to entice (some might say “force”) readers to come to your blog to get the full story. You will not get traffic coming to your blog if readers can get it all from your feed, or so the thinking goes. I think that is a valid point. On the other hand…

Readers can get ticked off and unsubscribe to your feed altogether if they feel manipulated into visiting your blog. Also a valid point.

The question then becomes, which is more important to your long-run success? Blog traffic, or faithful readers? Weighing all aspects of the issue, I come down on the side of giving my readers the full story right up front. It seems to me that faithful readers will bring me more success in the long-run, and treating them with respect is more likely to result in developing trust and loyalty. That’s what I’m banking on.

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