Comments on: In an RSS world, good headlines matter more than ever

By: mdy

mdy — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 15:09:05 +0000

Hi Bryan.

Just wanted to share a link to a related post by Freelance Writer Laura Spencer — How a Good Headline Can Change Your Writing Success at http://www.writingthoughts.com/?p=132

Her blogpost provides links to other sites that provide tips for writing effective headlines.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 14:32:10 +0000

Mike:

My argument is that the headline needs to be descriptive, not necessarily sensational. And then, yes, the content has to be godd, or the reader can simply unsubscribe from your feed.

By: Mike Bellina

Mike Bellina — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 12:44:35 +0000

Hey where’s my feed! Seriously, I see the same thing as well. Twenty feeds with Twitter updates usually gets the “Mark All As Read” flush. (Mostly because I’ve read them already. Besides, what’s the point of putting Twitter post in your blog feed anyway. But I digress.) I find that the most intriguing headlines at least gets me to click on the preview in Google Reader. But and it’s a big but, it’s still about content.

If you are only looking for a high click through rate, then I suggest the “sex sells” method of headline writing, but if you truly want to engage the reader you must have good content. I believe that as the number of blogs continue to increase then interesting content will matter more than ever.

P.S. I saw this post come through on Twitter… go figure.