A headline should be informative, not an inside joke
A clever headline every now and then is nice, but if you look at your blog and find that every post’s headline is nothing more than a vague pop culture reference and/or shout-out to an inside joke, it is a disservice to your readers.
Your headline is especially important if you are only sharing a partial snippet of each post in your RSS feed; if I subscribe to your post and can’t tell what it’s about from the feed headline, why would I click on it? I probably won’t. Same goes for the short teaser to the links you’re sharing on Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook.
I’m not advocating “link baiting.” I’m tired of seeing cute/funny/pithy headlines that in no way explain to what the heck it is people expect me to click on. Pointless blog headlines are an epidemic these days; I’m not clicking on those posts…and I’m unsubscribing from those feeds.
Copyblogger says it best: “a compelling headline must promise some kind of benefit or reward for the reader, in trade for the time it takes to read more.”
A reader’s time is valuable–don’t waste it.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Margie Newman. Margie Newman said: A blog headline should be informative, not an inside joke: http://bit.ly/9n302e (FlackRabbit post) #fb [...]
*runs to change yesterday’s blog headlines*
.-= @stackiii´s last blog ..Slate: More Educators Suggest Skipping College =-.
Then you will love my recent post entitled “Boogedy Boogedy Boogedy, Say What?”
Blabbermouse, I find that headline extremely informative.
.-= Margie´s last blog ..You need a professional email address =-.
You’re right.
Sometimes I feel sad there’s no place for witty, amusing headline in online writing. We’ll just have to work harder to make the rest of out writing sparkle.
.-= Bill Bennett´s last blog ..ABC radio style guide =-.
Hi Bill, thanks for taking the time to comment! It’s not that witty headlines have NO place, it’s more like they shouldn’t take over as the sole purpose of your blog.
And honestly, this post is more of a rant about how news blogs seems to be feeling this odd pressure to be witty; I just want them to tell me what’s going on in the world. (sigh)