Written on February 27th, 2007 at 08:02 pm by Darren Rowse
What makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed?
In my recent call for questions from readers Barry asked:
“What makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed?”
It’s a good question and one worthy of some discussion as an ‘Open Mic’ discussion. Perhaps the result will be that we’ll all learn a thing or two NOT to do in our blogging.
So what makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed? What makes you ‘un-bookmark it’ or stop visiting via some other method?
Is it to do with the style of blogging, the frequency of posting, the feed itself (whether it be full/partial feed, whether they include other links, ads etc), the topic, the attitude of the blogger or some other factor?
Enjoying the discussion below? Digg it Here
136 Responses to “What makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed?”
Kumiko
February 27th, 2007 8:33 pm
For me it’s definitely two things:
1. When the blogger doesn’t post for a very long time - I feel like the site is ‘dead’.
2. When the posting consists of short updates with no real content. eg, “hi just letting everyone know i won’t be posting tomorrow.”
Kumiko
xo
ian
February 27th, 2007 8:40 pm
1. too many posts
2. posts which are not relevant
They are the two main reasons I unsubscribe.
Cory OBrien
February 27th, 2007 8:40 pm
I second the unsubscribing when there are no posts for an extended period of time.
I also subscribe to any new site that I visit and like, but if I find after time that the site is just repeating what I’m reading elsewhere, or if it’s just not as interesting as I had first thought, I’ll unsubscribe.
Adele
February 27th, 2007 8:43 pm
For me it’s if the blog is updated too often. More than about 4 posts a day is quite a lot to wade through, even if they’re just links.
I also go away if the topic or the posts aren’t as relevant for me as I’d thought at the first glance. Even if it’s fun to read, there’s only so much procrastination I can justify. (Having just clicked “unsubscribe” on Shoemoney, I know whereof I speak.)
Matt
February 27th, 2007 8:45 pm
I unsubscribe from a blog when the topic shifts and like Kumiko commented - short updates that don’t contain quality content. Also , sometimes (and only sometimes) when a blogger starts to get a decent audience, the attitiude/ego can take over and effect the direction and quality of posts…Just my 2c
John Doe
February 27th, 2007 8:49 pm
For me, I will unsubscribe if the posting frequency starts to drop way less than what it should be (e.g. no post for one month or more).
I’ll definitely unsubscribe if the only thing the blogger want to say is the negative sides of the issue, because I believe there are 2 sides of the coin.
I hate to see bloggers to go off topic frequently because its reflect the inability of the bloggers to focus on one thing.
Gerard McGarry
February 27th, 2007 8:57 pm
Hi Darren.
Here’s a tip: I recently used Google Reader’s trends feature to remove loads of blogs that hadn’t been updated in a while. That really helped prune the list of subscriptions. It also pointed out a couple of valuable blogs whose feeds had changed for some reason or another.
So inactivity is one reason. As Adele says, blogs that update too often can become overwhelming and are a big turn off. Remember when Performancing first launched and it was impossible to keep up? And now SearchEngineWorld, which I just don’t have time to read.
Sometimes bloggers go completely off-topic, permanently and that’s another. One guy’s feed is made up mostly of his postings to del.icio.us and about one actual post per week.
Aziz
February 27th, 2007 8:57 pm
RSS feeds from Blogs that provide redundant news items only…
Sam Beaven
February 27th, 2007 8:58 pm
I’m with Adele - posting too often, or posting articles that are too long, will put me off an RSS feed because it starts to suck time away from me, unless the content is really good (e.g. Lifehacker, or Steve Pavlina.com).
I’ll very rarely unsubscribe from a blog because it doesn’t post enough - I have google reader configured to only show blogs that have been updated. But once a month I’ll have a spring clean and if the blog seems dead or uninteresting I’ll prune it.
Tara Kachaturoff
February 27th, 2007 9:09 pm
A couple things will cause me to unsubscribe from an RSS feed …
1. Rehashing the same popular things that are already posted on blogs of a similar genre
2. Too many links interspersed throughout the text.
3. Too much text, without proper use of whitespace.
4. Excessively long posts
5. Multiple posts in a day
Abe Olandres
February 27th, 2007 9:11 pm
I wrote a short entry on 5 Ways to Kill your RSS subscribers on my blog (http://www.yugatech.com/blog/?p=1649) last week. Mostly, it has got to do with quality & consistency.
Random Good Stuff
February 27th, 2007 9:13 pm
My main reason are partial feeds… I don’t get it why some bloggers do it (well I know why). What’s the point then of even offering a feed?
Daniel Scocco
February 27th, 2007 9:13 pm
Awesome question, and quite a lot to learn here.
I unsubscribe when:
1. posting frequency drops
2. blog topic diverges too much
3. posts that dont call my attention (i.e. when I just skip through the feed of a blog without reading it)
and the one that no one mentioned:
4. when the RSS feed reloads the latest 10 or 20 posts every single time I open the reader, I mean come on I have already read those posts, I am not sure what issue causes that but some blogs reload all their posts every time, its annoying.
Rhys
February 27th, 2007 9:16 pm
1. When they post too much.
2. When they don’t post enough.
I am generally pretty rubbish at removing feeds hthough!
Sugar Mouse In The Rain
February 27th, 2007 9:17 pm
For me it is:
- Quality. Low quality posts are a good reason to un-subscribe. I don’t like to waste my time.
- Negativity. I don’t want to be de-motivated. I want to be inspired. Negative messages, even if they are true, are not good for me.
- Subjectivity. Lots of personal rants and stuff. I am not interested in the details of other people’s personal lives. I am more interested in thoughts and ideas.
- Redundancy. I can read regular news on newspapers or dedicated websites (BBC, CNN, etc.). I can read commentary though, but thoughtful ones, that helps me think or see something differently.
- Relevancy of topics. I usually subscribe for a while to see what kind of content is being posted, what the blog is about, and then decide if I want to continue. Even if the content is very entertaining and of very high quality, I have to be interested in the topic. And that does not mean “one” topic.
Mr.Byte
February 27th, 2007 9:22 pm
I would unsubscribe for the following reasons
1) only excerpts in RSS
2) too many posts in a single day that makes me hard to follow what he is upto…..
3) Digressing too much from the theme…
4) repeated thoughts from others…
Mike Sansone
February 27th, 2007 9:23 pm
Most of this has been said above, but the reasons for me (in order):
- Partial Feeds
- Inactive posting (a week or so now and again is ok, but…)
- Too many posts per day (over 4 is too many for me)
- Too much self-promotion (1 of 4 is fine, but some do 2 of 3)
I’ll agree with Tara’s thought about excessive length, though I haven’t used that to whittle down…until now (thanks, Tara).
