What do you more professional bloggers think about Excerpt blogging?
I have been kicking the idea back and forth between my ears on a second-level decision on the blog. It’s not directly related to the layout of the blog, but since it might drive traffic away, or keep them longer, I think that it is a topic to discuss and get some feedback on.
I was just at yet another site that has a paragraph and a few words of the next paragraph, ending with […]. I liked the neatness and order of the site because you could see 3 topic titles without scrolling, but I also found myself clicking through 2 pages and not clicking a single story to see what was past the first paragraph.
This, as I see it could be from one of 3 reasons:
- I am lazy
- I didn’t see a title I liked
- I didn’t get caught up in the first paragraph
It seems like a bit of a risk to send people away without my content because of either the first or last reason. If I am lacking titles that float the readers’ boats, that is one thing, but to eliminate a large segment of my readership because they are lazy like me or my first paragraphs are blah, then those are easily avoided by keeping my loooong format as it is.
It’s for organizational reasons. If users want to see your content, they will click. If they dont, they wont. Easy as that ๐
One thing about web is that your readers “scan” everything you write to see whether they should bother to read the rest of it. If you use excerpts, you have to write well and put the core thought in the first paragraph of your article. Obfuscating content will not work in the long run. Jakob Nielsen has done some resreach on the issue:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html
Thanks for the link. Very helpful.
BTW, your comment, and one by DM Osbon ended up in Akismet Spam…not good. Are you getting through to other blogs okay?
Joe from Working at Home on the Internet has been having this problem for a few days:
Akismet Sucks
Azeroth Metroblogging, Not Addicted, and WoWInsider use that “Read a little bit, and then click here for more” approach.
I like it because I can scan stories and jump to and read more in-depth what I want.
I prefer having the entire post shown right off the bat but people can always use my ‘Recent Posts’ widget on my left sidebar. So, they don’t have to scroll through my entire front page. I always have the feeling that some people will not read the entire post thinking it just ended abruptly or if the excerpt is too well written, they may think that’s the entire article.
Maybe I’m just paranoid.
My page views doubled this week after I started consciously placing continued tags in my posts. It keeps the home page populated with easily browsable posts and gives people the opportunity to see more of the site.