RSS Feeds
December 23rd, 2008 by Jon Taplin
The one day interruption in the full RSS feeds was a bit of an experiment to see what happened to traffic on the site. I am debating whether to move over to WordPress.org so that I could put up an Amazon widget to sell books, cds, downloads and DVD’s I like and maybe have some advertising. Needless to say, the traffic locally spiked.
I am still slightly torn about this, but as I spend more time writing the blog and salaries are frozen at the University, I have to consider this option. Hardly anyone clicks the “donate” button, so that is not a real option. My friend who suggested the RSS experiment says we can put up the ads and e-commerce in a non obtrusive place.
I’m open to suggestions from the community.
I hate sort RSS feeds. I don’t mind RSS ads, you might look into that. RSS ads tend to get viewed, by me as least. But teaser feeds with site ads won’t get my eyeballs because of the script and adblocks that I run when on the non-feed web. So you’d get my traffic to see the posting, but that’s all you’d get, the ads wouldn’t even load for me.
I hate sort RSS feeds. I don’t mind RSS ads, you might look into that. RSS ads tend to get viewed, by me as least. But teaser feeds with site ads won’t get my eyeballs because of the script and adblocks that I run when on the non-feed web. So you’d get my traffic to see the posting, but that’s all you’d get, the ads wouldn’t even load for me.
How about offering a subscription for the full RSS feed. I’d gladly pay for that.
How about offering a subscription for the full RSS feed. I’d gladly pay for that.
I second everything Kitty said. Truncated RSS feeds are a problem for me, because I often read using Google Reader’s offline mode in situations where I don’t have Internet access, which means I can’t click through to the full versions.
I, too, use Adblock for security reasons, so the ads on RSS feeds added by Feedburner and the like are about the only ads I ever see. I suspect there are a lot of people in the same boat, so an RSS ad solution might be the best way to go.
I second everything Kitty said. Truncated RSS feeds are a problem for me, because I often read using Google Reader’s offline mode in situations where I don’t have Internet access, which means I can’t click through to the full versions.
I, too, use Adblock for security reasons, so the ads on RSS feeds added by Feedburner and the like are about the only ads I ever see. I suspect there are a lot of people in the same boat, so an RSS ad solution might be the best way to go.
RSS ads would be my preference
RSS ads would be my preference
Jon, of course the traffic to your main site spiked for the first day – you forced a large percentage of your RSS traffic there.
The long-term question is – what percentage of your RSS traffic will put up with truncated posts and forced click-throughs to the main site, versus the traffic you will simply lose from people (like me) who will un-subscribe from the RSS feed and just stop reading you.
If you need the money, my personal preference is for including advertisements inside the RSS feed.
Jon, of course the traffic to your main site spiked for the first day – you forced a large percentage of your RSS traffic there.
The long-term question is – what percentage of your RSS traffic will put up with truncated posts and forced click-throughs to the main site, versus the traffic you will simply lose from people (like me) who will un-subscribe from the RSS feed and just stop reading you.
If you need the money, my personal preference is for including advertisements inside the RSS feed.
If there need be ads, I’d rather see them in the RSS feed then to have to click over to the site. I click over to the site to read comments on articles I’m more interested in already. I’ll probably just be less likely to read the full article all the time if clicking over becomes mandatory for everything.
I would think your readers would largely be too intelligent for ads, and they wouldn’t likely be clicked on much anyway.
I’ve been following your blog for months since I saw a link on Boing Boing. Honestly, I have no idea who you are or what you do, besides providing a very very good news commentary blog. But maybe there’s a book or something you could put together and sell in the sidebar?
No real complaints, since the blog is free. Thanks for the great posts. Good luck monetizing it.
If there need be ads, I’d rather see them in the RSS feed then to have to click over to the site. I click over to the site to read comments on articles I’m more interested in already. I’ll probably just be less likely to read the full article all the time if clicking over becomes mandatory for everything.
