I have had a couple of people post me about their entire post showing up on the Astro Dispatch. In short they don’t like it and I wouldn’t like it either.

Please be assured I am a person who creates content myself and I have no interest in stealing anyone’s work. Matter of fact my entire focus is to drive traffic to astrology writers so let me tell you how this works.

If is the blogger’s choice what they send out on their feed. I have this “dispatch machine” set to show the first 100 words of a post which is what you see on the front page. However, if the blogger sends out their entire post on the feed, then it in fact does wind up on this site!

Now as I understand this (I am a non-technical person) you can set your feed to send out whatever you like. Rob Brezney’s feed is an example of someone who truncates their posts dramatically. A “more” tag in a post will also truncate what goes out on feed. Get it? What winds up on the Dispatch is what you send to the Dispatch (and everywhere else in the world).

Now it is my preference that all posts be truncated because it is my goal to drive traffic - Period. So if the people can read your complete post on the Dispatch (or anywhere else)… well they’ve got no motivation to click other than to read or leave a comment. I would like everyone to adjust their feed but of course this is inordinately controlling so it leaves me in a predicament.

Now I have been at this awhile and my recommendation is you truncate your feed (on your end) at 100 words. This seems to be a very happy number for getting clicks. 30 words may not be enough.

I also suggest you put your pictures up high (in the first 100 words) so they come through on the feed because pics mean clicks, period.

I wish I could tell you how this can all be accomplished (setting your feed) but as I said, I am non-techy, plus there are all kinds of feeds (feedburner, blogger, etc.) so hopefully someone will come along and tell us all. But please get the point: What you publish is up to you not me. I WANT TRUNCATED POSTS because I want to drive traffic.

I want exactly what is seems like I want - A central place where people can come see what astrologers are talking about. I want it to be diverse and vital and interesting. I definitely want people to click through to read as this encourages people to blog.

Keep in mind when I started the Top 10, there were 31 astrology bloggers on the planet. We have grown as a group (200 of us) and part of the reason is is because I have been able to drive traffic and all I want to do is expand from here. So please! Use the more tag or alternately set your feed to something around 100 words, then play with it until you get the number right for you.

Thanks again to all contributors and supporters of the Astro Dispatch and one other note:

The reason I had to post this on my personal blog as opposed to the Dispatch is because it is long. The stuff I add manually is automatically restricted to 100 words and if you pay attention you’ll see that I use as little of the content as possible to create interest and try to break at a place that will provoke the click and the reason is…

My Goal Is To Drive Traffic To People Who Write About Astrology!

My reason for that is, I love astrology so if you want to see what astrologers are talking about - Astro Dispatch - Your constantly updating source of astrology-themed content