I promised you that I would break down in further detail why I recently chose to truncate my blog feed and explain all I know about what scraper sites do, how to truncate your feed in Blogger and WordPress, and the benefits and disadvantages of choosing to truncate. Please note: I’m not an expert in these areas and am just passing along what I know works for me. The purpose of this post is to help other bloggers who want to take action in protecting their intellectual property and to help readers understand why their favorite blogs are choosing to truncate.
But let’s start at the very beginning. Perhaps you are currently asking yourself, trunk what??? Class in session! We’ll start with a vocab lesson.
- Scraper – A site that makes unauthorized use of another site’s copyrighted content. Typically a scraper will extract (scrape) content from RSS feeds and post those feeds on their ad-enriched website. Their goal is to steal good content and make money off of it for free. Since content is king in helping one’s SEO (search engine optimization), these sites steal other’s content in hopes of stealing pageviews and making more money off of their ads. I consider any site that posts my full feed or several pictures of mine without my permission, a scraper site, even if they link back to my site with “find original article here”. They are still stealing content without permission. Most bloggers are okay with one photo of theirs being used with a link back to their post. However, using more than one photo of someone else’s content should require permission.
- Truncated – This word simply means “to shorten”. A truncated feed is a shortened version of a blog post. A truncated blog feed will only show a snippet of the post with a “continue reading” link inserted. To read the full post, a reader needs to click on the link to be taken to the actual blog post. One little click. It certainly isn’t as convenient as having the full post in front of you, but is a fantastic way of saying “thank you” to all the blogs you love who offer inspiration. However, everyone’s time is valuable and there is an “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of your email and somewhere in your reader if truncated feeds just aren’t for you.
How can I check if my blog content is being stolen by scraper sites?
This article by Kissmetrics is excellent and will give you several different ways to check for stolen content.
- Pingbacks and Trackbacks in WordPress – One of the easiest ways I’ve found to check for stolen content is by checking my (WordPress) “pingbacks” and “trackbacks”. These let me know that someone has linked back to me. Why would a thief link back to me? Well they are not always doing so intentionally! For example, let’s say that someone steals my Tutes & Tips Not to Miss post where I have featured and linked back to many different bloggers including an older post of mine. I will receive a pingback from another site for this same post which let’s me know that my content has been stolen. Since Blogger blog’s don’t receive the same types of notifications as WordPress blogs, we can all help each other out by letting others know if we are “pinged” by weird sites! I will often let Sarah from Thrifty Decor Chick (who blogs on a Blogger platform) know that I was pinged from yet another site stealing her content (that included a link back to me—hence the ping). Sarah wins for having the most scraped site of the year!
- Google Alerts and Google Search – Setting up a Google Alert is another great way to monitor your content. Google Alert allows you to enter in a key phrase such as your blog name or post title and it will monitor the key phrases on the web and email you whenever those phrases pop up. You can also simply search for key phrases from your blog within Google search to see if your content is showing up elsewhere.
- Copyscape allows you to enter your url and it will tell you if some of your pages are showing up on other sites. Beware that not all of these results will be stolen content. If bloggers have added your site to their sidebar blogrolls, Copyscape might show those in the results.
Can you just give me a list of these sites so that I can search for my content or just avoid visiting these sites?
So sorry, but I’m not willing to publish any scraper url’s or mention their names which would simply give these sites more traffic and pagerank clout. If you use the methods mentioned above, you should be able to find any stolen content. If you are a reader who wants to avoid visiting these sites, I would encourage you to alert blog owners of sites who publish a full post or several pictures from a post that do not belong to them. I would also encourage you not to use any “live online” (meaning everyone can see it using the url) blog readers.
What about sites that use my feed in an iframe?
An iframe is a website within a website. They are confusing, and I strongly dislike them when used for displaying my content on another website. Iframes are used all the time in programming and are not in and of themselves “bad”; however, I just don’t want my content in full showing up on another site even if it is just within an iframe. Whether or not Google reads an iframe and gives the blog owner the full pageview credit is very debatable—some say yes, and some say no, and some say it all depends. Iframes are tricky business, and therefore I’m not a fan.
How can I protect my content?
Susan from Between Naps on the Porch wrote an excellent article on this topic and I encourage you to read her post for tips.
