I’m weighing the pros and cons for truncated blog posts and would love to hear your thoughts. Plus I have exciting news! After way too many years of forcing people to type “www.dans-le-townhouse.blogspot.com” – which really made no sense once we moved from the townhouse to the lakehouse – I finally, finally switched to my own domain.
It’s so much easier to type and remember – plus it looks pretty. Is it a sign that you’ve been blogging too long when you think a URL is pretty??
For you, nothing will change. All of the old links and the former URL redirect.
In other news, I’m experimenting with truncating my posts (which means including a photo and only part of the text before imploring you to click “read” more to see the rest, instead of leaving posts whole so you can land on the blog and just keep scrolling). Bloggers and blog readers often have strong opinions on the topic of truncated blog posts, so below is my reasoning – but then I’d love your input!
Reasons FOR Truncated Blog Posts
After I bought my new blog template, I realized that the mobile version defaulted to truncated blog posts and I immediately liked how chic the mobile version looked. I’ve even been considering a different template that is much more like a clickable Instagram feed with only images and post titles on the main page, because I really like how it looks.
As a voracious blog reader, I’ve started to prefer truncated blog posts because I can breeze through posts that aren’t my jam without having to slog through endless steps/photos/jibber-jabber about topics or projects that don’t interest me. Instead, I quickly skim content, open posts that seem interesting in new tabs, read them at leisure, pin my heart out, and move on. Truncated blog posts make pinning so much easier for me (and at 14,000+ pins, I’m a pretty enthusiastic pinner!).
Because I like truncated blog posts, I recently switched this website to a format with page breaks. I feel like the blog looks much tidier now and I enjoy that new readers can see so many posts at once and immediately get a feel for my aesthetic and content.
And, this might make me seem overly sensitive, but I feel inspired to blog more freely now. There’s so much pressure to create perfectly curated, pinnable content and to ensure that every photo is styled to perfection – even in-progress shots, which tend to be messy by nature. Sometimes this pressure is a creativity-squasher. I have actually decided not to post some projects because, although the “after” photo looked good, my progress photos didn’t turn out well (maybe too messy, poorly lit, etc), and I didn’t want to put those photos on the blog because anyone who landed on my blog would see them mixed in with better photos as they scrolled. I’ve been really struggling with wanting to share stories and make things with wild abandon, but then feeling this defeating pressure to constantly produce really amazing photos, every step of the way – and it’s difficult for me to take a magazine-worthy shot when I’m covered in dough or paint, or feverishly working on a project in the wee hours.
With this new layout, though, only my favorite photo shows to anyone skimming through so I feel like I can make a great “first impression” and, once someone is hooked (mwahaha) and starts delving deeper into posts, seeing some imperfect progress photos won’t ruin the overall aesthetic. I feel so much more motivated to make and share – which is a surprise! I really just wanted to make the blog prettier, but I think it might actually have a big impact on my creativity and passion for blogging. Maybe.
There are other, less emotionally-fueled reasons for the switch too: the site should load faster, an issue I’ve had because I always include a ton of huge photos and probably way too many meandering digressions. As well, truncated blog posts supposedly deter scraper sites that steal content, which is a good enough reason for me because it’s been disheartening to see so many of my posts stolen verbatim by these sites. I’m not writing Pulitzer-worthy material here, but I log a lot of hours on each post – no matter how mundane it seems.
Reasons AGAINST Truncated Blog Posts
Blogging experts have long advocated truncated blog posts for boosting pageviews, but because truncated posts can be off-putting for many readers, I wonder if that’s even accurate. Perhaps each person who lands on a blog will generate more coveted “clicks” for a blogger, but what if the overall number of regular readers shrinks as a result?
I don’t want to make visiting the Lakehouse less fun for anyone! I love chatting with you and hearing your input. I’m so grateful for your support and encouragement. In return, I hope I can make you laugh from time to time, or spark an idea for a creative project or budget-friendly room makeover.
