The Idea Dude

CONNECTING THE DOTS ONE AT A TIME

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

If you got it, flaunt it...

Working with blogs everyday gives us a unique insight into that whole world both from a reader and a writer's point of view. To be honest, I've been so busy, that it's hard to catch up on reading what's happening in the tech world. Having to work with TheGoodBlogs every minute is like making an achoholic work in a bar. I see so many interesting titles I know I just have to read but must refrain otherwise I would lose 10-15 minutes being enriched by someone else's writings. The feedback from others who have been gracious and brave to try us is the same. They admit to clicking on TheGoodBlogs on their own pages simply because they see things and bloggers they've never seen before. Even on a limited scale, I feel we have already proved our concept. It does work and it does provide value. It is sweet vindication for many sceptics who didn't get it when I told them I wanted to help even out the playing field for the blogger long tail.

There's so much still to do and everyday comes with a learning and bucket of new features. Hopefully, I will have time to share some of our insight as to what drives traffic on websites. For today, I'll share one. Choose your title very carefully. Often we blog like it was stream of consciousness that is left unedited and unadulterated. That may be fine but if you're trying to attract traffic, having a lame title for your entry or having one that is too long is doing you a serious injustice. Think like a newspaper reporter and what the headline should be. Never reveal everything in your title. Like a good flirt, leave something for the imagination. When a casual reader looks for content, you have about 100 milliseconds or airtime as he or she sweeps the page with their eyes, the question is where will they stop?

If you got it, flaunt it...

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Also, it makes the Good Blogs iFrame massive when people do big titles!

It's an interesting point, though. SEO specialists would say "make your titles resemble a search query", so be really obvious e.g. "Google Office Suite Release". But what actually draws people to read on in Good Blogs, or once they've found your site, might be more magazine-style, journalistic titles - "The route to suite success?".

Since nearly all my traffic comes through links, rather than search engines, I've decided, by and large, that 'teasers' are a good idea. Be interested to see what other bloggers think.

2:44 PM  

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