- Watermark your photos – This isn’t a complete safeguard, but it will help. I’ve had sites take the time to “clone out” my watermark. Sigh. If people want to steal they are going to, but you don’t want to make it easy for them. Picasa which is a free downloadable photo editing software will batch watermark all of your photos upon export, but it’s not a very pretty watermark. I choose to watermark my photos individually using ipiccy.com. There are other photo editing programs that will allow you to bath watermark your photos but I haven’t tried them. One is Visual Watermark.
- Configure your RSS feed so that it displays post summaries – Truncate! And yes, there are hacks that allow you to undo a truncated feed in your reader. You can research these on your own. But again, if someone is looking for an easy steal you don’t want to make it easy for them.
- Provide a copyright statement on your sidebar – Chances are very good that this will be ignored by a thief, but it doesn’t hurt to have one: © Beth Hunter and Home Stories A to Z formerly The Stories of A to Z, 2008-2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. One picture with a link back may be used provided that full and clear credit is given to Beth Hunter and Home Stories A to Z with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
- Use a footer plugin (WordPress only) – If you are on WordPress you can go to your dashboard, click on Plugins, and then search for “copyright”. You will see that several plugins pop up for you to choose from to install. Installing a footer plugin will insert a box at the end of your post stating that your content is your own. If someone steals your content, others will be able to see that it is stolen.
What do I do if my content is stolen?
Start by contacting the offending site and ask them to remove your content. Typically they will ignore you. The next step is to contact their website host provider and even ad network to report the offense and to file something called a DMCA complaint. This article by Lorelle on WordPress is an excellent step-by-step tutorial on exactly how to go after content thieves.
How do I truncate my feed?
There are several ways that you can shorten your feed. I’m a visual girl, so I wanted my feed to have a snippet of my post along with my first picture or two. Feedburner settings didn’t allow me to do this so Lindsay from Living with Lindsay taught a bunch of us how to make it happen and I am going to teach you! If you are on a Blogger platform, you will need to hop over to read How to Truncate a Blogger Feed by Gina at The Shabby Creek Cottage.
1. In your editor you need to click on “Screen Options” which is found at the top right.
2. Make sure the “Excerpt” box is checked. If it isn’t, check it.
3. Download and install the WP plugin called “TinyMCE Excerpt”. There is one called “WP TinyMCE Excerpt” but you want the one without the WP in front of it.
4. In your WP dashboard, go to Settings, Reading and change “For each article in a feed, show” to Summary. You DO NOT need to go into Feedburner to change your reading settings. If you have already, you will want to undo those changes.
6. Publish your post as normal, and your excerpt will appear in your feed! Note: Your older posts will show in your feed as just a regular summary and won’t be customized with a picture.It takes much longer to explain than it actually takes to do! I hope this helps bloggers protect their intellectual property a little bit better! Again, if someone wants to steal your content they are going to but you don’t have to sit back and make it easy for them. To all readers who are frustrated by the inconvenience, I apologize. Your time is valuable just like our content.
Now go forth and blog and read blogs with integrity!
watch movies now says
The film is predicated on a 2013 quick movie by David F.
Sandberg – to not be confused with David Sandberg of Kung Fury fame – that went viral.
Lisa says
Thank you for the step by step instructions on truncating posts. It’s not always easy to find straightforward tips about WordPress online, and this really helped.
Lee Traister says
Thank you SO SO much for this post! I was searching and searching on how to actually do it but all the sites I found where discussing why and not how… Anyway, happy I landed her cause I was getting tired (lol).
Thanks again,
From Lee @ ladyleeshome.com
Meghan @ The Tasty Fork says
I’ve been wondering how to truncate a post with feedburner. Thank you SO much!! I want to give people a reason to click over! 🙂
Farhana says
And after posting that comment I was of course proven wrong! Someow has decided to copy one of my posts! *sigh*
Farhana says
As far as I know, none of my posts have been stolen from me or ‘scraped’, I knew people did it though!
Thanks for the tools and advice. If I do find something/someone has been stealing now I know exactly what to do!