I would think your readers would largely be too intelligent for ads, and they wouldn’t likely be clicked on much anyway.
I’ve been following your blog for months since I saw a link on Boing Boing. Honestly, I have no idea who you are or what you do, besides providing a very very good news commentary blog. But maybe there’s a book or something you could put together and sell in the sidebar?
No real complaints, since the blog is free. Thanks for the great posts. Good luck monetizing it.
Mark down another vote for including ads in the RSS along with the full article text. I get all my web news through RSS and any site that doesn’t have a good feed has long since fallen off my radar. Jon, you’ve got a great blog and I get a ton of value out of it. Definitely worth a few ads in the feed for the discussion you provide.
That said, please make the RSS ads small and textual, not god-awful banner-ad things.
Mark down another vote for including ads in the RSS along with the full article text. I get all my web news through RSS and any site that doesn’t have a good feed has long since fallen off my radar. Jon, you’ve got a great blog and I get a ton of value out of it. Definitely worth a few ads in the feed for the discussion you provide.
That said, please make the RSS ads small and textual, not god-awful banner-ad things.
I’d like to second Kitty’s post.
Truncated feeds are a drag for me as well.
Paul Krugman’s blog stays mostly unread for this reason – I can never get a sense of the post from browsing my reader and just wander to the next blog.
Also, I have adblock installed, so no ads would appear for me anyway even on your local pages.
However feed-ads do appear on my Google Reader. So you might have something there.
However, a caveat – I’m not much for the ad-clicking anyway (not at all, to be precise) – I’ve adapted a mental adblock as well.
I would surmise that most feed readers are more internet-savvy and ad-immune anyway.
So I don’t know how much offering full feeds would affect your ad income (tho it would obviously affect local hits).
I’d like to second Kitty’s post.
Truncated feeds are a drag for me as well.
Paul Krugman’s blog stays mostly unread for this reason – I can never get a sense of the post from browsing my reader and just wander to the next blog.
Also, I have adblock installed, so no ads would appear for me anyway even on your local pages.
However feed-ads do appear on my Google Reader. So you might have something there.
However, a caveat – I’m not much for the ad-clicking anyway (not at all, to be precise) – I’ve adapted a mental adblock as well.
I would surmise that most feed readers are more internet-savvy and ad-immune anyway.
So I don’t know how much offering full feeds would affect your ad income (tho it would obviously affect local hits).
Short answer: RSS ads.
Longer answer: I’ll definitely filter out a non-RSS or truncated blog. Krugman is my one exception to this rule, and if it weren’t the NYT, I’d probably ditch him too.
Short answer: RSS ads.
Longer answer: I’ll definitely filter out a non-RSS or truncated blog. Krugman is my one exception to this rule, and if it weren’t the NYT, I’d probably ditch him too.
+1 on RSS ads. Click-through will definitely decrease my readership; I’ll pick and choose what I want to see.
Is it technologically possible to provide an ad-free, subscription-based RSS feed in parallel to an open ad-based feed? I would pay a reasonable subscription fee to get content this good.
+1 on RSS ads. Click-through will definitely decrease my readership; I’ll pick and choose what I want to see.
Is it technologically possible to provide an ad-free, subscription-based RSS feed in parallel to an open ad-based feed? I would pay a reasonable subscription fee to get content this good.
I live in my feed reader and don’t stop by sites very often if they’re not updating me via RSS. To me, a truncated feed would be better than nothing because I’d at least be getting a reminder that you’re there and a list of headlines to entice me into visiting the site proper.
I live in my feed reader and don’t stop by sites very often if they’re not updating me via RSS. To me, a truncated feed would be better than nothing because I’d at least be getting a reminder that you’re there and a list of headlines to entice me into visiting the site proper.
Another vote for RSS text ads (and also the Amazon sidebar on the pages). RSS is just so nice. I will continue reading either way though. Thanks for your effort, this is a fantastic blog.