I’ve pretty much set my limit to 400 feeds (incl. search strings), I’ve got a “trial” folder I use to watch a feed…some get into permanent status, others don’t
basquette
February 27th, 2007 9:31 pm
I’ve done it both because the blog went off topic and because it ended up too narrowly wed to a too-narrow niche (just so much you can say about some things). I’ve unsubscribed because of a really bad faux pas - a post containing offensive, discriminatory, or unduly harsh diatribes against others personally. I’ll quit a blog that’s quit me by not publishing. And I’ve unsubscribed because I just lost interest in the topic.
Bogdan Lebu
February 27th, 2007 9:42 pm
1. you find interesting post (s) and you subscribe. then you see that s(he) doesn’t write like that or that the topics are not what you want to read… inconsistent writing
2. too many posts. you find 10 post in the reader each day. not all interesting
3. incomplete posts. you cannot read them in the feedreader
4. you have some limited time. you find new sites to subscribe to. then… on some sunday you go to your feed reader and unsubscribe, you unsubscribe even from some good sites
Fred
February 27th, 2007 9:48 pm
i definitely learn some tips with this subject … no wonder i see some readers unsubscribe from my feed … surprise to learn that too many new postings per-day will turn readers off … the partial needs could be another factor in my case … blog too lengthy? so what should be the standard length? … sorry darren to hijack this to get some feedback at the same time …
ok, to me i’ll unsubscribe if:
- the contents do not interest me anymore (deviate too much)
- the contents are not properly align and full of grammar errors
- repeatedly blog the same topic over & over again
- “dry” contents
cheers …
Darren Rowse
February 27th, 2007 9:51 pm
wow - this one’s going to be a hot thread - 20 comments in an hour and some interesting themes emerging!
Andy C
February 27th, 2007 9:52 pm
Until recently, hardly anything. I might move the dead wood down to the bottom of my NetVibes page out of sight. However, since moving to Google Reader, I used the ‘Inactivity’ report to weed out dead, duplicated or relocated blogs.
Posting (in)frequency doesn’t particularly bother me. If someone has a brilliant post every 10 weeks, that’s fine by me. That is the advantage of RSS. I am no longer checking the author’s site daily.
Similarly, if someone goes off on a Google Reader evangelistic mission or adopts GTD or something else which doesn’t interest me, I normally tend to keep the subscription for the content that does.
Partial feeds are a pet hate but, again, if the content is compelling enough, I’ll click through.
Constant, unadulterated, shameless, self-promotion and narcissism is a big turn off, though so I recently unsubscribed to John Chow.
Katy
February 27th, 2007 9:57 pm
It’s definately got to be partial feeds for me. I have limited ‘Net access at work so RSS feeds are a godsend. I hate getting the first three-or-so lines of a post and then have to click through to read the rest - which I don’t anyway.
Harry Maugans
February 27th, 2007 9:57 pm
I usually hate self-promotion, but I just finished a blog post earlier this morning that hits on this pretty accurately, haha:
http://www.harrymaugans.com/2007/02/26/seven-surefire-ways-to-ruin-your-blog/
Regards,
- Harry Maugans
Erica
February 27th, 2007 10:03 pm
I’ll flip the question, reasons I stick with a feed;
Loyalty; ie I have gotten to know the person/blog well and think that they will pick the quality/frequency up again.
Quality; High quality articles consistently, one that springs to mind is Trent at The Simple Dollar.
Niche; Blogs that are very similar to my own or blogs in a niche that I’m interested in.
and reasons to leave, too much;
Ego
Advertising
Ranting
Off-topic posts
Posts with no value (regurgitated news)
I’m fairly loyal but there have been a few occasions that I have dumped a blog even if the content is ok, mainly because of the top reason.
meta4man
February 27th, 2007 10:06 pm
I unsubscribe to a blog when they get pushy. i.e.
One blog recently made you click through their sponsor to read anything more than the headline of the article.
Also, one the edge of being cut are some for over-posting. I admire prolificity, but piling up blog posts just to up a count or resending previous content with small updates is annoying and gets a cut too.
Shawn
February 27th, 2007 10:09 pm
@Sam, I decided to check out stevepavlina.com… and promptly unsubscribed from his feed. Wow, talk about wordy. I don’t have the time to sit down and go through these huge posts. Give me a manageable article length and I’ll stay, but otherwise… his blog definitely suffers from TLDR (too long, didn’t read).
Tips for Novice Bloggers - How to Retain Feed Subscribers at Gauravonomics
February 27th, 2007 10:20 pm
[…] Today, Amit Varma, at India Uncut finally reverted to full feeds, and Darren Rowse, at ProBlogger asked “What makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed?”, prompting me to write the first post in the “novice blogger” series on “how to retain feed subscribers”. […]
Michael
February 27th, 2007 10:21 pm
One thing that bugs me is when a blogger posts a new item… and every single one of his old items also pops back up in my reader listed as a new entry.
Gauravonomics
February 27th, 2007 10:22 pm
I think that before we ask “why do we unsubscribe from feeds?”, we need to ask “why do we subscribe from feeds?” Read my post on “how to retain feed subscribers”.
To summarise, if you are already doing the basics right, that is, blogging with flair and originality and markeyting your blog well, here are a few quick fixes to retail your feed subscribers -
1) Offer full feeds.
2) Offer full feeds.
3) Offer full feeds.
4) If you blog about a veriety of topics, consider offering category-wise feeds.
5) If you post more than ten posts a day, consider offering a “best of” feeds.
6) If you post more than ten posts a day, out of which two or three are long posts and the rest are short posts, consider putting the short posts in an “asides” category and offering a separate feed for them.
not dead, just resting » Andy C
February 27th, 2007 10:29 pm
[…] Darren Prowse kicked off an interesting discussion asking what makes you unsubscribe from a feed. […]
Mike Maddaloni
February 27th, 2007 10:36 pm
As it is very easy to subscribe to a feed, if I happen upon a Web site and find it of any slight degree of interest, I will subscribe. Every once in a while, I go through my feeds and will choose to unsibscribe from them that do not come to mind as of interest. As well, if a feed gives me more information that I can possibly digest, or is in duplicate (aka not unique!) from something else I read, I delete it.
mp/m
Paul
February 27th, 2007 10:37 pm
Wow, I think that’s the first time I’ve read every comment. All interesting stuff, with a few clear themes emerging.
