Why I use a full content feed

I posted this comment over on an article about "right or wrong" with webcomics at The Floating Lightbulb, but in the event that Bengo decides not to publish it for some reason, here it is again:
It's a bit naive to think that a content feed is inherently destructive to item sales. If you look at a site through an update feed, do you actually look at the news box or the store? With a content feed, news posts and store items and the like can be put right into the content feed - but with an update feed they generally do not.

Also, in my experience, update feed items are very easy to overlook when skimming. I do usually end up going to the site directly for comics in which are provided in the content feed, since they're often too wide for my reader, but the content feed can include a lot more than just the comic.

For example, the content feed on my comic contains the comic, the news posts, some non-intrusive PW ads, and the comic's transcription, if it's available. Those are things that most people would never, ever see if they were to just look at the comic on the site.

If you would like to help to prove or debunk my point, please post a comment on this news post indicating whether you saw the news post via the feed or via the site.

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Comments

# Delos 
06/18/2009 01:37 pmcontent feeds 
I didn't see the comment on the 'Bulb - though I don't know why Ben would not publish it. I cannot seem to comment on his blog (or Ping's) which I assume has something to do with their host. Perhaps that's the issue for you as well.

Anyway, I can understand why we would want everyone to visit our sites but I'm not sure it is feasible to expect readers to not want the quick and easy. I have even begin to use a service that lets me get rss site updates from sites that don't have native rss feeds.

When I want to get more than just the latest update then I'll visit the site and poke around. Most visitors just bounce away after reading the latest comic anyway. I unsub from comic site feeds that don't show the comic because that's what I want at that time. I also prefer content feeds without much pesky advertising and have unsub'd from some because of it.x

Great point about including all kinds of things with the feed, even if I prefer it not be extra advertising. I'm fine with a line at the bottom suggesting the audience get the newest print book or please visit the site or whatever.

-Delos
#  
07/02/2009 10:22 am 
So I think the only point I managed to prove is nobody reads newsposts. Smile
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