Comments on: In Search Of Genuine Experiences on The Web

By: Example of a Genuine Blog Experience

Example of a Genuine Blog Experience — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:23:46 +0000

[...] you read this post, enjoy it the first time. It is a genuine experience. I had to tell you about it immediately. I had to link to it. I am positive he will get many links [...]

By: Augie

Augie — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 03:34:21 +0000

Thanks. I just changed my settings. Now to play with flare…

By: Jonathan - Advanced Life Skills

Jonathan - Advanced Life Skills — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 01:36:07 +0000

Great tip Jack on full articles vs. summaries in your feed. I just switched to the summary setting a few days ago. Guess I will go switch back and add a reminder. Jonathan - Advanced Life Skillss last blog post..What’s Wrong With Unstoppable Self-Confidence?

By: Jack Humphrey

Jack Humphrey — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:07:43 +0000

The consensus is that full feeds are better. Yes you will have readers who don’t come to your blog as often or at all, but you save yourself with the people who really want your content bad and don’t like to be forced to click through.

A lot of people say they want the choice and this has been proven out by most major bloggers who have flat out asked their readers and gotten feedback. So a reminder in your feed helps get more direct visitors, and a lot of people come to the site on their own anyway. They just want to be able to read it all in a reader on days when they can pull down the info and read on the road with a phone or other gadgets, and they can read offline when they want or need to.

By: Augie

Augie — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:28:15 +0000

Jack- Great article. It's amazing how many total junk sites I come across. Not saying mine is the best. I'm sure there are things I don't do well, like include images in my posts. You know how many sites leave me thinking "are you kidding?" Anyway, related to your last comment, I notice you include the whole post in your feed. I usually end up coming to your site to comment, but what do you think about only including part of your post in the feed, so you force your readers to come to your site to finish. Are you against that, or do you think it is important to allow the reader to enjoy the complete article in the reader? Augies last blog post..The First Thing Every New Real Estate Investor Should Do

By: Jack Humphrey

Jack Humphrey — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:16:10 +0000

One thing you can do is use your Feedburner settings to include a message in your feed. Something like “There’s a lot more where this came from! Click to go to the blog for more great _____” A simple reminder inside your feed can go a long way. People do get used to just reading their feed readers and forget they haven’t actually been to the site in awhile.

By: Jack Humphrey

Jack Humphrey — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:11:53 +0000

It’s not that search engine are unimportant. I get 40% of my traffic from them. And I write for them CRAFTILY without getting in the way of my readers experience.

I was just talking about people who create blogs for the engines and not their visitors. There’s a big difference there and you can tell the moment you land on one of those blogs that they care more about rankings than their readers.

You have to do both, but visitor experience comes first. You can live without search engine traffic. You cannot live without fans.

By: Leo

Leo — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:57:32 +0000

I usually don't visit your blog, Jack but this headline caught my interest. While I don't necessarily agree with you that writing for the search engines is not important, I do agree that there is a fine line or sweet spot where you can be both entertaining to others AND give the bots the keywords and relevance that they want. Leos last blog post..Internet Marketers- Web2.0 Traffic Does NOT want to be sold to

By: Paul e Watts

Paul e Watts — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:45:24 +0000

Hi Jack, Great post and I fully agree with your comments. Thanks for the info and the reminder that we are talking to real people not bots! I'm gonna try to make my blog more alive and more attractive! Something that has always puzzled me is the fact that subscribers will be reading a post in their feed reader or through their email client and I guess never get to see the main blog so miss out on all the other good stuff there. I never see a blogger saying 'click the headline' or 'open in your browser' to heighten the experience. Do we assume that all readers are aware they're just looking at a small part of the whole blog or do we tell them there's a lot more, and how? Paul e Wattss last blog post..New Review & Mucklewick Walk

By: Donnette

Donnette — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 21:15:10 +0000

I second that Jonathan. I guess blog writing is a true art form that only with practice can we truly master. Donnettes last blog post..Cultivate a Winning Attitude for Success