It's another Manic Monday! Another gruesome start to a long work week {for me that is!}. Nonetheless, I'll start off Monday with another GizmoTalk™ as a cameo comeback for Dr. Jekyll in the blog-hopping office.After my previous Feedburner Massacre, and the habits I've observed amongst fellow bloggers, including myself, another pressing question presented itself. Does readers REALLY read or generally SCAN through our posts? Now, I'm not a Blog guru, BUT I have this inner urge to understand the attitude of my visitors and readers to enhance my blogging skills and deliver better posts for them to enjoy!
So who are the scanners and readers?
Scanners are readers who does one sweep-over of the post and zoom in on "keywords" or targets one part of the entire article and base their comments on it or act on it without understanding the entire essence of the post.
So who are the scanners and readers?
Scanners are readers who does one sweep-over of the post and zoom in on "keywords" or targets one part of the entire article and base their comments on it or act on it without understanding the entire essence of the post.
Readers are those who takes time to read, understand and post comments accordingly. No matter how narrative the posts are, they will read it.So, what makes readers scan rather than read our blogs?
Based on my own habits I found that:
a) If I consider the fact that after dropping EC cards to 200+ blogs, your brain tends to start exhibiting the major symptom of ADHD - loses focus - here, I start scanning or skimming.
b) There's also a big difference between long yet exciting posts to long and narrative posts. You'll usually find me READING long posts only because it has so much excitement or entertainment ingrained in it. I'll even leave comments when I really like it.
c) and the fact that we're "hoppers". We hop from one blog to the other and spending only about 1 minute, being the longest, before hopping on to another blog if we didn't find anything interesting.
d) Most often that not, we visit a blog only to return a courtesy comment and not stay to read if there's nothing there that catches our attention.
Yes, ATTENTION - we all seem to lack this. Some Experts agree that it is not great content, but that it is catching the attention of our visitors and readers, that needed REAL WORK, and to give them catchy reasons to read our posts to achieve loyal readers in return.
Do you agree? Do we share the same habits? My dear Readers, are you a scanner or a reader? If you don't mind, please Vote here :
Happy Reading! or... scanning?
Interesting post, I'm both a reader and a scanner, depends on the post. I don't follow too many blogs, it feels too manic.
ReplyDeleteHey Maricris I am both too. If I am at work I am a reader cause I have more time there. If I am at home I am a scanner. I usually don't comment when I scan because I don't want to embarrass myself by commenting something that I didn't read thoroughly. Funny that I have more time at work than home huh? lol This was an interesting post I enjoyed it! Have a great day!
ReplyDeleteI should say I'm both a scanner and a reader. I know which blog I should read and which I should scan. Oftentimes, I read humor and personal postings. But politics, I can leave to the politicians, hehee! I seldom read blogs focusing on earning money and that. I'm already earning from my job, lol!
ReplyDeleteBtw, have you been addicted to changing templates? I saw a blog with a template you had before. It's good you've changed it.
I think I am both...maybe more of a scanner although I read this post from start to finish!! lol
ReplyDeletethanks for visiting today....:)
M :)
well, you'll be happy to know i READ your post, not just scanned. hah. like the blog. cute ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm a little bit of both. I'm a reader, as a rule.
ReplyDeleteBut if the topic of a post doesn't interest me then I scan enough in order to comment.
I would say I am both. There are some blogs that I read daily, but there are others I scan. Especially with my new Entrecard habit, I find myself scanning more than reading.
ReplyDeleteI'm a reader, for the most part. I try to, unless I am just having one of those kinds of days.
ReplyDeleteI am both, I totally agree that you generally decide almost instantly if you like the blog or not. I generally find that when I click on a blog that if it is sarcastic or snarky, thats equivalent to Sassypants Wifey bait. I love me some morning snark. I also have a weakness for pretty things, jewelry tempts me quite a lot. Your page has some real pretties on it! They are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI'm a mix of both. With 2 kids, they're the real judge of whether I skim or read a blog. Of course though I always make more the one visit if it's a post I'm into.
ReplyDeleteI read where there are stories and scan where it sound byte type posts so both are necessary for blogging!
ReplyDeleteAre you doing DeCode Wednesday tomorrow? I finally have some pics worth the effort!
Thanks for visiting my blog! I have a lot to learn. I am having more fun checking out everyone's blogs than working on my own. lol!
ReplyDeleteLol. I'd have to say that I am both. It all just depends on the situation, like you pointed out. Are you visiting in a hurry, not in the mood to read a long post at that particular moment, read the post at a time that you couldn't make a comment and then returned to comment later... it just all depends on what the visitor has time for.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely both! I read through this entire one and I voted!
ReplyDelete