Comments Feed - 10 things you should know about site feeds

10 things you should know about site feeds

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 10:34:57 +0000

Bas - I'm not a huge fan of e-books, but I know there are many bloggers who recommend using them. And yes, I was the one who helped out at EC, but I am no longer on the team.

10 things you should know about site feeds

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:42:52 +0000

Hey Ben, are you the guy that helped me out so often with EC?

10 things you should know about site feeds

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 08:41:10 +0000

For nr. 10...

To get around the problem, one could give out a free eBook (or sth of the sort) and all people have to do is reply to your post or enter their email address in some textbox.

In the email in which you send them the eBook, you can take a moment to tell them about subscribing to your website and that it would be much appreciated, but that it's also fine if they don't.

So instead of taking and then giving something in return... you give something and then you see if they give something back in return. (there's some good examples of this in Seth Godin's Purple Cow, I believe... or maybe it was Freakonomics).

10 things you should know about site feeds

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:12:14 +0000

Lyndi - great point about alignment of images. In fact, I now remember it was the reason I thought up this list - and forgot to add that one!

10 things you should know about site feeds

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:40:31 +0000

The majority of my online reading is done in a reader. I prefer full length articles in the feed. If the content is interesting I will want to comment and then I will visit the blog. The one thing that worries me slightly about feeds is the lack of control one has over the alignment of graphics on them (or have I missed something?).

Ben, I would love to see you back at EC, but this time as the owner. This could get things moving again. The mind boggles, maybe Ben and Turnip as co-owners!

10 things you should know about site feeds

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:42:54 +0000

I wasn't really serious about asking you back Ben, I really only said it in a fit of exasperation, after reporting the same site for the umpteenth time. I did read your Zen Working post so I knew your reasons for leaving - I agree wholeheartedly with them.

Laura, yes it's very disappointing and as a result I'm going to cut down on my EC involvement. Not that I was ever as committed as many others, but even my current activity is causing me irritation/stress and I need to get on with different things.

10 things you should know about site feeds

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:20:44 +0000

A. I noticed EC is running downhill. Even in the blog and forums it is neglected. I don't see Graham adding anything, just an update about changes and then left everyone to sort it out. There is a spelling error/ typo in the title of his post which has not been fixed though it was pointed out a few times. Anyway, I don't want to rag on EC. It is disappointing to see it going this way. I did think it was going to do well. Ben put a lot of time and passion into EC and took a lot of flack about it. It was not fair and I really would not expect (or even ask) him to return to it. He was a volunteer, not an owner.

10 things you should know about site feeds

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:14:33 +0000

I don't use feeds myself. Just stared using the Follow feed with Blogger and Google Reader. Still don't think to check it. I added a feed to WordGrrls when a reader asked for it. I know it worked through Blogger but have not checked it since moving to the domain. Myself, I still am not a fan of feeds. I just don't have time to read every post on every blog on my list. I have several personal favourites, bloggers I really feel connected to in some way and those are really the only ones I work on keeping up with. All the rest are hit and miss. But, I'm not afraid to back track and read old posts. I don't think many people actually do that.

10 things you should know about site feeds

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:40:51 +0000

Hey everyone, thanks for the comments.

Leo, thanks for subscribing!

A, sounds like you are one of the people I refer to in point 6. I know a few others who don't view subscribing as worth doing. That's OK, we don't all share the same views. :)

As for EC - it's a shame to see my hard work being undone, but there is no way I'm going to go back. Have a read of my post at Zen Working - "Why you need to de-stress" - for an explanation of why I couldn't continue there.

Web-Betty - I believe this is covered by Ginkgo's comment. :) Ginkgo, I did read ProBlogger's post, and it was in my mind when I was writing this post.

10 things you should know about site feeds

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:37:04 +0000

11. If a reader subscribes rather than visits your blog periodically via bookmark, your stats will reflect that. Don't make the mistake of thinking this means subscribers are bad. Subscribers hear your voice every time you make a post, come to your site sometimes to comment (as I just did), link to your posts in their own blogs (a disproportionate number of feed-users are bloggers), and are otherwise good for your blog. Subscribers improve your blog's influence. Problogger had a good post about this recently.

10 things you should know about site feeds

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:38:00 +0000

I'm torn about your comments regarding full posts in feeds. While I can see what you are saying about not wanting to go to the site to read the full article, don't you really want people coming to your site for more than just your most recent article?

Hmm, it's definite food for thought, and maybe the answer lies in "it depends." For my personal blog, I want family and friends to have to come to the site--I make changes very frequently and I want them to see all of the pictures, videos, etc. that they won't see in just the feed. For my "commercial" feeds, maybe your thoughts are right on the money. Then I read A.'s comment about not wanting to wade through lots of text (to which I agree). Geez, one more decision to make, LOL! ;)

10 things you should know about site feeds

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:17:04 +0000

I realise I am probably about commit blasphemy but I have to admit I don't really see the great attraction of encouraging people to subscribe. Isn't it just something else to boast about, like page rank and Technorati authority?

I do in fact subscribe to some feeds, and here I'm about to commit blasphemy number 2, I hate full length feeds. I don't want to wade through/scroll through a load of stuff that doesn't happen to interest me, to get to the next item. I rather like (blasphemy 3) Blogger following in that respect, because you see only a snippet.

And now I'm going totally off topic to ask what does it take to entice you back as an EC moderator. It is becoming over-run with new blogs of 5 posts each, listing schools, colleges, temples etc., one for each town in India. Will any bribes work?

10 things you should know about site feeds

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:53:58 +0000

Wow, what a great and huge post about feeds!
"3. Once a post appears in someone’s feed, that’s it." - I love the fact that Feedburner takes some time to update, cuz I'm always changing something directly after I published the post!

"6. Some people may never be subscribers." - This is so true, and I'm one of them! I love lists though, so I subscribed to yours.
You found the golden thing! Lists!

Peace,
Leo