I know that truncated blog posts can be cumbersome if you read a blog regularly, because you’re not scrolling through like a new reader – you just want to read the newest post, without having to click twice. Which totally makes sense! An extra click is frustrating when every single blog makes you do it – on top of annoying pop up adds and pop ups begging you to subscribe by email when you’ve barely made it two sentences into a post. It can slow down and make reading blogs so much less enjoyable for some. Ideally, I’d love for the first post to be regular and the others truncated, but I can’t figure out how to do that and although I found code to truncate all posts at once, and fiddled a bit with that for an evening, I’m not savvy enough to figure out any tweaks beyond that. I can’t even get the truncated posts to look exactly how I’d like (I’d prefer a full size image and the first few lines of text below, not to the right).
What is Your Take on Truncated Posts???
I’m not fully committed to this new format, although I do like it quite a bit, so while I noodle on it, please do chime in: do you love or hate the new truncated blog posts? Or perhaps you’re completely ambivalent and you just want more posts? Less jibber-jabber? Let me know!
First and foremost, I really want this blog to be easy to use and enjoy – because it’s nothing without you! – so please feel free let me know if there’s anything I can do (or should stop doing) to make your visit easier and more enjoyable.
(And if you want to be really honest and candid, you can always leave an anonymous comment and I’ll have no idea who you are. Seriously, I appreciate the feedback – big time!)
Thanks for reading!
I use feedly, and honestly? I do tend to skip over the truncated posts more often than not.
That's fair! I'm not a feedly user myself, but I just created an account to see what it's like and I can totally understand why truncated posts sort of run counter to why someone would opt for feedly in the first place.
Someone suggested I go to the gear icon and change the presentation option and now I can see all Dans le Lakehouse posts in feedly, one after another, without having to click anything! So I think we're good – even though posts are truncated on the homepage.
I read through RSS. Your posts are not truncated in your RSS feed, yay! I like getting the full post in RSS. I'll click over to see the comments if I'm interested. I don't mind when blog posts are truncated like halfway through in the RSS feed, because I can stay in my RSS reader and read enough of the post to get the gist, and if I'm interested enough I'll click "read more…". But I do hate when just the post title, juat a little blurb, or just the first paragraph is included in the feed. Not because I want to deprive hard working bloggers of my "clicks" but just because I end up accidentally ignoring a blog once it stops showing up in my reader. I skim my reader whenever I have a few free minutes, and I invariably find myself scrolling past these posts without reading them because the tiny blurb just doesn't grab my eye. Before I know it I realize I haven't read this blog in a year. But I know people are trying to avoid having their content stolen, so I get that it's a balance.
I'm so sorry – I think the spam catcher flagged your post as spam for some reason, but I loved it over. Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts! It's nice to hear some feedback about how posts get missed/lost. I promise to keep the feedly as-is!
I read blogs on Feedly, so truncated posts mean I can't just read on the Feedly page. It is a little annoying to have to open the blog in a new tab, but for my regular favorites I usually will. I do understand that bloggers generally prefer readers to read on their page, though.
I've never been one to operate this blog like a business, where I'm constantly trying to make people buy things/click things/hop through hoops, but I'm starting to lean on it more and more as my income so I've been forced to look more at the business end and do some research. I think that yes, people often prefer readers to read on the blog, otherwise bloggers don't get pageviews so it's sort of like that reader doesn't exist; we don't get "credit" for it. BUT I've also heard that feedly readers are a more committed/loyal bunch, which means more to many bloggers than the income generated when a person views a post on the actual blog as opposed to through a reader.
Someone suggested I go to the gear icon and change the presentation option and now I can see all Dans le Lakehouse posts in feedly, one after another, without having to click anything! So I think we're good – even though posts are truncated on the homepage.
Being able to read a whole post in feedly would be awesome! I understand the benefits to truncated posts, but I find that I rarely click on the "read more" part of feedly and I miss out on a lot. I realize that is my own laziness, but I'd still be sad to see you go that way because I know I would get less out of your blog. But that is me – this is your blog and it should make you happiest.
