WordPress reader stealing my traffic?
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I am concerned that the new-ish reader in wordpress.com is taking traffic away from me.
I suspect that people read my content in the wordpress reader, but that I never get their traffic to my blog.The reason I suspect this, is that I am getting likes and follows. Also referrals from by blog to my other social media (ie get traffic in my vimeo account from wordpress when I post an embedded video, but not from my blog.
I feel that maybe wordpress in not playing fair anymore. Using me as content creator, to boost its own traffic and stats. Or maybe I am missing something really obvious, with a simple explanation.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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and its a hassle to get from the reader to the blogger’s page. The link to the original post is not the most obvious link in the reader.
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Hi Franz,
You are correct in that the WordPress.com Reader, by default, displays the full text so readers can read your entire post without navigating to your site. However, you can control this using your Reading settings here:
https://trailblazerguidedotcom.wordpress.com/wp-admin/options-reading.php
Currently, it looks like you have it set so that each article in your blog feed only displays the article summary. So, readers will only see this from their WordPress.com Reader:
They can then use that link to see the full blog post. Does that make sense?
Let me know if that helps to answer your question!
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Hi Franz,
I apologize for not directly answering your question. Definitely not trying to take advantage of you as a content creator! Like any RSS reader, articles are displayed in full by default unless changed by the creator. This way, readers can access content through the WordPress.com Reader (or other RSS reader) and get all of their reading done in one spot. However, even if your blog posts display in full within the WordPress.com Reader, you would get credit for the views of your content.
By setting your Reading settings to “Summary” as they are now, readers can get your new blog posts through the WordPress.com Reader, but they will also see a link to read the full post at your blog.
Does that help to clarify?
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Hi Jeremy,
Yes, and no.You see, many posts I read from other bloggers are summarised.
Clicking on the obvious areas displays the whole text in your reader – no traffic to them.
You really have to search through links in the reader, and watch the address info in the status bar to get to the original post.
Then, only after getting the full story in your reader, I get a link to the original post. By then, why would I bother going there? I already got what I wanted.RSS feeds (to my knowledge) links to the original content directly. It does not open its own proprietary reader with the full content, and later get you to the original.
I feel wordpress dupes me into creating traffic for your own reader on the premise of a free service.
This creates a dilemma for me. I am targeting a specific traffic volume before I consider wordpress.org
but because of your reader, your statistics is not as complete as I would have wanted it, and I just would not know.
Why bother with pretty interfaces, designs, etc if my readers associate me with a wordpress.com reader, and I dont know they visited me?
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Hey Franz,
Let me address each of your points individually:
You see, many posts I read from other bloggers are summarised.
Clicking on the obvious areas displays the whole text in your reader – no traffic to them.
You really have to search through links in the reader, and watch the address info in the status bar to get to the original post.
Then, only after getting the full story in your reader, I get a link to the original post. By then, why would I bother going there? I already got what I wanted.As I mentioned, this is controlled on the creator end. Bloggers have the option to set their Reading options to “Summary”, which only shows the top paragraph of a post and displays a link to click through for the full blog post on the actual blog page.
For example, here’s a snapshot of your latest blog post in the Reader:
All of your blog posts will display that way because you have set it up to display only the Summary of each post within the Reader. However, other bloggers you follow may not do that. In that case, you would be able to read their full post from the Reader.
RSS feeds (to my knowledge) links to the original content directly. It does not open its own proprietary reader with the full content, and later get you to the original.
Here is that same post within another RSS Reader, Feedly:
As you can see, it still shows just the summary of the post and not the full text. From there, readers can click to navigate to the full blog post.
This creates a dilemma for me. I am targeting a specific traffic volume before I consider wordpress.org but because of your reader, your statistics is not as complete as I would have wanted it, and I just would not know.
You still get credit for the page views generated by the Reader. If you were to have Full Text set in your Reading settings (so that the full blog post displayed in the Reader), you would receive credit for a view every time someone opened the full post within the Reader (without having to go to your site). Since you have the Summary setting set-up, you will receive credit for a view any time someone clicks the link to read your full post.
Why bother with pretty interfaces, designs, etc if my readers associate me with a wordpress.com reader, and I dont know they visited me?
We’re certainly not trying to take credit for your content! Readers will know the post is from you. First, they will need to subscribe to your blog either through clicking on the “Follow” button when visiting your site or by plugging your URL into the Reader itself. Then, with each post, they see your blog title at the top as shown here:
Clicking the title opens up a bigger pop-up where your blog title is again shown:
Then, for readers to read the full post, they will have to click on the “Read Full Post” option, which takes them to your blog.
Let me know if that helps to clarify!
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