I’m also lazy in clearing out feeds, so for me to remove one it takes several months of posts that I’m not interested in before I decide to quit. As a preference I like to see a blog updated once or twice a day, but no more as I’ll just get overwhelmed.
rick ortega
February 27th, 2007 10:37 pm
I usually unsubscribe when the blogger stops talking about the things they used to, which I no longer find interesting
Joao
February 27th, 2007 10:39 pm
I’d unsubscribe a blog for:
a) posting too much (I can’t take three posts a day, as I subscribe for 50+ other blogs…);
b) not posting enough;
c) useless content. In other words: “Don’t waste my time!”;
d) partial feeds. I REALLY hate this. It makes feeds useless, so why would I keep it on reading?
raising4boys.com
February 27th, 2007 10:40 pm
Good question. Here are the top things for me: Too much off-topic stuff (like tons of posts about blogging on a purportedly non-blogging, topical site), rarely updating, publishing too many articles per day, simply regurgitating articles from elsewhere.
Partial feeds are a turn-off, but they can be overcome by truly great content.
Another problem for me: regular grammatical issues. For example, referring to single entities in the plural (”Adsense are…”) instead of singular (”Adsense is…”).
(Sound familiar? Sorry for bringing it up here, but it’s true.)
Here’s the thing: Whenever the people (plural) at Adsense are doing something, then Adsense (singular) is doing something. Here again, great content can overcome this problem (ProBlogger is evidence), but it still makes me cringe whenever I see it. This is probably a bigger issue for me than partial feeds.
James W
February 27th, 2007 10:41 pm
I will unsubscribe from feeds if they are not delivering a high enough standard of (relevant) content that I am looking for.
I generally take a maximum of five seconds to scan through RSS feeds that I am subscribed to. If something catches my eye then I read on, if not I click on to the next unread feed.
If a blog regularly posts content that I’m not hugely interesting then I unsubscribe. It doesn’t make it a bad blog/feed, just not right for me.
Johan
February 27th, 2007 10:51 pm
I unsubscribe when a feed has:
- Too many posts
- Partial feeds
and
- Big, intrusive ads
Stan
February 27th, 2007 10:51 pm
1. Too many posts (6 per day seems to be my threshold)
2. A complete change in topic “focus.” Recently a blog I read has gone on a political rant, even though it is supposed to be a business blog.
3. Title feeds, meaning the post title is the only thing that shows up in the RSS reader and shoots you to the site.
Ramen Junkie
February 27th, 2007 10:52 pm
Generally I never unsubscribe unless I find I just don’t care about the content anymore. If I find I am consistantly skipping nad not reading the posts I’ll drop it to reduce clutter.
I never drop a feed nomatter how infrequent or dead it seems to be. Personally the beauty of RSS is that if I find an infrequently updated blog that I like the content and style of, I can read it without constantly checking to see if they updated “this week”. Also I have had several seemingly dead feeds that have come completely back to life aftera hiatus.
If it’s not updating, it’s not like it’s cluttering upmy new items list.
Don M
February 27th, 2007 11:05 pm
For certain sites I get redundant posts because I might monitor a similar niche in Google’s Blog Search. You can subscribe to search results on certain keywords. So I get duplicate items on many and this has resulted in many unsubscribes from feeds and I just go with the Google Feed.
The other reason is too many posts. This is what resulted in me unsubscribing from sites like Engadget and LifeHacker. Especially LifeHacker, it felt like they were just trying to reach a quota many days on some of their posts (which contradicts the whole purpose of LifeHacker IMO).
dm
http://www.bloggingmuses.com
Don M
February 27th, 2007 11:06 pm
On a side note. Not posting enough isn’t a big deal for me. I have friend’s personal blogs I subscribe to and they might only update once per month. But in Google Reader the infrequently updated just don’t take up any real estate on my screen or in my mind because I have the feeds set to SHOW ONLY NEW instead of SHOW ALL.
Outta sight outta mind (until they post that is …)
dm
http://www.bloggingmuses.com
Jeffrey
February 27th, 2007 11:07 pm
I unsubscribe if:
1) a lengthy amount of time consistently passes between posting
2) multiple posts per day consistently occur
3) i’m a regular commenter on a blog and the author does not comment back in some way. It’s like being involved in a conversation with a group of people only to have no one even look your direction…
John
February 27th, 2007 11:18 pm
Biggest reason for me: A site that repeatedly edits or otherwise causes the same article to keep refreshing 5-10+ times in one day. If I don’t *really* like that blog, it’s outta’ there. -j
Cyndi L
February 27th, 2007 11:19 pm
Attitude, attitude, attitude.
I have unsubbed from some very popular blogs because of blogger attitude. The world is negative enough without constant bombardment of negativity from a blogger, especially when she is being negative and nasty about an area that is not really her realm of expertise!
If I really want more of that kind of garbage, I’ll go listen to some of the hollywood types spouting their wisdom instead ;-)
mapperz
February 27th, 2007 11:23 pm
Most the time, it’s when a feed starts showing lots of code rather than the content of the topics.
As a blogger do check the rss and atom feeds to check this is not happening.
Prefer regular posts to not many, but does fluctuate when there is news on the topics that we are interested and try to prompt it.
Blog Searches on Yahoo and Google are good sources and do not need subscribing to.
mapperz
http://mapperz.blogspot.com/
Al
February 27th, 2007 11:31 pm
I can think of several reasons.
1. Partial feeds, especially when the teaser text is usually just a sentence. A blog would have to have VERY compelling content for me to keep it in spite of that.
2. Posting frequency drop-off. I’ll keep a blog that only posts once a week, but a blog that was daily but has dropped to a week or more between posts will probably get dropped.
3. Not enough original content. If a blog is pretty much saying the same things as other blogs in that space, and not offering anything else of value, I’ll drop it and keep the more interesting ones.
4. Partial feeds. It bears repeating, because it’s the biggest one. I was recently pleased to find that a couple of webcomics I enjoy offer RSS feeds, but I still had to click through to the site to see the actual strips. I unsubcribed from those feeds shortly after that.
Cat Laine
February 27th, 2007 11:33 pm
1) too many posts (although most times I’ll just “mark all as read” if I get too behind)
2) uninteresting content
I second the call for full feeds. If I’m using google reader, I’m doing it to save time and full feeds allow me to do that.
Long intervals between posts don’t bug me much as long each new post in quality.
Greg
February 27th, 2007 11:47 pm
These are the things that make me unsubscribe from a feed:
1. Posting too many small, trivial posts.
2. No formatting in the posts making them hard to read.
3. Posting off topic too often.
I do not mind partial feeds too much. Some bloggers post in-depth articles about their topics and I think partial feeds make sense (kind of like an abstract). On the other hand, a 200 word excerpt from a 300 word post is kind of ridiculous.
Pamela
February 28th, 2007 12:00 am
Partial feeds.
Stacy
February 28th, 2007 12:04 am
I just cleaned out my subscriptions. The reasons why I unsubscribed to some blogs:
1. No posts in the last month
2. Information not relevant any more
3. Like Matt in #5, I deleted one non-personal blog because the ego of the blogger got in the way and it became more about them and not the audience.