Capturing Joy with Kristen Duke says
Just set this up and trying it out on y first post tomorrow! This just affects the RSS feed in google reader and also feedburner subscribers via emails, is that correct? Not my front page of my site (which the first post is not currently truncated)
Lisa says
Thanks so much for what you do! I am just entering the world of blogging and I guess I really don’t know what I am getting myself into! lol I did find you and a few others through a pinterest pin, and I think that for what I want to do…it’s so 101. I am wondering if you have any suggestions on where to find a really good guide to basic blogging 101? I of course have no idea where it might lead, so I am thankful bloggers like yourself who are so willing to help by offering step by step instruction on how to do this, do it well, and protect it. 🙂 Thanks in advance for any direction you might be able to point me in!
Beth says
Hi Lisa,
I would recommend checking out http://bloggingwithamy.com/ for ALL things/tutorials related to Blogging 101 and beyond. Good luck and thanks for the sweet comment!
Lisa says
Thanks so much! Her blog is SUPER helpful! Have a great rest of your week!
Barb says
Hi Beth,
Thank you so much for the fantastic instructions. I installed the plugin and everything worked perfectly – I love it. But, one of my readers alerted me to the fact that my e-mail subscribers are not able to click on the link – am I missing something? Thanks again.
Jenna, SAS Interiors says
Somehow I never saw this post, but I’m thrilled to have found the excerpt thing. Never knew about that… I set it up and hope it works. We shall see.
Beth says
Some people have had trouble with two large pictures showing up on their front page when they use the excerpt for the feed but it doesn’t affect my front page.
Angela @ Cottage Magpie says
Hi there Beth! Me again with another question. I’m finally setting this up on my blog, and I got the excerpt settings working and everything. I really do like it better than the “more” tag because I like being able to customize the preview!
One thing — what does the TinyMCE plugin do? It all seems to be working without it so far without it, but I’m concerned that maybe I’m missing something?
You are so generous for helping us all with this!!
~Angela~
Beth says
Hi Angela! You don’t necessarily need it. I just like it because I can copy and paste my excerpt and the spacing and pics are perfect in my feed. With other excerpt options the spacing of the text and pictures was very wonky. However, depending on how your blog is set up you may have a double picture show up with your featured pic and then the first pic of your excerpt with this plugin. I don’t have this problem on my front page but when you view by category sometimes it appears. Just something to be aware of.
simply kierste says
Beth,
Thank you so much for this tutorial! I just switched over from blogger, and I’m grateful that you took the time to share your knowledge. It’s sad we have to worry about this at all, but fortunately there are a few ways in which we can combat dishonest people.
XO
kierste
http://www.simplykierste.com
P.S. Love your blog!!!! 🙂
Debbie refresh resytle says
Thanks Beth! I’m just getting around to doing this. Your directions are very helpful and I’m crossing my fingers that I can do it correctly 😉
Have a wonderful day,
Debbie
Lori m says
Thank you for taking the time to provide the information along with the links and tutorials.
Elita says
Hi Beth,
Just a note to say thanks for the tute on how to truncate in WP. I’m in the process of creating a whole new website with WP & will be having a blog so this is all great info to make sure I’m protecting my creativity from the start. Thanks for taking the time to share!
Michelle says
Hi! Thanks so much for this post. I noticed my content is intact. Could it be because I don’t have an “RSS” on my blog? If so, then I rather leave it as it is! I was about to add the button to increase readers. I don’t have a lot of content and quite honestly, I blog when I can. But all photos belong to me. They are all watermarked. Again, Thanks so much for this info.
Mindy says
Thanks for taking the time to put together this very informative post, Beth!
