2006 February · Dominic Foster

On Providing Full RSS Feeds

February 23, 2006 on 12:22 pm | In Etc... | 15 Comments

Performancing have written about Why Full Text Feeds are Good - having been inspired by Scobles post explaining why Blog Herald not understanding why full text feeds work. I won’t summarize their opinions - go and read the posts for yourselves to be better informed. Pay special attention about what Scoble has to say about influencing connectors and journalists.

However, I will add my opinions about truncated RSS feeds:

They look really ugly. And they usually don’t mean anything because they are often just a part-sentence.
If I subscribe to your truncated feed, then I am probably only going to read about 15% of your website and be less convinced to subscribe to the products and services you are offering. Even if you are on the A List of blogging.
To get me to your website, you are going to have to convince me in 1 Post Title, 50 words and 3 full stops [in square brackets].

And here’s what I think you should consider doing if you have convinced yourself that you really MUST have truncated feeds (at least if you use Wordpress):

Impliment the Wordpress Better Feed plugin. Then you can enable readers to make a more informed choice about being forced to view your website. Also, you can configure it to show links to your products and services at the end of the feed item should you want to.

What are your opinions about not having Full Feeds vs Truncated Feeds?

Free Header Graphics

February 17, 2006 on 12:31 pm | In Free Tools, Uncategorized | No Comments

If anyone is interested in getting 10 high quality website header graphics for free then check out Joel Osbornes Free Niche Graphics website.

The graphics include cars, weddings, real estate, etc… and would be useful if you are into publishing niche websites.

The 10 graphics are in .jpeg format, but you also get the original .psd formats too.

If you like what you see, you have the opportunity to purchase others, but there is no obligation.

Technorati Tags: niche+marketing

The Worlds Fastest Indian

February 2, 2006 on 11:39 am | In Movies | No Comments

Here’s a story for you.

Burt Monro, a 67 year old pensioner from one of the southern most towns in New Zealand modifies an American motorcycle built in 1920 with parts that he makes himself (such as pistons cast from recycled metal) in a shed where he lives. He sets land speed records for New Zealand and Australia on this motorcycle on roads and beaches.

He saves enough money from his pension and local donations to ship himself and his motorcycle to the USA (working his passage on the ship to cut travel costs).

In the USA he buys a car, makes a trailer from scrap parts and drives himself and his motorcyle to the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.

In Bonneville he sets the landspeed record for a streamlined motorcycle at 178.971 mph. More fine tuning attains speads close to 206 mph. His 1967 record of 190.07 mph remains unbroken.

By himself. Without a support team or sponsorship. At the age of 67. Travelling overland from the other side of the world. In 1962. Breaking land speed records which remain unbroken to this day - on a motorcycle modified with parts he built himself - in a shed where he lived.

Beat that! And remember it next time you tell yourself something is impossible.

And go and see The Worlds Fastest Indian.

Technorati Tags: Movies, Motorcycles, Success, New Zealand