4. Partial RSS feeds
5. Quality of writing dropped
Lara
February 28th, 2007 12:05 am
Personally - too many posts drive me batty. I unsubscribed from LifeHacker because they kept posting and posting and posting. Nevermind the fact that I’m not a Mac owner, and they had no way to sort through their posts in my feed reader to get only the ones that pertain to me and my interests.
I’ve also unsubbed from sites (even “personal” sites) where the author’s ego gets so inflated that their posts get whiny or they start writing with “this is MY site, and I can say whatever I want” attitude because someone didn’t like what they said last time. To me, blogging is about sharing opinions - not demanding that everyone agree with your own.
As far as frequency goes? I think I’m a little more lenient because I have a problem with frequency posting myself. As long as it’s not like, six months gone by, I’ll keep someone in my feed reader just because I have always liked their writing, opinions, etc. Afterall, it’s not hurting my reading time, and it’s impossible to know what another’s circumstances are (busy, family issues, etc.).
I’ll jump on the full feeds bandwagon too. With the advent of “feedvertising”, it’s possible to still obtain income from feeds. Commenting brings me to the site as well… so it’s not like I’m not going to see your precious ads, you know? Plus if I’m really interested in what the author’s been saying, I’ll jump over to the site every once in a while just to see what else is going on.
Ellen
February 28th, 2007 12:08 am
I use Netvibes as my primary feed reader and one thing that turns me off is blog titles that don’t give me an idea of what the post is about. This is especially true for a blog that has multiple posts daily. The reason I can live with Lifehacker is I have a pretty good idea what the post is about and whether it is something I am interested in reading.
I also agree with partial feeds. I tend to stop reading the posts after a while and then the feed gets kicked when I find a better replacement.
I started using Google Reader recently and find it very helpful for blogs that update once or twice a week. I don’t mind a blog that posts infrequently as long as the posts are of value.
Simon Gynn
February 28th, 2007 12:20 am
Three things:
1. Lack of posting frequency.
2. Posts that are essentially infomercials, unless they are amusing
3. Partial RSS gems like this from today’s sports section of the Chicago Tribune:
Title: Ryno cares, as children in hospitals discover
Body: Number 23 is handling every chance these days with kid gloves.
I don’t mind a partial RSS feed, but come on, give me more than 10 words. Might as well give me just the titles.
Paula G
February 28th, 2007 12:28 am
I tend to unsubscribe if one or more of the following happen:
– Waaay too many posts
– Short, irrelevant, or repetitive saying the same thing over and over posts
– Too much selling. I don’t mind some selling of services in people’s posts every once in a while (I do it too) but if someone gets totally selling happy - always “about my book, teleseminar, etc.” and no rich, solid, non sales content, then I don’t read them anymore.
tillerman
February 28th, 2007 12:33 am
I unsubscribe for the same reason I subscribe. The same thing we keep coming back to as the major thing that makes a blog popular…
IT’S THE CONTENT STUPID. (No offence intended).
LintCollector
February 28th, 2007 12:39 am
1. Too many posts
2. Unoriginal posts
3. Excessive salesmanship - I don’t mind bloggers occasionally promoting things they believe in, but quickly lose interest if it becomes apparent that the blog exists primarily to sell a product.
Irregular or infrequent posts are okay as long as they interest me.
Celly
February 28th, 2007 12:43 am
When old posts in a feed are updated meaninglessly multiple times a day forcing stories to reload over, and over, and over — Much like this one…
Kimber
February 28th, 2007 12:48 am
- Too long posts
- Too many posts
- Posts consisting of merely links to other posts with no other input
- Change of topic
Michael Wales
February 28th, 2007 12:58 am
I unsubscribe from a feed when I realize I am no longer reading it - sometime this is because the blog has lacked activity recently but it’s usually because I am simply skimming over the articles.
If I find myself marking everything as read on a feed for a week yet I can’t recall a single story from that feed - then it’s time to unsubscribe. Obviously it’s not holding my interest.
Trent
February 28th, 2007 1:04 am
The only reason I unsubscribe is too many short posts. I prefer to read blogs that are actually discussing issues, not ones that just drop a link or two and move on. I’ll keep up with twenty posts a day if the content is good and actually makes me think.
Oh, and thanks, Erica (comment #25), for the shout-out to my blog.
Wann fliegt der Feed aus dem Reader? » Missis Notizblock
February 28th, 2007 1:11 am
[…] Ne spannende Diskussion tobt gerade beim ProBlogger: Wann kickst du einen Feed aus dem Feedreader? […]
James Britton
February 28th, 2007 1:12 am
1. Too many articles (like TreeHugger and NYTimes) that I can’t keep up if I miss a day
2. Not enough posts
3. No images in feed (a picture truly is worth a thousand words)
4. Content is repetitious or boring…i.e. I’ve heard this before
Rhea
February 28th, 2007 1:13 am
This is a wonderful question. I hope someone (hint, hint) can compile the answers into a digestible form.
I stop subscribing:
1. when they don’t post often enough
2. if the posts are really long
3. if they are too negative or vulgar
Edward Wolf
February 28th, 2007 1:24 am
Very informative discussion. Which leads to the next question: what’s the point of blogs like proBlogger having a large subscription list if the subscribers don’t come to the site? How can you make money off adsense, for instance, if the only contact readers have with you is through a reader? It seems it would be more profitable to have two readers who come to your site and occasionally purchase something than a thousand subscribers who never do. So the next issue is how do you get readers to leave their reader and click through to your blog?
Razeen
February 28th, 2007 1:25 am
I think the reasons are:
- The post is not relevant with the content of the site.
- The site isn’t update post regularly
- Doesn’t update the feed for a long time (dead).
Alex Shalman
February 28th, 2007 1:35 am
I recently had to unsubscribe from a boat load of feeds. For research purposes I had accumulated… no, horded a collection of feeds. Keeping up with them became time consuming so I had to pick out a dozen or so that were the best. The criteria that I used included:
1) The site is updated on a consistent frequency. There does not need to be a daily update. I understand that some people have a style of writing which includes small, to the point, daily updates while others post a well researched article once a week. I enjoy both, but I like consistency.
2) I look for a site that has a good popularity/longevity ratio. If a site has been around for a year and is ranked 10 million on alexa, chances are that if nobody in my nitched liked it, I may not either. On the other hand, a relatively new site with 6 digit rankings will get my attention more.
3) Lack of confidence or opinion. I look for posts that have character and show some knowledge to back up the topic. I understand that sometimes people make ‘Open Mike’ posts because the opinion of the group is what really matters, but often times I will see posts where the author just isn’t sure of themselves.