Amber says
Thank you, thank you, “THANK YOU!” for this post! I’m also a WordPress user and I’ve been wanting to do this to my posts, and I didn’t even know it was called “truncating!” Thank You! I’m going to try this with my next post. I’ve only been on WordPress for two months. So far, I love it! However, most blog help tutorials I’ve been finding when looking for help to do this or to create a “grab it” text box for a blog button are geared toward blogspot users. I know it is a bit off-topic, but is there any chance that you can tell me how/what sort of code to use to create the little copy/paste/text-only box on the sidebar so that other bloggers can grab my button? If you go to my blog (WhatAmberLives.com) you’ll see my blog button on the sidebar, but I cannot figure out how to install the little box with code to copy. 🙁 i know what the code should say, but when i enter that code, the button appears instead of the text for other bliggers to copy. I’ve tried several times, several different ways… If you click on my “button” on the sidebar, you’ll see where I’m stuck. Thanks, (in advance) 😀 ~Amber (AmberDHenson@att.net)
Beth says
Hi Amber. Glad I could help you out ;). Blogging with Amy is a fantastic resource for all things blog related. This post might be helpful: http://bloggingwithamy.com/how-to-make-a-blog-button/
Jean says
As I look at all the comments I can’t help but notice they mostly come from other bloggers and not many readers. I am a mere reader and am not in your line of business but I do own my own brick and mortar store and theft is an issue in all businesses. It’s a fact of life. And there are many ways in my business that I try or deter such occurrences, but it happens. What I try to do at the store is make sure I am alert to what is going on but not make it a problem that deters customers from coming in and feeling welcome. I think truncating makes it complicated for readers to see your product. I think truncating makes readers feel unwelcome.
I read my blogs through an app called Blogshelf. I don’t click over on truncated posts. I eventuallly stop following. I’m sad to hear so many blogs changing to this. I’m even more sad to see blogger’s responses to other blogger’s who feel differently about truncating. As a reader, It’s all very disappointing. If my business complained to its customer about how it was being treated unfairly by theft the way bloggers are, I would be out of business.
Beth says
Thanks for adding to the discussion Jean. From a purely business perspective, bloggers do not make much (if any) money off of those who read strictly from feeds because they are not add enriched pages. The content is free to readers either way, but the monetized blogger makes money from sponsors. So speaking from a purely business perspective, truncating feeds will not put a blogger out of business. That being said, bloggers value their loyal readership and are looking for other ways to offer their content to those who wish to subscribe. Some bloggers are moving towards sending their full feeds through Mail Chimp so that readers are able to continue receiving content. I’m in the process of investigating other means of allowing full accessibility to my blog content without having it stolen. Thanks again for a different perspective.
Janel from NellieBellie says
Awesome awesome awesome!! Thanks for the easy way of installing the plugin and getting the excerpts with the picture!!
Inspire Me Heather says
Wow, what a HOT topic lately!! Thanks for posting this – your tutorial looks easy enough to follow too. I have this linked to my blogging post as well today, for great bloggy tips and advice!
Jaderbomb says
I LOVE YOU.. haha. I had someone steal my stuff a while back and it took a little while for them to take it off! AND it was one of my highest traffic posts. Thanks for this! I really appreciate it.
Britni says
Thank you so much for sharing this! I think I’ll be jumping on the truncate bandwagon but wasn’t sure how 🙂 I’m not sure I understand why you don’t recommend readers like bloglovin’? I haven’t read anything about that before so I’m not very familiar with “live online” readers. I actually prefer it over google reader, so I’m sad to hear that!
Beth says
Hi Britni, Bloglovin is probably a bad example because they don’t post full feeds. But some other “collected” type websites post full feeds and compete with the original author’s SEO (search engine optimization) which means that the “collected” content could come up in a search before the original post. This can potentially lower one’s pagerank and “searchability”. I’m just not a fan.
Miss Charming says
Thanks so much for taking the time to put this post together, Beth. (I love the step by step instructions since I’m not too savy on the computer.) I appreciate you sharing your knowledge!
Beth says
You’re welcome!
GinaE says
What a great post, Beth! Several of my favorite daily reads have already changed and I can’t believe anyone would find it a problem to do one more click to read the entire post. I think you all must protect yourselves and as more and more bloggers find their content stolen, they will convert too. As more people have to truncate, your unsubscribers will be back, because they won’t find anything good to read! I’m not unsubscribing from any of the blogs I read, just because the blogger has to try and keep thieves away. I hope anyone that hasn’t watermarked their photos, will do that too.
Beth says
Thanks Gina! I view it sort of like Pinterest. We don’t click on all of the pins we see, just the ones that really interest us. Truncated feeds should be viewed the same way—click through on the really interesting ones.
Laura Ingalls Gunn says
I fully support any blog that wants to truncate their feed. I myself , after much research, have chosen NOT to do so.