Hi Marika, when I look in feedly now, I see the full length of my posts. Please let me know if it's not like that for you. I'm happy to keep them full length in RSS! Just let me know if they aren't and I'll try to fix it! 🙂
Hi! I'd like to politely advocate against truncated posts – I'm not sure how this affects your income, but I generally prefer to read all my blogs on a feed reader, specifically feedly. The blogs who have truncated posts still force you to click into a new tab, since all of the content doesn't seem to be captured by the reader. But with that being said, you should do what works best for you and your business!
Ultimately, I want to keep as many readers happy as possible – whether I'm making a buck from their readership, or not. Thanks for weighing in!
Someone suggested I go to the gear icon and change the presentation option and now I can see all Dans le Lakehouse posts in feedly, one after another, without having to click anything! So I think we're good – even though posts are truncated on the homepage.
If I'm on the actual blog reading from my laptop (and not using a feed reader like Feedly) I don't mind truncated posts at all. But when I'm reading in Feedly and see truncated posts, I never click over. Mainly it's laziness or just not having the time to wait for my device to load the page. I'm curious to see how page views would change though and would love if you did a follow up post on that!
I just created a feedly account because I've never used it before and I'm so intrigued! Oh gosh, it's so weird to see all of my pretty blog design missing – and feedly doesn't always include my first photo as the thumbnail image. Grr. On my laptop, it's easy to click on a truncated post in feedly – it's more user-friendly than my method actually, so I might be going about things the least convenient way as a blog read, lol. But I can totally see it slowing down devices if the page is slow to load. Hmmm, I get it now that I see it!
Someone suggested I go to the gear icon and change the presentation option and now I can see all Dans le Lakehouse posts in feedly, one after another, without having to click anything! So I think we're good – even though posts are truncated on the homepage.
To be honest, I read my posts in feedly and 99% of the time I just dont click over to truncated posts. Even if I like the blog, I wont make the effort because Im at work and just quickly skimming through and I dont want a bunch of tabs open. But just because this is how I read my blogs doesnt mean its the same for everyone…
It's very interesting how many readers use feedly. It's a really small percentage of my overall readership, but it seems to constitute a higher percentage of more "active" blog readers (who comment/interact more). I'm really learning a lot! Thanks for being so honest, I really appreciate the feedback.
Someone suggested I go to the gear icon and change the presentation option and now I can see all Dans le Lakehouse posts in feedly, one after another, without having to click anything! So I think we're good – even though posts are truncated on the homepage.
I read most blogs, including yours, via RSS feed. Truncated posts are easier to skip over and it takes an awful lot to get me to click out of feedly to see if the rest of the post is worth it. Chances are a lot higher I won't. I agree that truncated post, excerpts, etc. look fabulous on a blog's home page. I've experimented with it myself over the years, but was never fully happy with it. What might look great isn't always as functional, which is why I keep going back to full posts.
I just signed up to feedly to see what everyone is talking about and my posts are indeed truncated there – not sure what it was like before. But if I click on the post, it opens up the post but still keeps me in feedly. It doesn't lead to my website. There's a little "x" to close the window, but it's kind of a tidy little setup. But I'm using a laptop right now, so maybe the mobile version is really different – I should double check that later today. It's great to hear from a fellow blogger and to understand why you've gone back to full posts – thanks for sharing!
