As I’m sure the infamous Swiss Toni would agree, writing a blog is like making love to a beautiful woman. First you must seduce her with a sexy headline. Once you have her attention you should start at the top, whispering irresistible promises into her ear as you slowly work your way down the body. Then… you give her your full-length feed.

So imagine how she would feel if, just as you were starting to get going, she saw your feed was… truncated?

The debate surrounding whether to publish full-length RSS feeds or shortened ‘excerpt’ feeds is a long-rumbling debate. The argument fortruncated feeds is that a reader who reads your blog through their RSS reader is a reader that doesn’t see your advertising, therefore losing you potential ‘monetization’ joy!

Being a busy chap with far too many feeds to read, I had a purge this weekend. Quite a few blogs got the chop, and all of them were blogs publishing truncated excerpt feeds. Monetize that!

So my fellow blog publishers, please listen to me. If you want to expose me to your revenue-generating advertising, entice me with compelling articles with engaging and enjoyable conversations that I want to participate in. Don’t tease me with your flirty excerpts, they’re off-putting.

I’m an easy guy to satisfy: just give me your full length!