You can read why on my blog.
John @ Our Home from Scratch says
Thanks for the tutorial! I’ll be tightening up our site’s feed length. Didn’t even know this was an issue.
Lana@whatsthestorymorninglory.com says
Hi Beth,
Thank you for the great information. I am currently working on a relaunch of our Real Estate business website and blog. I am going to print this post so I can make sure I have all the things in place that I need. People go to a lot of work to produce content and post and it should not just be taken.
jen lossing, the consigner designer says
Thanks Beth! This is such wonderful and valuable information. Thank you for taking the time to explain all this information to us!
Bonnie and Trish @ Uncommon says
Thank you very much sweet Beth!!! 🙂
Cassie {Hi Sugarplum} says
wow — I had no idea this stuff was going on – now all my fave bloggers are spreading the word. thank you for this well-thought and prepared post! I think I need to start digging around for my own content!
Beth says
Your blog is awesome Cassie. If I were a scraper, I’d want to steal your stuff :). You better check girl.
Kerri from A Pop of Pretty says
Beth: You da (blogging) bomb. Seriously, you are such a wealth of blogging expertise. (That talk you gave at Haven still tops my list of highlights from the conference. Soooo incredibly helpful.) You need to write a book on the business of blogging!! Thanks for sharing your insight ~Kerri
ritajoy@harbour breeze home says
Beth, thank you so much for this great tutorial! I’ve been searching and searching for one written for WordPress… I compose and publish all my posts using Live Writer. Do you know if I then have to go into the WordPress site to trunkate each post after it’s published?
Thanks again for your great explanations and tutorials.
Beth says
You’re so welcome. Unfortunately I don’t use LiveWriter on my Mac, so I’m not sure. I’m assuming you would still need to enter in your post summary or the first few paragraphs of your post in the “excerpt” box plugin if you wanted to truncate with text and a picture. There are other ways to truncate your feed directly within Feedburner but not a lot of great ways that allow for pictures to come through in the truncated feed post.
Angela @ Cottage Magpie says
Great post! I have been wondering about many of these issues. As far as I know, my content hasn’t been stolen YET, but I am seriously considering doing a truncated feed so I can prevent it from happening. My content HAS been copied and pasted in entirety on other sites, but with links back to me — so far I have not pursued asking that to be removed, but it did kind of bug me. Wait — I guess that is stolen, kind of? ANYway.
I’ve noticed some people have come with a way to include a note in their feed that says, “Sorry to have to do this… etc. etc… scrapers… etc.. etc.. Thank you for your patience.” It shows up after the snippet in the feed, but no ton the site. Any idea how to do that? I really like that.
Also — I was wondering — is there a reason not to just use the “more” button in WordPress? I thought it did the same thing as the excerpt you are using. If it doesn’t work, i’d love to know! Otherwise I’m setting up the wrong thing! 🙂
Thanks again! And trust me, I will keep reading!
~Angela~
Beth says
Hi Angela! Thanks girl. The more button is an option but for me it was only allowing 50 characters and not including my first picture. Maybe I wasn’t doing it correctly. Not sure. If it works the way you want it to, I say go for it and skip the plugin :). You can change the settings within your feedburner feed and add the custom message to all feed posts; however, again I wasn’t able to get a picture with text to show up.
Kelsey says
Thank you so much Beth!! I know a bit about this and have Google Alerts, but this post answered so many of my questions!
Beth says
Kelsey » You’re welcome!
momstheword says
Thanks so much for this. You said “I would also encourage you not to use any “live online” (meaning everyone can see it using the url) blog readers.” and I don’t understand what you mean by that. Could you clarify what a “live online” blog reader is? I don’t get the “everyone can see it using the url” part of it. Are you talking Google Reader?
Beth says
Oh no, Google reader is fine. There are sites like Bloglovin and other “collected” websites that use blog feeds. I’m not a fan of those.
Jill Flory says
Thank you Beth! Thank you thank you thank you! I came over from Miss Mustard Seed since she said you were doing this post. This is SUCH a huge help and I so appreciate the time you took to write it for us! So aggravating that people will steal content:( Hopefully we can pull together and do what we can to keep it from continuing!
