In WordPress, you have the option to insert a more tag in your post. The effect of this is that anywhere the post appears other than the actual post page, the post content stops at that point with a link along the lines of “Click here to read more”.
I’ve always hated seeing that link. It’s a disservice to your readers to force them to make an extra click to read something. They’re already on your site, just give them the full text of the post. I generally don’t bother to click to read more, I just leave the site.
But, there’s always a way to use any technique that makes it not only useful, but enjoyable as well. I ran across this on a veterinary student’s blog, Nearly-Dr Ferox. That’s a link to his home page, if you scroll down you might see a post titled, X-ray challenge #1. Or not, if it’s scrolled off by now.
I don’t know if the use of the “click here to read more” was intentional in this case, because most of the posts have it, but in the X-ray challenge it works extremely well. He posts an X-ray, asks some questions about it, and then the link to read more. You’re left with the impression of a quiz…you actually want to look at the X-ray and see what you can find, and then you want to click the link to see the answers.
Just showing the answers without the link to read more wouldn’t have the same effect.
So while I’d previously thought I would never use the more tag in WordPress, I now see that using it in a quiz or challenge sort of post enhances the user experience. Now I just have to come up with some quizzes or challenges!
I always use the more tag on my blog.
I understand what you are saying about not showing the whole post. But I find this an effective way of increasing page views on my blog, and people do not seem to be put off by it on my site!
http://www.protycoon.com/index.php/2008/04/30/increase-page-views-on-your-blog/
It’s certainly a personal preference, but I won’t follow a blog that regularly uses excerpts on the home page and/or feed. I’m glad it’s working out for your blog!
Thanks for writing about me, but I just wanted to point out that I am, in fact, a she. And I routinely use the ‘more’ tag because many of my posts are get long, and if someone isn’t interested in the first few paagraphs then I’mnot going to force them to look at the rest of it. Also, any photos of body party, surgery or dead things need to be off the homepage, so that readers have some warning before coming across them.
Sorry about that! I’ll edit the post when I have a bit of extra time, and correct the references.