Another vote for RSS text ads (and also the Amazon sidebar on the pages). RSS is just so nice. I will continue reading either way though. Thanks for your effort, this is a fantastic blog.
My own suggestion, Jon, is that you should have run this piece on the First of April. But that you husbanded it, is a kindness.
Thanks!
+1 more on RSS ads / -1 more on truncated posts.
Ads in general are not a bad thing. In many ways, they’re a sign of having established yourself. Check Out John Gruber’s Daring Fireball for an example of how to strike a very good balance.
Also note that he plugs his sponsors directly, but has developed such a strong reputation for general integrity that they really become endorsements. It’s a case study in mutual benefit.
The ad network he’s a part of (The DECK) is very mac / design-centric, so it helps that their clients make stuff that people like Gruber actually use in their own offline work, but there’s no reason to think that advertising on your site couldn’t be equally effective if you’re actually providing value to advertisers by offering trusted context.
Think ‘Oprah’s Book Club’, on a slightly smaller scale. Given your own background + your collection of very switched-on students, you’re in a great position to be a curator of sorts, making the kinds of cultural recommendations that would be very well received by your audience.
As a general rule, I’m realizing that social media should be treated like fruit. If you can strike the right balance between yummyness, nutritional value, seed count, and general digestibility, then then design of your fruit can be of real value of those with good seeds. Not sure how the Amazon relationship works, but this seems like a promising start.
Also, consider a profile with twitter. You’ll find that it can play a symbiotic relationship with the blog, in that it helps engage new & current audiences, while offering a place for short-burst bits of information (random thoughts / excellent links) that allow the blog to remain focused on longer, more detailed pieces. Used in conjunction with TinyURL, you’ll be able to share all sorts of interesting stuff.
Hope this helps, and Merry Christmas.
Cheers,
AB
Oh drat – forgot to close the html tag after ‘Fireball’.
I prefer a full RSS feed and would happily accept RSS ads if that’s what it takes.
http://www.codinghorror.com is one of the other blogs I read that includes RSS ads. It is mostly about programming and computers but has a few relevant posts about the decision to put ads on his site. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000772.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000893.html
another vote , go for the ads
another vote , go for the ads
+1 Full RSS (w/ Ads if needed)
+1 @Alex Bowles comment
I’ll keep reading it how and wherever I can find it, and whatever works best for JT is fine by me.
+1 Full RSS (w/ Ads if needed)
+1 @Alex Bowles comment
I’ll keep reading it how and wherever I can find it, and whatever works best for JT is fine by me.
Jon-
Wouldn’t putting ads in an inconspicuous place sort of defeat a big purpose of the ads?
Whether the folks who read the blog click through – which is how you get part of your payment – is a function of visibility to some degree. So I’m not sure what you would gain.
If you watch TV or go to the movies or live in today’s society you see ads, they are part of today’s visual cacophony – and largely ignored by most. And I think most who read you blog are not going to be put off by some ads – and if they are, they can write you a long email ranting about it.
Jon-
Wouldn’t putting ads in an inconspicuous place sort of defeat a big purpose of the ads?
Whether the folks who read the blog click through – which is how you get part of your payment – is a function of visibility to some degree. So I’m not sure what you would gain.
If you watch TV or go to the movies or live in today’s society you see ads, they are part of today’s visual cacophony – and largely ignored by most. And I think most who read you blog are not going to be put off by some ads – and if they are, they can write you a long email ranting about it.
First maybe clickthroughs on the articles aren’t all that but your site is one of the sites which always is in a tab on my iPhone and I read it like that.
Add to that a reason to click through is the discussion between (mostly) intelligent people here. So ad placement may be better suited integrated with the comments and the reply form.
And one more suggestion, we’d have thought that Paypal isn’t very effective but we do see a big future for voluntary contribution supported media. Our service http://tipit.to offers an improved and more social donation system and we’re trying out new incentives to get people to donate (merit badges are one such we are thinking of: “I donated X to jontaplin.com.”). We’d love to work with you on to try out stuff.