Beth says
You’re welcome Jill! Thanks for taking the time to stop by and leave a sweet comment :).
Becky@OrganizingMadeFun says
Thanks again, Beth! Great stuff. Most of my responses have been good from my readers, but I had several that read the posts from their phones and are unhappy to click over to read on their browser. I guess I just can’t make everyone happy! Right? Love your tutorials – you are truly good at it, an expert!
Becky B.
http://www.organizingmadefun.com
Organizing Made Fun
Beth says
Thank you so much Becky! And yes, I’m still trying to figure out what to do about mobile feeds.
Kathleen says
Wow. You’ve become quite the techie! So many of these things I can’t take advantage of in Blogger. But I emailed Tony yesterday. DOIN’ IT!
Beth says
Woohoo! Go girl ;)!
Ashley@AttemptsAtDomestication says
Thanks for the instructions! I’m definitely going to have to look into doing this!
Danielle says
Beth, thank you so much for writing such a detailed and great post on this issue. I just learned so much.
Danielle x
Beth says
You’re welcome Danielle!
Maryann @ Domestically Speaking says
Awesome post Beth! I was just in the process of writing up why I was making the change. I’m going to include a link to yours so my readers can see how to do it themselves. Thank you bunches!
Beth says
Thanks Maryann!
Beth @ Free Stylin' says
I’ve been looking forward to reading this all week, and you have done SUCH a great job explaining this for me. I do have a couple of questions…1. I don’t have the word Excerpt in my Screen Options to begin with. How do I get it there so I can move forward? 2. I really love what you said in your copyright statement. Would you allow me to use it for my blog (changing blog names and stuff, of course!)?
Thank you for this, Beth! I really appreciate all of your hard work and research!!
Beth says
Hi Beth, try loading the plugin and see if it just shows up for you since you don’t have the excerpt box. And yes, copy away. LOL! That seems kind of funny to say about a copyright statement :).
Carolynn says
I appreciate all the information and respect your position. I’ve seen some other websites (e.g. http://ronisweigh.com) deal with this issue by including embedded code that clarifies that if you are not reading it in “x” site then it is stolen content in large letters. The dilemma for me is that I typically sync the content from home using the reeder app and read it on the commuter train where I don’t have wi-fi access. If the content can’t be synced then I don’t have the opportunity to read it since most of my other time is accounted for. As you are the author I completely respect your right to choose how you publish your content and simply wanted to share that it does present a logistical challenge for readers beyond just preferring not to click on a link.
Beth says
Hi Carolynn, great point. Thanks so much for weighing in and I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I really wish there was another option and when one becomes available I will certainly do it and go back to full feeds. But for now this is the best way I know how to try and protect my property. I have actually spent the last three hours trying to get a post removed from a huge Spanish site that stole my and Kathleen from Grosgrain’s wine rack tutorial. It is a complete nightmare to deal with. I wish people were just honest and then we could just share freely.
Grace says
Wow, you’re the third blogger this week with this same topic so I know it must be a huge issue! Sorry that the world is like it is and and so sad that people are making money off of all your hard work for free! You did a great job explaining the ins and outs of truncating your blog posts. I’m sure I’ll refer back to it once my blog is popular enough to need it, lol! 😉 I always love your posts, your humor and you heart! Blessings, Grace
Dawn B. says
Great article! Thank You for sharing this information with all of us.
Ann says
Thank you so much for this well-explained post. I appreciate your clear and concise instructions on how to truncate a feed in WordPress. I have decided to do this for a few different reasons and I just hope my readers will follow. ~Ann
jessica@fourgenerationsoneroof says
Now this is why you are the o’l wise one 🙂
Mark Everness says
Beth,
Thanks for this information. I googled how to show a photo in a post – and you answered it. This is a great option as scrolling through a long post you are not interested in in a reader takes more time than having to click over to a post on a blog you are interested in reading.
First class info!!!
Mark
Lorelle says
Thanks for the reference link to my article on copyright protection, defense, and how to respond to those who steal your content. Excellent points in the article.
Two additional points. First, you are right that there is a lot of confusion about copyright and copyright violations. I highly recommend Jonathan Bailey of Plagiarism Today as the leading expert in the subject. His articles and podcast help clear away the cobwebs on this topic beautifully. He has a ton of forms and information to help people respond to copyright violations – as well as how to determine what is a true violation and what is under Copyright Fair Use.