Hi Tanya! Congrats on the new name and design. Looks good! I read your posts in Feedly. As long as they don't truncate in there, I'm good. I'd strongly suggest against it if they do. To be honest sometimes I don't even read the ones that make me leave Feedly to go to the actual site. I just skip past them. And I wouldn't worry about progress shots being too messy. I love good tutorials and step-by-step stuff. I would think most of your readers do too. We all are here because we like the same things so I'm sure all of us understand the 'state' of the in-between progress shots. Keep up the great work. I love following along 🙂
Thanks Elaine! I'm SO tempted by the new blog template that is like Instagram, but I literally just re-did everything, lol.In feedly on my laptop, my posts are truncated for users but if I click on it, it opens in a new window still in feedly – it doesn't lead to my website. Not sure if the mobile version is different. I will do some research and see if I can keep posts a full length in feedly – but that might be beyond my scope!I will have to noodle on this change. Thanks so much for the feedback and your kind words! So happy to hear you enjoy the blog! That made my day 🙂
Thanks! I didn't know that about Feedly. Will try that! 🙂
I only just joined to see what it looks like, and that seems to be what's happening for me. An extra click, but I'm not lead to danslelakehouse.com. BUT I don't use feedly so I'm just experimenting to see what everyone is seeing, and so I understand the concerns.
It turns out, that's just the setting I was using. Someone suggested I go to the gear icon and change the presentation option and now I can see all Dans le Lakehouse posts in feedly, on after another, without having to click anything! Yay!
I know a few blogs have figured out how to truncate on the front page without truncating the RSS feed. That's a great compromise for me because I feel like the truncating RSS in feedly prevents me from even determining if I'd read the post or just skim it because it's truncating too short.
I would happily do that because I have not motive to change how folks read the blog in Feedly. Do you mind sharing which blogs? Maybe I can pick their brains for a solution!
Someone suggested I go to the gear icon and change the presentation option and now I can see all Dans le Lakehouse posts in feedly, one after another, without having to click anything! So I think we're good – even though posts are truncated on the homepage. Let me know if you see something different, though.
I guess I'll second what everyone else said here about RSS readers and truncation. I use feedly on the computer, and I'm actually fine clicking over if I need to for that, BUT I do most blog reading on the train using an offline reader, and if it is truncated, I won't click over because I don't have service. Unless it looks really special, I also won't save it to come back. If I can read the article but want to comment, I will star it and come back to it when I can visit the page. I wish there were a way to truncate only for the webpage but not for feedly!
I use bloglovin which pulls the whole post straight from its permalink, so nothing will change for me.
I was using BlogLovin for awhile too! Happy to hear you don't mind, either way 🙂
I also read on Feedly, and almost always on a device, and the big issue I have is that a lot of blogs are not at all mobile friendly, so the page is unreadable or the browser is constantly reloading because of all the popups and other stuff on the page and it gets to the point where I just don't bother clicking through. And I've lost a lot of good blogs this way because it's just too frustrating to try to get to the content.I'm not as familiar with Blogger and how the feed works, but WordPress offers an option to show the full feed in RSS while showing excerpts on the home page, so hopefully there's an option to allow that here as well.(Though, if you are going excerpts on the home page, which is cool if that's your design, please don't make it hard to find/get to your content. The one thing that will keep me from ever coming back to a blog is if I can't navigate from one post to the next without having to go back to the home page to find a link to the next post. Ain't nobody got time for that.)
Blogger offers so many fewer cool options than WordPress – I need to figure out and alter so many features manually by tinkering. I will look further into keeping the RSS feed whole. I'd be happy to leave the RSS the same and just truncate posts on my site. My blog on mobile devices is pretty easy to navigate and I've purposefully avoided pop-ups – those "subscribe to emails" ones drive me nuts because sometimes it's difficult to close them on a mobile device!Hmmm, you raise a good point about having to go back and forth. I don't have that option, but I know exactly what you mean. It's so difficult making changes to the format when I'm not really a technical person. I will investigate further! Thanks for the food for thought!
i prefer un-truncated posts 🙂 E.
:)Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback. I appreciate it!
-shrug- If a blog is good, I don't care how it is put together. Seriously, wiggling my finger to click a few more times is the least of my issues.
Lol, I'm happy to hear that, thanks
It seems silly, but I hate truncated posts. I can see your reasoning, and it does look cool, but as a reader I find them really annoying. If the whole post doesn't load immediately I try to click through I close window and move onto another blog.
I get it. And, frankly, there are tons of blogs out there to read so I can understand wanting the process to be quick. The one thing about truncated posts is the overall load time for the blog is quicker, but it's a trade off… I appreciate the feedback!
