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Curiosity Killed the Rhinoceros
By Jeff | November 11, 2007
First of all, I want to apologize for potentially letting you down as I have no interesting story about a rhinoceros. On the other hand, I did intend to make curiosity the theme here as this is a post about assisting others with blogging and increasing traffic by your title.
If I have not lost you out of disappointment already, let me ask why you clicked this article. What compelled you to visit my site? Why are you even still reading? The answer is obvious: the title. I mean who doesn’t get their curiosity peaked more than a curious rhino. Honestly. It’s simple really. Let me explain.
We’ve heard (or read is probably the more appropriate verb) that content is king to a great blog. And for the most part, it very much is. There has to be significant solid content to build a strong audience and to have people become a fan of your blog. There has to be some sort of positive interaction between the reader and the author for repeat “business”. That’s the point isn’t. Keep them coming back. Whether it’s through RSS feeds, commenting, page rank, various authority ratings, selling advertising, etc., your goal at some point after you starting your blog was to be successful by having your blog read by countless individuals surfing the world wide web.
Regardless of how rich your content is, if nobody is visiting, then all that time spent writing, editing, checking code, and uploading graphics has been wasted. Obviously, just like when you clicked to read this article, one way that will assist you in getting noticed is Audience Targeted Titles. You had a specific purpose in mind when you sat down, gathered your notes, and began typing your blog post. Your intent was to entertain, inform, teach, sell, or whatever. Your target audience was also basically selected in the same manner. Your title should set the tone of your content. If you intend to entertain, have an entertaining title. If you intend to teach, have a title that explains what you are teaching about. Simple really.
Well, maybe not that simple. You want your title to be eye-catching. You want to appease the creative juices that flow throughout you. Why spend all this time on creating great content and then fail to spend any time on the title. My point is that if content is king, then the title is the crown. It represents the content out there in a sea of blogs. The title is usually the reason that readers stop and click your link or move on past you. Unfortunately, there is no formula out there that works 100% of the time. I find that I do my best titles after I have written the piece (or at least I have most of it done in my head.) However, on occasion (as in this post), I have my title before I even type a word. Let me give you a few examples of some of my past postings:
- Netflix and the Trash Digger - Catchy title with intent to entertain. Target Audience: those who enjoy humor and a good story
- Quick Advice for the Husband or Boyfriend - To the point. Target Audience: those in a relationship of some kind
- To Be Canceled; Or Not to Be Canceled - Parody of a literary reference. Target Audience: those under a cell phone contract
- Send E-mail to Cell Phones - To the point, but boring compared to the others. Would you click it? Target Audience: those that may not know you can send e-mail to cell phones
Without going into much further detail, I think I have explained the point of this post. The last example, which also happens to be my latest post is easily my worst title since my blog’s inception and it seems to be also getting the least amount of “love”. I honestly didn’t spend much time on that title and it shows. It’s useful information, but my lack of concern on the title could very well cause it to rest among the graves of the least read. Pity, really.
That’s not to say that titles need to be creative masterpieces either. Your target audience will determine that. If my blog was intended to be solely on the wireless industry, then it’s possible the chosen title would have worked because I would have built a readership expecting informative posts about cell phones. As stated earlier, the more successful blogs will have Audience Targeted Titles to coincide with their content.
So get out there and keep blogging. Show the world who you are and why you are! Just don’t forget to properly wet our appetite so we don’t otherwise skip one of your more excellent posts.
Topics: blog recognition, blog titles |
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