First maybe clickthroughs on the articles aren’t all that but your site is one of the sites which always is in a tab on my iPhone and I read it like that.
Add to that a reason to click through is the discussion between (mostly) intelligent people here. So ad placement may be better suited integrated with the comments and the reply form.
And one more suggestion, we’d have thought that Paypal isn’t very effective but we do see a big future for voluntary contribution supported media. Our service http://tipit.to offers an improved and more social donation system and we’re trying out new incentives to get people to donate (merit badges are one such we are thinking of: “I donated X to jontaplin.com.”). We’d love to work with you on to try out stuff.
Count me in with the overwhelming majority in favor of RSS ads in a full-post feed. I imagine the temporary spike in your traffic would eventually fall off as readers like me stop clicking through and shift their attention to other blogs. I would also suggest you develop a recommended library with Amazon affiliate links to make some extra cash.
Count me in with the overwhelming majority in favor of RSS ads in a full-post feed. I imagine the temporary spike in your traffic would eventually fall off as readers like me stop clicking through and shift their attention to other blogs. I would also suggest you develop a recommended library with Amazon affiliate links to make some extra cash.
Count me in with the overwhelming majority in favor of RSS ads in a full-post feed. I imagine the temporary spike in your traffic would eventually fall off as readers like me stop clicking through and shift their attention to other blogs. I would also suggest you develop a recommended library with Amazon affiliate links to make some extra cash.
Mr. Putnam, may I ask that you stop “clicking through”, and just stay awhile?
Mr. Putnam, may I ask that you stop “clicking through”, and just stay awhile?
Mr. Putnam, may I ask that you stop “clicking through”, and just stay awhile?
Tried following blogs on a reader for while, what a bore. I already knew that there were more blogs than I could ever follow just like books I could read. Plus, it’s the commentary that fills in the picture, piques my mind, gives me the sense that someone is discussing things with me. I am sorry to see you go.
Tried following blogs on a reader for while, what a bore. I already knew that there were more blogs than I could ever follow just like books I could read. Plus, it’s the commentary that fills in the picture, piques my mind, gives me the sense that someone is discussing things with me. I am sorry to see you go.
Tried following blogs on a reader for while, what a bore. I already knew that there were more blogs than I could ever follow just like books I could read. Plus, it’s the commentary that fills in the picture, piques my mind, gives me the sense that someone is discussing things with me. I am sorry to see you go.
See, Putnam? Stick around…
See, Putnam? Stick around…
+1 for RSS ads.
-1 for truncated articles.
I don’t mind eyeballing an ad as long as I don’t have to leave the RSS reader to read the article.
+1 for RSS ads.
-1 for truncated articles.
I don’t mind eyeballing an ad as long as I don’t have to leave the RSS reader to read the article.
But Attila, what about the implications? How will you feel knowing that what is conveyed to you is also sold?
But Attila, what about the implications? How will you feel knowing that what is conveyed to you is also sold?
Hugo, I don’t understand what you’re getting at here. I can distinguish editorial content from an advertisement. The fact a publication (either a blog or a printed magazine) carries paid advertisements doesn’t mean I can’t trust its editorial integrity, as long as the editorial content and ads are clearly separated.
I see no problem here.
Hugo, I don’t understand what you’re getting at here. I can distinguish editorial content from an advertisement. The fact a publication (either a blog or a printed magazine) carries paid advertisements doesn’t mean I can’t trust its editorial integrity, as long as the editorial content and ads are clearly separated.
I see no problem here.
Oh keep working at it, Attila. You’ll figure it out eventually, I’m sure…
Oh keep working at it, Attila. You’ll figure it out eventually, I’m sure…
Oh keep working at it, Attila. You’ll figure it out eventually, I’m sure…