4) More on personality and branding. If I don’t get a sense of who the author is after being with their site for a couple of months I tend to lose interest. I do not like reading posts that have no flavor and read like monotonous dribble.
Greg Laden
February 28th, 2007 1:45 am
I find it very interesting that many people unsubscribe when there are too many posts. This is counter to much of the advice I’ve seen for bloggers that says that more posts are better!
I have been struggling with three issues with my own blog:
1) How many posts;
2) The timing of posts over the daily cycle; and
3) the ratio of posts that are mainly me culling what I think is interesting from other sites vs. original content (which tend to be longer). I can cull from other sites all day if I want …( and that is boring and unsatisfying) but the original posts from my own research, etc., obviously can only be produced at a much slower rate.
So the big question for me is, How does one find out what the readership likes?
HART (1-800-HART)
February 28th, 2007 1:51 am
I’ve never removed any feed from my Bloglines accout since I’ve started it in June 2005. (unless I’ve got identical feeds from different URL sources). One day .. my OPML will be of interest to some archive, even if it’s just my own personal curiousity. Currently, I’ve got almost 1900 feeds but, I don’t read them all, and a lot of them are search and keyword feeds. They are all organized logically in 4 types of folders that I find useful to me (by my blog related topics, by group or network, for amusement and surfing, and for my offline business and forum etc).
Not all content is of interest to everybody. If you don’t like my content .. by all means - unsubscribe from my feed. I try to keep on topic, but I know that I don’t always do that .. and it’s possible I might be all over the place on many topics and you found me in a search from one of the. It’s also possible that I might never write about that topic again and be of no further interest to you.
Yes! These are valid excuses to remove my feeds .. You just don’t like the content anymore! And that’s okay with me.
But .. I’m sorry, but I have a low opinion of people who say they remove feeds because of inactivity or the excuses like some of the above in here. I also don’t understand those who let Google Reader magically delete ‘unused’ or ‘inactive’ feeds. That’s just i.m.o. of course.
- too many posts?
- hardly any posts?
- too short posts?
- too long posts?
Geeesh.
Ingoal
February 28th, 2007 1:58 am
It all depends on the site…if it’s one that I’ve been reading for an extended period of time, it’ll have more leeway before I cut it loose. That said, the top reasons are:
1. Not interested in the topic anymore (either my focus/interest shifted or the blog’s author decided to go another way)
2. Post content quality dropped (either because the blogger has lost interest and/or focus or is just not “up to par” anymore - or I found another blog which covers the same spots in a better quality)
In contrast to many of the others, I’m not going to unsubscribe because of partial posts (it’s the good right of the author to get you to actually visit their site(s), after all advertising money makes the (web) world go round)…and I’m not going to unsubscribe because of some ads, once again…ad money makes the world go round…it’s a different matter though if the site turns into a “made for xyz” site (ads > content)…
chrispian
February 28th, 2007 2:09 am
I don’t think anyone has posted this reason yet, but it’s the main reason I unsubscribe: The main reason I drop a feed is because items in it are constantly “new”. For example, Blog Herald has several news items lately that just won’t leave my feed and always show up as new. It drives me crazy when I see the same story over and over again. I’ve dropped several feeds this week because of this and the blog herald is about to join them because of it. I don’t care how much I like the site, there’s just too much noise to have items repeatedly staying “new”.
Nathania Johnson
February 28th, 2007 2:11 am
1. If the feed is just full of self-promotion, but is supposedly a “blog.” I don’t mind signing up for promotion feeds, if say, I want to know about great deals from my favorite company. But pretending to be a blog and then just selling, selling, selling - NO GOOD.
2. Pessimism. I unsubscribed from a blog yesterday b/c the guy is so negative about stuff.
3. Too “tabloid” - some “industry” blogs have me wondering if they’re just blowing smoke to get readers and publicity. it’s annoying. i want real, substantial content.
engtech
February 28th, 2007 2:16 am
Post frequency doesn’t matter to me at all. If they haven’t posted in a while I’ll forget entirely that I’m subbed. :)
The only thing that matters is if I find I’m not reading their content. If I’m always skipping over it, always making it the last to read, or never clicking through to the site (in the case of partial feeds) then it’s gone.
engtech
February 28th, 2007 2:18 am
Actually, post frequency does matter to me, but from the other end.
I’ll unsubscribe from a blog that posts too frequently and overwhelms me.
feve
February 28th, 2007 2:42 am
- dead blogs without posting
- blogs where every post is long ( hate too long )
- blogs without posts for over a month
- any type of theme blog, that gets off track.
for example, if i subscribe to a poker blog.. i really don’t care if the writers cat was stuck outside all night. i don’t care if they like chocolate milk better than white. if they aren’t sharing something about poker ( or whatever the purpose of the blog is ) then, i’m gone.
if i want to read how long it’s taken someone to fluff their pillow, i’ll find a generic journal style blog to subscribe to.
Steve
February 28th, 2007 3:06 am
1. A new one (i think) - If I have found better feeds to take up my time. I have 65 feeds and that is pretty much the maximum i can handle. If I find new feeds to subscribe to then I make myself cut the same number from my list.
2. Too many posts - 1 per day is my maximum
2. I’ll unsubscribe if, after 7 or 8 posts I ahven’t found any really useful or interesting content.
Allen.H
February 28th, 2007 3:11 am
Wow, I’m really surprised..somewhat disappointed some are saying the unsubscribe because of long posts. I’ve written and write quite a few of these each month and I think they are very worth the time you spend reading them, at least according to the links, reviews and traffic I’m receiving.
I unsubscribe from blogs for the following reasons:
1. The focus is lost and the blog isn’t actually sticking with it’s niche (exceptions: personal blogs)
2. Bad post titling - I mainly use Firefox’s live bookmarks so bad titles set me off while good titles always end up getting clicked on.
3. Bad post layout - I just hate to read cluttered posts, either bad paragraphing or too many ads on a page end up getting me to delete that feed from my list.
Regards,
Allen.H
John Wesley
February 28th, 2007 3:23 am
1. I agree with too many posts. It feels like a feed it taking over a whole folder sometimes.
2. Redundancy
Do too many posts overwhelm readers? » bhiv.com
February 28th, 2007 3:42 am
[…] Problogger asks: What makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed? […]
Kerrie Smyres
February 28th, 2007 3:43 am
If it’s just titles, updated too often or has partial feeds. Also if I find I have a backlog of posts to read that I never seem to get to. Ironically, this happened with all the feeds about simplifying or streamlining your life.
