Sunday 27 September 2015

Yay or Nay: The Read More Button.

Sunday 27 September 2015

Let me tell you guys a story. There I was, sitting at my desk, about to reply to some comments when I realise that my posts layout is seriously messed up. There were huge gaps between my pictures and the text and it just didn't look good at all. I'm not even going to talk about the fact that this has since given me serious nightmares about how each of my blog posts look (I promise you, if anything is wrong or out of order, I will find it and I will fix it) because that should be pretty clear. But after this fiasco of a post I realised that another thing was messing up the overall look of my posts and that is the 'read more' button.

Sure, it looks fine most of the time on my actual blog which is important but for those of you who already follow my posts and usually click on links to read my posts, you won't see the benefit of the read more button. Instead, all you see is a big chunk of space where the link would be. I hate this space. To help me decide whether I should ditch the read more button I'm going to make a list Oh boy, do I love lists of pros and cons. 

Pros:

  • The post looks cleaner and neater when you view my blog as a whole instead of a separate post and helps new, potential readers to easily scan through and find posts that they do want to read.
  • I feel like it keeps me organised. It gives me a sense of peace to know that people are seeing a - hopefully - nice header and a little preview of the post instead of giving them all the goodness at the same time. Like a teaser. The read more gives me a chance to attract readers with the first little snippet and once I add the link I know how it's going to be.
  • I just really like the way it looks sometimes. It makes me happy to look at.

Cons:

  • To the readers that are already subscribed to my blog on some platform, they don't see the 'benefits' or the 'neatness' of the look on my blog. It messes up the layout somewhat and it doesn't look cute on the overall post. (This might just be me doing something wrong and I have no idea how to fix it). 
  • I can't think of any other cons. I'm awful.

8 comments :

  1. I love the 'read more' feature. It makes it easier to scroll through someone's homepage :)

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    1. I totally agree! I'm much more inclined to scroll through someones homepage if they have a read more! :)

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  2. Personally I prefer the 'read more' button. I know when I find a new blog I like to have a scan through the first page to see whether there's enough posts I like to want to follow, and it's less hard work if it isn't the full post, plus you can fit more posts on the page.

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    1. This is the reason why I've decided to keep the read more button! It's something that works so well for me on other blogs so why wouldn't I have it on my own?

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  3. for me, I only use the 'read more' button if a post is particularly long. that is after all, the reason to use the 'read more' button in the first place.

    I see some bloggers prefer to have more blog posts on the front page and the shorter the posts, the more posts they can have which is why they have the 'read more button.' I don't really like the short snippet plus they also shrink/crop the image.

    so basically, I think it must be a personal preference but I do read blogs by going to the blog and never subscribing so I guess I don't see any template/spacing problems, certainly I have not entered any errors with the 'read more' button

    well, that's my 2 cent, hope you have a lovely day.

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    1. Thanks for the comment, Lissa!

      Hope you have a great day :)

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  4. I definitely prefer the 'read more' button, because when I'm visiting a blog, and I can see a lot more of the blogger's recent posts, and can pick one (or more) that I am interested in reading/commenting on. When I have to scroll for 576 years to find more than one or two posts, I get a little exasperated (I can be impatient at times, what can I say? ;D).

    SO KEEP THE READ MORE, NATALIE. For me. Or for yourself, since there are more points in your pros list than your cons.

    Lists are beautiful. I write lists all the time. AND CROSSING THING OFF LISTS WOULD HAVE TO BE ONE OF THE BEST FEELINGS EVER. Like: take that, you little turd, I've finished you. You're done.

    <3

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    1. If I wasn't already settled in my decision then this comment would've done it. I'm keeping the read more!!!!!!

      Ah, Lists. I have multiple notebooks for multiple different types of lists. To-Do, Blog Post Ideas, University Applications, Shopping, EVERYTHING. It's truly beautiful.

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