To Split or not to Split

The ever popular Split post with More tag. I use it pretty frequently for my long entries, although lately I’m rethinking whether to use it or not at all. Splitting post is great for users who despise having to scroll down through web sites. However, it’s proven, from single-paged ad and marketing sites such as those used by e-book marketers, that we would be willing to read through a series of text if the information is interesting enough. I personally prefer to scroll down and finish reading a whole post, and when I do see the Read More link on a post, I sometimes go, “Ah, forget it, I’m too lazy to click and wait for the next page to load — I’d better read the other posts.” I do skip on a lot of posts I find enticing — and I mean a WHOLE lot than I care to admit — just because of this reason.

Maybe a WordPress plug-in like Content Show/Hide by BillH could solve this issue. This plug-in allows your readers to stay on the main page to read your full post after they click on the Read More link. They can hide the post back, and go through the rest of your posts without interruption. On the blog owners’ end, it is just a matter of changing the text on the Read More link to something else that makes sense, like Click here to expand this entry, then that won’t scare me off from reading the article in full.