Rod
February 28th, 2007 3:56 am
1. Partial text feeds. Immediately unsubscribed.
2. Lack of posting frequency.
3. If I find myself consistently skipping over a feed to read something else
Chris Johnston
February 28th, 2007 4:10 am
I absolutely hate partial feeds. I tend to use my Treo and Google Reader Mobile to read feeds and comment(like right now). I don’t want to have to link to the site to read the rest of the feed. This is less of a problem on the computer becuase I’m using Google Reader and I already have browser window open and I just open the blog in a new tab. I will endure blogs with parrial feeds that I find extremely useful but if it’s an OK blog and it’s got partial feeds it’s gone.
I have noticed many more blogs going to partial feeds and I think with the creation of tools like Yahoo Pipes it will become more common for bloggers concerned with someone stealing their content.
HART (1-800-HART)
February 28th, 2007 4:19 am
oh chrispian - I forgot about that .. I actually DID unsubscribe from one feed our of my Bloglines .. WorkBoxers.com because that same bloody post about Ms.Dewey from October has been coming every day for 90 days in a row. If there has been more content, I would have kept it alive, but every day it was the same post.
Dijo
February 28th, 2007 4:49 am
Partial feeds can be one of those factors that will make me hit the unsubscribe button. Apart from that poor quality of posts or no posts at all.Then of course posting frequency: I had destructoid’s feeds for some time but i got scared looking at the number of posts that were made in a day and consequently unsubscribed from it’s feeds.
Ashwin
February 28th, 2007 4:51 am
Do You Make These Mistakes with your RSS Feeds?
I hate partial feeds. I’ve unsubscribed to many popular blogs (which I was reading before) just because they were having partial feeds. They will post 2-3 posts a day, why should I go to their site to check each and every post?
Also the long list of “Popular Posts”, “Best of so-so.com”, “Related Readings” pisses me off. This extra useless addendum (in RSS feeds) will be longer than the post itself!
Please don’t ever record your offline activities in your blog. Even if it’s your ‘personal blog’. Even though you can brand the blog which you’re reading now as personal, I hardly post frequently and log activities like “I didn’t take bath today!”, “I saw a porn movie just now”, “I flunked in 3 papers”, etc..
Another thing is posting for multiple times a day. People just want to blindly fill in their blogs with posts. 70% of the content is not suitable for reading. I normally unsubscribe to blogs will post multiple times a day. Why should I subscribe to blogs to which I can’t keep pace with? Exceptions are for Lifehacker and Problogger. I just love Lifehacker. Even though they post 5-6 times a day, I just don’t want to unsubscribe!
Your Feed readers reflect the quality of your site. When someone is subscribing to your feeds, then he’s making a commitment. He wants to come back or read more. Don’t take them for granted.
A excerpt that I wrote in this Article: Here is Some Method That is Helping RSS Freaks to Save Time Reading Feeds
http://ashwinr.com/2007/02/25/here-is-some-method-that-is-helping-rss-freaks-to-save-time-reading-feeds/
Nox Dineen
February 28th, 2007 4:57 am
Like most of the other commenters, I’ll drop a feed if it sits dormant for too long, tends to offer content that is too short/boring/irrelevant to the blog’s supposed topic.
I also have a no partial feed rule. No matter how good a site is, if they offer only a partial feed I’m outta there. There is more good stuff on the web than I could ever hope to read, so I’ll stick with the people who make it easy for me to see their stuff.
Lora Adrianse
February 28th, 2007 6:02 am
1. Whining about a personal health problem
2. Extremely longs posts that don’t add enough value
3. Too frequent, low value posts
shedwa
February 28th, 2007 6:27 am
I bookmark blogs when I have visited them a few times and like what I see.
Hence, I unbookmark them when I am continually checking the blog and no new content or no relevant content has been posted in a while.
I also unbookmark when the blog is just repeating info that I have already seen other places and has no original content to share.
Brent
February 28th, 2007 6:48 am
Just a note I have started to compile the results of this thread over at:
http://bhiv.com/do-too-many-posts-overwhelm-readers/
tish
February 28th, 2007 6:53 am
When I run across a blog I like, I add its RSS feed. Sometimes after reading the blog for awhile, I realize it’s not quite the content or value I thought it would be. So I unsubscribe.
TallFreak
February 28th, 2007 6:56 am
Too many posts. I hate after being on vacation for a few days and return to my computer to find 391 posts unread on a particular blog. (I’m talking to you Perez Hilton!)
Retaining Readership Through Good RSS Site Feeds
February 28th, 2007 7:04 am
[…] Darren Rowse has created quite a discussion over at ProBlogger centered around the very thing that these questions are designed to address: retaining readership. Rowse has posed the question (which was submitted by a reader) and asked what factors lead to readers hitting the "unsubscribe" button on an RSS feed. Several themes seem to be emerging, although the specifics vary a little from person to person. From my crude analysis of the almost 100 comments already left in response to questions, the top 5 reasons most people cite as reasons for unsubscribing from a feed include: […]
rjlight
February 28th, 2007 7:04 am
wow, I guess this really shows us new bloggers how tough it is to win loyalty among readers. Alex #67 — encouraged me though since I’m a 2-month blogging rooky and I was bemoaning my 6 digit ranking on Technorati… slow progress… Thanks as usual Darren.
Samsara
February 28th, 2007 7:13 am
Absolutely too many posts. [ie, 5] I don’t want to feel as if I cannot keep up. Theirs wouldn’t be the only feed I was subscribing to and to see topics drop off - whether or not I may have been interested in reading them in the first place - is discouraging. So…done.
Also..if the titles aren’t interesting and I don’t go to the website for a while, I’ll forget why I was interested in the first place so I’ll drop it.
Two reasons. Significant.
Dustin
February 28th, 2007 7:17 am
I read my RSS Feeds during my short breaks at work. If I cannot read it in 30 seconds or there are more than 15 (depending on length) posts a day, I can it. I have to get the info quick and get back to work.
Longer posts are ok to a degree but I would have to come back to it after work if I am in the mood.
Samsara
February 28th, 2007 7:39 am
I have to say…I read through some of the content and I want to share with others what I found this morning.
I already had in mind an idea for a topic but as I went about to catch up on my news it turns out the Topic Title to a particular low-traffic feed was going to be similar to what I was doing! I’m thinking, “Neat! A Source.” [What’s *his* opinion? on such and such matter.]
I went to the website.
The content?
[Paraphrased.]
“I haven’t really thought much about it but look forward to it in a later post if I ever get around to it.”
I couldn’t help but notice the over-abundance of intersperesed ads through-out the page; Very ad heavy - Almost as if he were fishing for visitors without having to work for it like the rest of us. I haven’t dropped the subcription yet but I’m thinking, “Are you kidding me?”
The above is true under penalty of perjuriously hot coals getting stuck into my eye sockets.
Declan
February 28th, 2007 7:57 am
Underestimating the subscribers intelligence or knowledge of a subject.