I get blogs sent to my email and yours is the only one I have never been able to read without clicking through to your web site. So I just Click Through To Your Website. No biggie. If I want to read something, I will read it whether it takes one click or three. Personally, I read your site as much for the posts about you, your dog, the lake, as about any crafty project. You should do what you want with your site.
I have never used a special email subscription service for the blog (but it's on my to-do list), so I default to whatever blogger offers. I subscribed myself, just so I can keep on top of problems, and I get a full copy of each post in my inbox (but it's a day late). I wonder why you've had to click through? If you can explain a little more what you're seeing when my post pops up in your inbox, I can see if I can fix that for you! If I eventually add a more custom email subscription option, I'll make sure the posts show up full length.Your comment really made me smile, by the way. I'm so happy to hear that you enjoy the crafty and non-crafty posts alike! I got really focused on ONLY posting if I had a project and I'm slowly moving back toward more varied/fun content.
Seems I am in the monitory here judging by your Comments so far but I like truncated posts, for all of the reasons you mentioned- biggest plus for me is easily picking and choosing what I want to spend more time reading without having to scroll through many pages of content.
I was starting to feel like SUCH an oddity – so I'm so relieved to hear that someone else likes truncated posts too, lol. Thanks for chiming in, Nora, I appreciate it!
I have no idea about what most of these comments(ers) are talking about…Feedly, etc. What I can say is I have always enjoyed reading your blog because of the format. It's clear, with beautiful photos that are easy to follow. It may be because I'm older than most here, I think. It seems like the print is much smaller. I don't care for the truncated posts personally, I feel like there's too much coming at me. I love pure and simple formats, like the style of the Lake House, easy on the eyes,
With the new blog template, I think the font was altered a bit: larger spaces between the lines, but a slightly smaller font. I think that's something I could alter, though – I'll see if I can figure it out! Thanks for letting me know about that, and for weighing in on truncated posts.
Reading all these comments I have never heard of Feedly!! I will need to check it out! I like truncated posts because I read mostly on my laptop and I like the look truncated blogs have, they look like a newspaper with all the posts neatly lined up. I dislike blogs that have the one blog post in their feed and I have to click "older posts" to find more. This way I can see at a glance what a blogger has posted and read the post that interests me the most!
Yes! Happy to hear someone else likes the truncated format. I like what you said about it feeling like a newspaper feed – I feel like it looks more professional, somehow, too.
I can view the whole post in feedly – as long as that continues I'm all for it! I hate the posts that are truncated within a news reader and force you click through to the site (which often loads slowly), and I rarely do.
Second comment, but is this post truncated on your website? Because I can read the entire thing on feedly with ought having to click anything. No "read more…".
Yes, I switched over to truncated posts already. I'm happy to hear that the RSS is still full length. There are bloggers who purposefully do edit blogs so on readers they are truncated (it's extra code), but I had no intention of monkeying with the RSS. I'm not after the pageclicks, I'm just after a cleaner look and an easier to navigate format so my old posts aren't so buried when new folks find my blog. I promise to never (intentionally) change the way the blog is read of Feedly or other readers. Thanks for confirming that it still looks full length over there! From the sound of some other comments, I thought I had inadvertently truncated it there as well.
It's like you were reading my mind the whole way through this post. Every concern I had you addressed. I don't personally like them because if I follow a blog I keep up with it and that extra click IS annoying, but if you could figure out a way to make that first post full length that would be awesome. It does make it easier to scroll through if you are looking for something specific or just scanning a new blog though. As for the bad progress shots, which I bet aren't all that bad, I'd rather see bad photos and more projects than less projects and perfect pictures.
