B.L. Ochman Argues Full Posts in RSS Feeds Don't Make Sense; I Beg to Differ

While my back was turned at Reboot, B. L. Ochman, bless her heart, came up with five reasons she doesn't like full posts in RSS feeds.

She titles the post "Why Full Posts in RSS Feeders (sic) Don't Make Sense"

Most of you, if you are professional communicators (and, if you are not, this is how we think), will be asking "Whoa... makes sense for whom? Who's reading the communication? What's their take?"

If you're a reader, and you think B. L. is arguing your case when she prompts for truncated feeds... think again. She's thinking entirely after her own interests. Not your  interests, dear reader:.

1. She notes you can't add comments to a post on a feed reader; only if you visit the site.

Exactly... but the reader won't comment unless he (and I'm being generic here) reads the full post. So.. by giving a truncated post, you're taking your chances. You'd better hope you are compelling.

I suppose if you were a bestselling writer who had the gift of inserting a little "gem" in the lower half of your posts, you would be entitled to ask for click-through. But.... not here.
Takeaway: Don't make your audience work for your content!

2. Feed-aggregators don't allow graphics or design elements to show up.

That could be a problem for bloggers whose photographs or art are integral to the blog. And I would love to hear from them. But, B.L. your graphics are a) icons of the reports you want to sell, and b) (if I remember) some photos of some hawks or something that live on your building. You might want to show those things (and I am all for it) but you text has to argue for me to click through for that.
Takeaway: Substance, not style

3. It's ridiculous to write long posts into RSS, which is meant to speed up reading. And bloggers should write less.

Aggregation means "bringing together" not "giving you a USA Today 50-State News Bite".
Takeaway: USA Today is popular. The Economist is influential. One publishes sweet little snippets. The other doesn't.

4. Hey, I need to make a living. So I'm keeping my content free with advertising.

Not if I have to click through to see your content or, in other words, spend time getting at it. Does my time have no value?

Readers and listeners always pay a price for content. Ask for a hour of radio or TV, and you will get it, if you pay the price of watching commercials or (here in Europe) paying a license fee. Ask for the content in a newspaper and you will pay $1 for 120 pages of newpaper, of which perhaps 3 or 4 full pages actually interest you. About 90 pages will be advertising.

And you are saying "That's me, too". No offense, but it's a stretch. It's a stretch for A-list bloggers. I've listened and talked to a number of them this weekend and... I don't see a market for AdSense and "buy my updated report" sites.

Takeaway: MSM publishing is already about razor-close margins. If you want to jump in that space, be my guest. Just don't bitch about MSM anymore.

5. The blogs with the best content are the ones we'll still be reading years from now.

That's right!.
Takeaway: Even if your rhetoric and logic classes are at 8AM, don't sleep in.

I'm happy to consider short feeds when I hear one argument against for them that makes rational, economic sense. So far, I've not heard anything close to one.

Posted by Allan Jenkins on June 12, 2005 at 03:29 AM in Blogging, Blogging for Benjamins, Economics | Permalink

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Comments

thanks for taking the time to examine my blog so closely.
BL

Posted by: B.L. Ochman | Jun 12, 2005 4:02:22 AM

I guess I would have had a similar response, but I unsubscribed a few weeks ago. It wasn't just the truncated items. They are SO truncated that I really couldn't get a sense of what the item was about without clicking. I guess that's the purpose of keeping the teasers to short, but it didn't work for me.

Posted by: Eric Eggertson | Jun 13, 2005 3:55:42 AM

I can't tell if she's being sincere or sarcastic in her comment to you, or if you are one of the "people who are just nasty and unpleasant therefore now permanently off my radar."

But you have a point - you can't straddle the line of being virulently anti-MSM and pounding your chest about using the same tactics as MSM. It's about having your cake and eating it too, I guess.

I did comment on BL's blog - I really don't get the hoopla over partial versus full RSS feeds. If a blog is well written, I'll read it with full or partial feeds. I'll moan and complain for a second, but still clickthrough. But, it's about good writing, and that's sorely lacking in many blogs.

Posted by: Jeremy Pepper | Jun 13, 2005 4:10:45 PM

I've never met BL, so I have to assume she was being sincere. Anyway, she's a New York PR worker, so she's got to have a thicker skin than that.

In tracking down the quotation, I had to visit her blog (and see the damned ads for reports that I will not be buying). I notice she's now setting up a newsletter for any posts over 300 words. You have to subscribe to it.

She asks: "300 words.... who has time to read more?" I suspect she's soon gonna find out.

Posted by: Allan Jenkins | Jun 13, 2005 8:00:58 PM

Apparently B.L. has gone to full feeds. I've resubscribed. It's not a punitive thing on my part. I just have so many places I'm supposed to check in on and spend 5 minutes a day, that when it comes to blogs, I have become more ruthless about my time. I think I have two partial feeds left in my feed aggregator, and I'm ready to let them go, too.

Posted by: Eric Eggertson | Jun 14, 2005 2:26:57 AM

I spoke too soon. As you mention, Allan, she revised her full feeds decision to 300 words. I really have better things to do with my time than keep this conversation going ;-), but I thought I should clarify that my full feeds report was old news that had been superceded.

Posted by: Eric Eggertson | Jun 15, 2005 1:34:43 AM

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