Lazy posts that are not thought out but are done simply for the sake of blogging..
Brian York
February 28th, 2007 9:13 am
Here are my top 3 in the order of how quickly they will make me unsub:
1) Summary feed (if the blogger won’t make it easy on me, I wont make it easy on the blogger).
2) Frequent posting of off topic material. I am occasionally interested in items other than the blogs niche, they make the blogger human, but pull everything back to the reason I subscribed in the first place.
3) Excessive use of ads. Weave the ads into the editorial… it’ll make for an easier read and believe it or not the ad response will jump.
Brian
P.S. One thing I really like about the problogger feed is the graphic in each post. Such a small thing but it is very easy on the eyes compared to just text and typically tells me exactly what the post is about before I start reading.
Derek Andrews
February 28th, 2007 9:16 am
Posts that I can’t figure out what they are about from the title or first few lines.
Too many posts with no real substance.
My interests and priorities change with time, so some blogs will no longer be relevant enough to demand by attention.
Often I try a blog thinking that it may be worth my while subscribing, only to find it is not. This does not imply the blog is bad, just not for me
Angela
February 28th, 2007 10:15 am
I remove blogs from my RSS newsreader for the following reasons:
1. The titles of their posts make no sense at all. That absolutely drives me crazy, you’re gone.
2. If a blog hasn’t had any updates in over 14 days then it’s not really worth my time, you’re gone.
3. Quotes - if your blog is nothing but quoting and your favorite quotes, etc you’re gone.
4. If your blog is nothing but selling, promoting, making money, without any original content that shows you actually care about your readers - you’re gone.
I’m sure there are more things that irk me - I just can’t think of them at the moment.
Doug Karr
February 28th, 2007 12:21 pm
Text that is not formatted and readable. I’ve seen many feeds that remove all the line feeds and block all fo the text into a huge blob. I scan feeds for content and often speed read through them. If I get slowed down, it impedes my progress.
I also CAN NOT stand partial feeds. I hate reading a snippet and clicking through to find my place back at the website. Once again, it impedes my progress.
Unnecessary swearing is a turn off. Visuals on an RSS feed attract my attention so I rarely drop feeds that do a good job with visualizations.
Otherwise, I read just about anything. Great question.
Karen
February 28th, 2007 1:23 pm
I unsubscribe from blogs (or any type of subscription) when I’m no longer receiving value. That’s the bottom line.
If the content is no longer providing useful information (whether it’s my situation that has changed or the blogger’s writing style/topics) or if the content is no longer interesting “to me,” then I unsubscribe.
If the blog is delivering valuable content I need or want to read then length of posts, frequency of posts and partial feeds are non-issues. And I don’t stress if I miss a few posts because the blogger posts frequently and I’m too busy to read those days.
I do like to read text that’s not one long paragraph (images, bullets, white space/breaks, etc., does wonders for making copy enjoyable and easy to read.). If it’s a chore to read, I won’t. I’ll unsubscribe.
Binny V A
February 28th, 2007 1:25 pm
For me it will be
* Partial feed - a lot of comments have this one.
* Too much posts - in my list, Kottke is running this risk.
* Badly formated text.
Usually too few posts will not bother me - as I don’t notice those feeds. But if I do a cleanup of my feeds, they may go out. Google Reader makes it easy to find which all feeds are inactive.
Is There An Optimal Post Length For Blogs? - TheVanBlog
February 28th, 2007 3:01 pm
[…] Another post that caught my attention today was Darren Rowse asking What makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed?. It was less the post that caught my attention as it was comments. If you blog at all read the comments, every last one of them. They’ll give you some indication of what people do and don’t like about blogs. […]
Randy Moog
February 28th, 2007 4:32 pm
If I find myself not reading the post for some time and I have no desire to catch up then I will sometimes drop a feed. If I really get lazy and I hit the max on bloglines (which is 200) then it is time to drop the feed…
Vix
February 28th, 2007 6:22 pm
I don’t subscribe to many feeds - they number less than 20 as opposed to the hundreds that I used to have before. My criteria was:
* inactivity. If a person hasn’t updated their blog in months, then there’s no point in keeping them on my feed reader.
* posts that are too long. I don’t need 1000 word essays for posts…on a daily basis.
* blogs that just echo what everyone else is saying. If there’s no opinion, they’re out.
RSS
February 28th, 2007 11:18 pm
Wow a popular topic. The main reason I unsubscribe is if the blog goes off topic. If I subscribe to a feed about marketing I sure don’t want to see your holiday snaps, no matter how good your holiday was.
Direito e Trabalho » 110 Leitores Via FEEDs!
March 1st, 2007 1:07 am
[…] Além disso é muito difícil, mas claro que não impossível, que um leitor de FEEDs o “desassine”. Aliás, por uma grande coincidência, o Problogger.net de ontem referiu esta situação, asseverando que entre as causas de uma pessoa cancelar a assinatura, ou deixar de visitar um blog estariam o estilo do blog, freqüência de postagem, a qualidade do FEED (se parcial ou completo, se tem ou não links e anúncios), assuntos, a atitude do blogueiro e outros fatores, que convida os leitores a discutir. Assim nada tenho senão agradecer a estas 110 pessoas que me fazem, quase que diariamente, sentar na frente do computador e pensar alguma coisa bem interessante para lhes escrever. Espero ter inspiração para continuar esta atividade com a qualidade que vocês merecem! […]
George
March 1st, 2007 4:27 am
I unsubscribe when one or more of the following happens:
1. Posting frequency is too low (less than once a week)
2. Posting frequency changes drasticly (from 3 times a day to once a week)
3. Posting frequency is too high (over 5 or 10) posts
4. Posts are too long (just get to the point! I don’t read many long posts)
5. The primary writer of the blog leaves and someone else takes over
6. I lose interest in the topic
7. The blog writer takes the topic in a direction I don’t care about
For instance a blog on SEO that switches from primarily talking about getting links to primarily focusing on the topic of the overall SEO industry in general.
8. The blogger says or does something (more than once) that I find offensive. This happens more often than one might think.
9. The blog adds writers that are not interesting to me
10. I find several better blogs that cover the same topic without committing any of the above 9 mistakes.
The most common reasons have been 1,4, and 8 above.
Barry S
March 1st, 2007 8:34 am
1. Negativity/Snark
2. Too much selling and affiliate programs
3. Offensive Content
4. Blogger’s Ego out of control
I mean why would I subscribe to someone who bitches and moans, tries to shock me and offends others, tells me how good he is and then tries to sell me something!
dandellion
March 1st, 2007 8:45 am
usually, that is series of posts with interesting title but boring or dull entry…. it attracts me to open the page but never finish the reading thinking “oh no, not the same stupid blog again!”.
blogs that have too many entries that are just an excerpt for other blogs or, even worse, advertisements and affiliate programs.
blogs that diverged from old topic into something that I don’t care of.
dead blogs does not make me unsubscribe. if there are no posts they are not getting attention and I rarely check my feed list to see which feeds gone dry.
