Wedding Blog
We tried an experiment this past weekend where we temporarily removed the “read more right here” option. That option forces our frontpage to have a lot more HTML than it needs to have. As a result, the frontpage takes a lot longer to load - it’s not only loading the HTML you can see, it’s also loading the HTML you can’t see behind the “read more right here” links.
Removing the “read more right here” option resulted in a big increase in first time visitors to the frontpage! We saw 20% more unique visitors overall, which reflected the fact that the frontpage loaded faster and so more people were able to view it before hitting backspace. That was pretty amazing.
At the same time, we saw a 100% increase in pageviews. This was partially due to the extra pageviews from readers clicking “read more” instead of “read more right here”. From a business perspective, this is great for Weddingbee, after all, we’re probably the only large blog that offers the “read more right here option”. But from a reader perspective, it’s definitely more convenient to click “read more right here”. So after all your feedback, we changed it back at midnight last night.
I have to admit sometimes I am taken aback by some of the comments and emails we get on the site. I wish that I could wave a magic wand, and build every feature that everyone asks for. We do listen to everything everyone says - we just have limited resources. Unfortunately, Weddingbee is just me and Miss Lovebug… and Mr. Bee and his brother, in their spare time.
But we are doing better than ever - we’re breaking traffic records every week! It’s only a matter of time before revenues catch up to traffic and allow us to build features faster. In the meantime, hopefully we’re keeping up an acceptable pace of new features?
In any case, we’ve reverted the “read more right here” link back. 
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Share this post: Read More Right Here Update
I’m so happy you brought back the “Read more right here” link!!!
Mrs. Bee, all of this feedback is just b/c your readers love the site so much
Honestly, I think it’s great that you listen to (and ask for!) what we want. I can’t think of any other site I check/read/obsess over that does that.
Oh I love you so much. Thank you!!!
And I second Aliya. It’s awesome that you listen to and ask for what we want.
Thanks for putting it back!
Thank you for bringing “read more here” back, but yet I feel bad for requesting that since it not being there brought more people to Weddingbee. Honestly Mrs. Bee I think you should do what is best for Weddingbee and the readers will have to accept it. Having to hit the back button is an inconvience, but not a big enough one to make me stop my obsessive refreshing of Weddingbee!
Best of luck to the Hive… I love hearing that you are reaching more brides (and not-even-engageds like myself 
)! Congrats on all the sucess!!!!
I do love the original feature, but seriously, if having it the other way brought more readers in and kept them here, I think its best to go with that option. It’s not like your faithful readers will stop reading because of it! I got used to it, I’m on a MAC, I just hit Apple before I click the link, it opens a new window!
I *heart* Weddingbee, thank you so much for bringing back the read more right here feature!!!! I was very sad to see it gone over the weekend. That said, I’d still read the site without it, so if you have to take it away again, I will forgive you.
I was away and missed the whole “read more right here” controversy, but man am I glad it’s here today. I really enjoy the speed with which I can read the entire post instead of paging around. But, like Natakie16 says, I’m not going anywhere RMRH or not.
And, to Mrs. Bee and Miss Lovebug (and Mr. Bee and BIL Bee), thanks!
Thank you so much for adding it back. I admit, I did not bother to finish reading a lot of posts without it.
I appreciate that you ask your readers for their opinions and that you listen to what we have to say. This is a big reason why I come back to visit every day.
If you do decide to remove this feature, I totally understand from a business perspective. Your ad revenue would increase greatly. Anyway, keep up the great work and thank you for all that you do!
Mrs. Bee and Miss Lovebug - you gals do such a great job!!!
I did notice that the “read more right here” was missing this weekend, and silly me, I thought it was coded differently for mac…(I usually am snooping during work! on a pc!)…btw, it is much more difficult on a Mac to not “read more right here” b/c there is not the task bar at the bottom to go back to it…
One idea…I think it is super important to have new people to the website so, what if you have a log in system…so that if you are a ‘member’ of weddingbee you can “read right here” and if you’re not a member (newbies!), then you can still have “read more”.
I’m sure that is super-complex html-ing…but that would be a way around both dilemmas!!
thank you mrs. bee!!
I like to read everyone’s comments so I just go through page by page anyways. I think for the greater good (larger WB readership) you should go back to the faster loading homepage. I think us readers can live through a minor inconvenience if it exposes more of the world to glory that is Weddingbee!!!!
Thank you thank you thank you!!
Hooray…”read more right here” IS pretty convenient. And Aliya and Tessa are right, thank you for caring about your reader’s feedback. It is YOUR site after all, you can do whatever you want with it!
Yay! Thank you! If I didn’t love weddingbee so much I wouldn’t care so much how convenient it is for me to read!
I know that you all must get tons of comments and suggestions and ‘fix-it-please’s, which I’m sure is taxing. I wanted to reassure you all that you are doing a fantastic job of managing all this! We love WeddingBee!!!
thank you thank you for bring back the read more right here feature! i missed it! and i second everybody else’s compliments that you gals (and guys) are doing a great job and we appreciate that you listen to suggestions and value our opinions!
good for you on serving the client… us =) i truly enjoyed reading this site and preferably like the read more right here feature. I hope the revenues do catch up soon. btw, miss lovebug is doing a fantastic job. she adds a dynamic to the already interesting bunch of weddingbee bloggers.
i’m one of those “not yet engaged” girls that secretly loves this site. i really really loved the “read more here” option, so thank you for bringing it back!!
Mrs. Bee and Miss Lovebug, you gals rock! I totally love the site and appreciate all your amazing work - whatever you think is best is good enough for me!
i actually found myself not reading all the entries cuz i decided some werent worth it. thanks so much for the read more right here feature back. it made me sad to see it gone temporarily
yay! i’m so glad you brought the read more right here feature back. i was a bit bummed when it was changed for awhile. the read more right here features i definitely more user friendly.
Thank you for bringing the ‘read more right here’ back! Funny how such a little thing can really affect one’s enjoyment of a site.
thanks for listening to us readers. while i loooove the “read more right here feature,” and echoing what others have stated, if it’s better for your business to take it off, by all means do what you gotta do. i’ll still love and read weddingbee ^_^
thank you for bringing it back. I read all the posts everyday and it’s so much easier to read them right there.
i love weddingbee!
[...] has always been very popular , especially since almost no other site supports it. The last time we disabled it, we got some of the most strongly worded comments we’ve ever gotten! I think it took me a [...]
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Mrs. Bee, New York
Age and Occupation: 29, Weddingbee Publisher
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Internet
Engagement Date: May 7, 2004
Wedding Date: March 5, 2005
Venue: Westside Loft, New York
About Me: Yes, my name really is Bee! I love my blogging, wikis, and tabasco sauce!
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