I will definitely look into keeping that first post full length. You would laugh if you knew how many of hours this super simple change took me, lol. It might take months, haha. I know I should get over my concern and just post projects, period. I am hoping that this change gets me back in the groove. There are so many bloggers out there who take outstanding photos – some even have professional photographers on a huge team – that it makes me so self conscious! I am always so critical of my photos and styling – even though I usually love the project itself. I am working on building back my blogging confidence…
Oh I believe it took forever, I used to do some amateur HTML back in the day, even took a lil class on it. I know things have come a long way since then but I know getting things just how you want them can take forever, especially if you are teaching yourself how to do it in the process.You can't compare yourself to people who have these teams, it's just not realistic but I do understand how we all have our thing that we like to be perfect and we are always our own worst critic. Especially if you are into photography and not just doing it as a necessity of being a blogger it can add more pressure. If ya ever need an outside eye, I got 2 of em 🙂
I use feedly for my blogs but almost always click over to the site to read full posts. It's only fair to provide the click/page visit! Truncated posts might have made it slightly less likely that I'd have read through a number of posts when I first found you, to discover that I did want to read more. But now I read all of them because I'm invested. 🙂 So for me now, it makes no difference either way. But when I'm looking at a new blog, truncating might deter me some because there's less to reach out and grab me. You'll just need to make sure your titles and opening lines are extra intriguing!
That is so incredibly sweet of you to click over to the blogs you like to make sure a pageview is registered. Seriously – just so, so thoughtful! Thank you!! It's interesting to hear that truncated posts might be a deterrent for grabbing a new reader – I hadn't thought about how a reader is differently immersed when all blog posts are full length and flow from one to the other. If I keep this format, you are definitely right about having to up my post title game! I'll have to work on that…Thanks so much for the valuable feedback. I appreciate it!
I generally dislike truncated posts, but if you could find a way to leave the first post full length, that would be great.
I'm looking into being able to keep the first post full length, because that sounds like will be a perfect solution!
I rarely click "read more" links. Too many clicks. Not my thing. That said, I did click the one for this post because I was curious about your redesign/reformat.
Interesting! We're so different! I've decided to keep truncated posts (on the website, NOT the RSS – which I've never truncated) but leave the most recent post whole – once I figure out how, lol. Sounds like the best compromise 🙂
I'm a dinosaur reading on a desktop. I like the photo-plus-a-few-lines setup, which helps me decide whether to read the whole post. While I admire your photos, I often think there are too many to scroll through before getting to the description or how-to. Also, don't know if it's my computer or your blog, but today I got messages about buggy scripts and Shockwave crashing just trying to make it through this post. All that being said, I enjoy your upbeat attitude as well as your craftiness.
Sorry about loading up on the photos! I can try moving some below the instructions for those who want to get to the nitty gritty right away :)I know someone who owns a computer store so I asked about your problem. It is very likely your computer and the advice given by the technical experts there is to reinstall or update your shockwave program and see if that helps!
Reading through the comments and your gear suggestion I learned so many new things. I have always used a reader, first google reader and then after a while discovered feedly. I have to admit that I have actually delete blogs (that I was less drawn to) because they went to truncated posts. I am happy to know of the solution, but generally prefer old-school non-truncated posts.
I learned a lot too! I promise I will keep the RSS as it is. I had only truncated the blog posts and I won't fiddle with the RSS so you should always see full length posts there. I'm happy so many people weighed in so I could create a format that pleases as many people as possible.
I actually like truncated posts and assumed other's did too, but I guess not! They make a site look clean and organized (I dislike an overpacked blog – looks messy) and I agree that it's nice to be able to just skim over recent posts and read the ones that interest you. I certainly don't mind a few extra clicks if I'm going to enjoy the content. And you made a really good point about the quality of photos. It's a TON of work to make all your photos beautiful and it's nice to just have to worry about the feature image and then use a few lesser quality ones for the remainder of the post.
So nice to hear someone agree! I, too, was surprised to read so many people loathe truncated posts. I am in the process of switching to a compromise: the first post will be full, the rest truncated. Regular readers won't have to click twice to read the most recent post, but anyone new to the blog will have the benefit of all post but one being truncated. I'm back to full length posts right now, hoping to make the switch this week!