I’m reverting back to doing excerpts, so will make sure that the headlines are attractive enough for deserving the ‘read more’.

Take Metroblogging as an example (I write for Montreal). We were all asked to make use of the feature on a regular basis a while back. And it makes sense to use it in our case. But on the flip side, I don’t use it on my personal blog, though what I write there isn’t usually quite as long.

For the most part, if I find that the first paragraph or 2 isn’t interesting then I haven’t missed anything if I don’t click the “more” link. The few times I did click the link in hopes that the post would get better I was greatly disappointed.

So if the post is good then people who are interested will not be upset about having to click through to the entire post.

Chuck

I also agree that the use of this feature is helpful to those scanning a blog for relevant content. It is especially useful when the blogger writes extended posts, which are likely irrelevant to the visitor looking for a specific topic.

On the flip side, it is likely better to shorten posts whenever possible to match the short attention span of most people on the Internet.

I have a page that only has title links – an old fashioned index.html

I have another page that has excerpts from the last 15 posts with a “more” link.

And yet another that has 5 or more of the most recent posts in their entirety (more than five if the posts are shorter, but always at least 5 posts).

So the readers get to choose. I also have theme pages; these show only Mac posts, only Linux posts etc.

Give the readers choice – some like it hot, some like it cold.

On my blog, I consider the front page an advertisement for the site — and the more titles you can see at once, or with a bit of scrolling, the easier it will be to see what I write about (and whether or not it interests you).

As far as “more” links followed by a sentence or two, I avoid that practice. I only use the link if I have more substance after the jump, and if there’s a good break point at the start of the post.

But on shorter posts I put the whole thing on the front page…

You’re on the internet. There are links on the Internet. You click them. I cannot believe someone wouldn’t “feel” like clicking a link. It’s almost laughable.

As for ad impressions – I don’t think it’s a big deal anyway. Typically most sites get more traffic from search engines than direct readers anyway, so they will probably be directed straight to the full article view (as would RSS subscribers). The readers who are actually scanning the latest entries on your site regularly are the ones you don’t want to piss off by making them click through all the time.