All of that is supported by having a well-written and clear copyright policy with information on how to contact you, the copyright owner, for permission. Too often we put up copyright statements and hope they hold water, but we forget to make it easy for people to ask for the permission we demand.
Second, the excerpt WordPress Plugin and some of your recommendations are okay, but they are not necessary. In the WordPress Administration Panels, go to Settings and select Summary for your post feeds, as you mentioned. Then in the post Panel, use the Excerpt feature or better yet, use the MORE feature.
The MORE button adds a shortcode to wherever you place your cursor and click the button on the toolbar. At this point you have set the length of your excerpt within the content, no copying and pasting into the Excerpt box, and you chop the feed off at this point automatically.
Adding Plugins that do what is already available within WordPress just adds more code and slows down your site.
As for adding more buttons to your TinyMCE toolbar in WordPress, don’t forget to click the Kitchen Sink button at the end of the row of the Visual Editor to see more options. Rarely does anyone need more than what is there. If they do, I always recommend they learn the 5 HTML tags they need to know to publish content on the web and learn to use them in the HTML/Text editor in WordPress. It’s much faster than taking your hands away from the keyboard and button hunting with your mouse. 😀
A couple more points that you didn’t address that bear covering.
1. Do not think that copyright infringement is a complement. It is illegal. It is saying the criminals are nice people.;
2. Ask. Always ask in the comments or through the contact form of the site scraping your content to remove it. Be specific with why (and your copyright policy should state the specifics) so they have an opportunity to learn.
3. NEVER publicize the scraper. Educate without pointing fingers. It’s healthier, safer, and protects you from bigger legal actions like defamation and libel. Copyright is skinning your knee and whining. Defamation and libel are BIG BUCKS and court rooms.
4. Remember that you are often the copyright violator. Each time you use photographs, artwork, content, videos – all without permission or proper citation – you are the bad guy. (Have you done an article on proper citation and blockquote usage?) Learn to ask first. They might say yes. And hopefully they will return the favor.
Thanks again for being a wonderful part of spreading the word on this confusing issue.
Diane says
Beth thank you for this informative post. I was going to write to you to ask how you showed a photo in the post in your truncated feed – and you just answered it. I will have to thank Lindsay, too. I think this is a great option as scrolling through a long post you are not interested in in a reader takes more time than having to click over to a post on a blog you are interested in reading.
An option for readers who don’t want to click in and out of their reader to read posts is to install a Google “Next” button. Super easy! Even if a post is truncated in their reader, if they use the “Next: button it is one click from blog to blog – they would never even know it was truncated. To me it is the best way to read blogs – the ease of a reader and the enjoyment of seeing the actual blog page. I wrote a post on how to do this. I don’t think a scraper could pull from the “Next” button any more easily than having to go to a blog directly to copy, cut, and paste to take the post. It is an option readers who are unhappy with truncated posts could look into.
My best- Diane
Beth says
Great tip Diane! I also know that “Super Full Feeds for Google Reader” add on in Chrome allows you to read truncated feeds in their entirety. Obviously the goal here is to make it more difficult for hackers and not to upset readers. I think this might be another good option for those who enjoy using a reader.
Beckie says
Thanks for doing all the hard work I am just referring people here. No way I could have written it as eloquent as you did girl. Love u!
Beth says
Thanks love! xoxo
Kim @ Sand & Sisal says
Excellent post! Pinning and sharing!
Beth says
Thanks sis :).
Jackie says
Beth, Thanks so much for sharing. I started trying to research how to do this last night and keep up empty handed. I definitely want my feed to still have a decent summary and at least one picture to entice readers to click over. I am totally guilty of not clicking over on feeds that only show the title or half the first sentence…it is just not enough info to decide if it is worth my time. Thanks for sharing these tips.
P.S. I am a loyal A to Z reader and don’t mind clicking over at all, because you always have something great to share!
Beth says
Thanks Jackie. I figure that a truncated feed is a bit like Pinterest. We choose which pins we actually click through every day. Many we just glance at, but if the picture looks worth our time then we’ll click.