Recently, I received an email from a revenue sharing website that I joined. It is a website where your blog entries are viewed to a wider audience, so it involves what we call “feeds.” Well, I really don’t have enough knowledge about feeds although I’m using it in my blog. The email just caught my attention because it says that the site will no longer accept blogs with “short feeds.” I’m ignorant, and I don’t know what this short feeds means. So thanks to Google, I’d be able to have some place to know this term.
Feed can be referred to as web feed, news feed or syndicated feed, a piece of information that came from its original source that provides subscribers with updated entries or content. Usually updates are received through email which the subscriber put when he/she decided to subscribe to a particular feed or with the use of a feed reader or news reader.
For bloggers and webmasters, there are two formats you can select on how you want your readers to read or to see your feeds; either Short Feeds or Full Feeds. In short feeds, your content will be viewed with the title of the content and the first 200 words written in your content, while in full feeds, you are allowing your subscribers to view the full content of your entry through their feed or news readers or emails. To be able to read the full content of a short feed, you must click the link provided where the original content is posted.
The issue with the usage between the two is a favorite topic that has been debated many times all over the internet. In a blogger’s/webmaster’s opinion, preferably they use short feeds. It is because they want traffic to their blog/website. In a reader’s opinion, they prefer full feed. It is because it is more favorable and convenient for them. More convenient because they will be able to read the full content without going to the original source of the information. For bloggers and webmasters, it is more on marketing their content together with their blog and website.
If I were to put myself in the situation of those feed readers, I should have the same statement. I’ll be more likely to subscribe to full feeds than to short feeds because with full feeds I don’t need to go to the original source just to read the whole article. If I decided to leave some comment to the article, then that will be the time I will visit the original source. This point of view looks like very unfair for content providers since the guaranteed hits for their website or blog will be uncertain. However, I have read a post somewhere in the internet where the blogger said that full feeds give him positive response to traffic.
At this point, I have switched my feed format from short feed to full feed, and I am about to see if it gives a positive or a negative response.
Still, a good content cannot be judged solely based on the format of feeds. A good content is always a good content. If a reader appreciates your works then whatever format you will use, you will have a loyal reader for your blog or your website.
