If I am going to read a blog, it is almost assuredly going to be via an RSS reader. Half the time this is on my phone. A portion of the time, it is on my Kindle. Unless your site is one I will go to every single day, I’m probably not going to remember to check it if it doesn’t show up in my RSS reader.
I also make heavy use of Instapaper to collect longer articles for reading on the Kindle, outside of my normal RSS reading.
All of this means that when you have an RSS feed that uses only summaries, that I can’t easily read it. I need to click on the link and go to your website. Then I need to adjust any settings (like what size the font displays in) so I can actually read the text. Then I need to go back to whatever app/page I was using in the first place.
This drives me nuts.
I understand the desire to want people to come to your web page. This provides lots of ways of keeping attention, as well as ad hits and the like. But then again, what do you want more? People reading your blog entries, or people coming to the web page?
Some people think that it means you’ll get less comments if the readers aren’t forced to come to the website. Probably true. Then again, I’m less likely to read the posts I’d be commenting on if I can’t read them in my RSS reader.
Just a thought, folks.