Can a catchy title ensure the success of a blog?
As I scroll through the archives of ProgressiveU, I find myself drawn to certain posts. These posts have titles that are racy, pun-tastic, and borderline offensive. I'm drawn to the carnage and the flashing lights...and I can't look away. The names call out to me "Hey! Over here! I'm worth reading!!" The blogger has managed to grab my attention, intrigue me, and make me down-right curious as to the nature of their post.
The name of your post could help to propel it onto the Highest Rated list. Check out some of the current titles "I Can't Leave Now--Someone is WRONG on the Internet!" and "Separation of Church and Hate". And I've really enjoyed a few from the past like "A Gay in the Life: Our Dastardly Plan to Destroy the Institution of Marriage" and "If God Exists, Who Created Him?" These titles have been brilliantly created to entice the reader into continuing to look at the entire blog.
Posts with inspired titles typically have more reads than those without too. Take my own small collection of posts for example. One with the showy title "Are We on Track for a Water Shortage? Let's Stop the Crisis Before It Starts!" has 329 reads, while my three-part series of posts entitled "What is Music?" have a meager 103 combined. Which would I probably choose to look at as a reader? The one with the bold title, a potential threat to the world, and exclamation points of course.
I'm sure that we all try very hard to come up with good names for our posts. This site has shown me fantastic ideas, powerful insight on current affairs, and amazing research on a myriad of topics. But sometimes its hard to sum up an entire post in a single sentence. I know which of my previously mentioned posts was more important to me, which one took longer to write, which one I really wanted the readers to consider. I guess that the name just didn't convey that to my fellow ProgressiveUers.
I am guilty of skipping over posts with seemingly "bland" names (sorry "Participatory Democracy in a Non-Profit Organization, Part I" and "China, Tibet, Olympics, and Honoring Humanity") as I'm sure many of us are. But now I realize that these authors were probably as dedicated and passionate in their blogs as I was in my feebly named What is Music series.
I vow not to overlook these posts anymore. Their content is just as progressive, educated, and exciting as their snazzy labeled counterparts. The writing is just as good and just as powerful. The messages are strong, cohesive, and researched. And the topics are important on many different levels.
You can't post a blog without creating a name for it. Shouldn't I get the option to choose which posts to read based on their content instead of on their catch phrase? Besides, what's in a name anyway?
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