34 Reasons Why Readers Unsubscribe from Your Blog
March 1st, 2007 8:53 am
[…] Thanks to everyone who has added their thoughts on why they unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed. There have been 109 comments left on that post so far and some interesting recurring themes have emerged. […]
dandellion
March 1st, 2007 9:17 am
I hate when I comment twice on the same entry, but something in comments got my attention and it really raises questions: partial feeds! actually, I never thought that partial feed can turn somebody away. on contrary.
excerpt gives me info what is in the post and that make me go to the site or not. I never seen the point in multiplying internet traffic for posts that I am not interested in.
one note, beside all this. most of the comments here are made by bloggers themselves. it would be interesting to see what non-blogging readers think, and to compare the results.
Por que no mantienes a tus lectores de tu blog? : Mi 1er Blog
March 1st, 2007 11:00 am
[…] El título original de este artículo es :”34 Reasons Why Readers Unsubscribe from Your Blog“, el cual salió de los lectores de Problogger. Pero algunas cosas pudieran aplicarse no solo al feed, sino que también al mismo blog. Aquí les hago una traducción: […]
Edward
March 1st, 2007 3:25 pm
Too much ads !
pixelgraphix Sideblog
March 1st, 2007 6:13 pm
34 Gründe ein Blog-Abo zu kündigen…
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/03/01/34-reasons-why-readers-unsubscribe-from-your-blog/…
WeblogToolsCollection Español » Blog Archive » Porque los lectores cancelan su suscripción
March 2nd, 2007 6:25 am
[…] En 34 razones por las cuales tus lectores cancelan la suscripción a tu blog: Darren ha hecho la pregunta, Porqué los lectores cancelan la sucripción al feed de tu blog? y como consecuencia ha tabulado las respuestas dejadas en los comentarios. […]
Why Bloggers Unsubscribe « tomorrow’s playground
March 2nd, 2007 8:07 am
[…] The original post with all of the comments […]
www.best-practice-business.de/blog » 34 Gründe, einen Blog-Feed zu kündigen
March 2nd, 2007 6:59 pm
[…] Passend zum gerade veröffentlichten Business Blog Traffiq Ranking auf diesem Blog habe ich ein Posting vom Problogger in den USA gefunden, der seine Leser nach den häufigsten Gründen befragt hat, warum sie ein Blog-Feed nicht mehr abonnieren. Die Basis waren 109 Kommentare innerhalb des Postings des Probloggers, in dem er seine Leser um Feedback gebeten hat. Mehrfachnennungen waren möglich. […]
snwop
March 2nd, 2007 7:35 pm
Mainly, when the subject does not interest me any more.
Razones para desuscribirse de los feeds de un weblog | Denken Über
March 2nd, 2007 10:08 pm
[…] Darren Rose hizo una encuesta hace un tiempo preguntando porque razones se borran feeds de un lector RSS y armó los resultados en una tabla bastante interesante: “34 Reasons Why People Unsubscribe from RSS feeds“. […]
Reasons RSS readers unsubscribe from blog feeds
March 3rd, 2007 3:46 am
[…] Darren put a an entry asking why makes you unsubscribe from feed reading and the response went overwhelmed. Here are the result collected from Darren’s compilation (of readers comments). A reference you might need if you noticed a reducing in your feed readers. Others in chart consists of the following: […]
Patrick
March 5th, 2007 10:47 am
Greetings all - At the end of the day us humans are a fickle bunch and require so many different inputs to keep us happy. This was a wonderful post and attracted many responses. A blog is a form of electronic book, if we are to keep readers interested a book approach could be a good analogy.
Compelling and waiting for the next page with anticipation, imagination going wild at being able to express it’s self.
Blogs are an awesome read in this day and age, think about your readers, write for them not for you, challenge thinking and be opinionated.
Only through reading, writing and continual development can we move forward, forever in the pursuit of more knowledge.
Live write be happy. Most of all have
a b l o g g i n g good day :)
Weekly Brief
March 5th, 2007 4:31 pm
[…] What makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed? from ProBlogger. […]
Davide Salerno » 34 ragioni percui i lettori abbandonano i feed di un blog
March 5th, 2007 8:44 pm
[…] Tempo addietro su Problogger venne lanciato un sondaggio sul perchè chi legge abitualmente un blog ogni tanto depura il proprio lettore di feed togliendo da esso i blog che ritiene meno interessanti o non riesce a seguire per una ragione o per un’altra. Ora che è passto un pò di tempo Darren Rowse ha deciso di tirare le somme su quell’inchiesta rivolta al mondo dei blog e ai suoi lettori e ha categorizzato i 109 commenti a quel suo post con il quale aveva lanciato il tutto. […]
Porque os leitores cancelam a assinatura do blog - dudu tomaselli
March 7th, 2007 9:49 am
[…] Por esses dias o Darren Rowse escreveu um post chamado What makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed? pedindo aos leitores que falassem sobre as razões que os levam a cancelar a assinatura do feed de um blog. […]
Ross Gordon
March 7th, 2007 2:38 pm
I think it comes down to the fact that there are only so many blogs that one person can keep up with. Since there are always new blogs popping up there are always new things grabbing your attention away from other blogs you used to read.
I personally find that i go in cycles. I’ll be really into a few blogs. As i finder newer, different blogs, i start reading less of the blogs i started with. Then something may happen that reminds me of an older blog i used to read and i’ll go back and catch up. The cycle seems to repeat itself.
If people start trying to police their own posts then the content becomes less real. The blogger may not say what he or she really wants to. They may force themselves to say something they don’t want to. It should not be a formula.
Having said all that, i think infrequent posts are what really kill blogs. I’ve seen it happen to one of my blogs. But i just didn’t have the time to keep posting. What can ya do?
Fredrik Gyllensten
March 11th, 2007 1:37 am
1. To many post (i don’t like more then one post a day)
2. No content with value for me
Baxter Tocher
March 11th, 2007 9:46 pm
The real killer for me is partial feeds. I know why people do it, but if I subscribe to a feed and it’s only an excerpt, I’ll unsubscribe immediately.
On posting frequency, like others, I have Google Reader set to only show unread articles. There are probably feeds in there that haven’t had any new content for over a month. But if the quality’s good, I’ll keep them subscribed.
What Makes Me Unsubscribe?
March 13th, 2007 3:49 am
[…] [Link to What makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed?] […]