How Do You Catch a Reader?

Imagine that you've written your best blog post ever. You know that if only people would read this post, then they would forever be hooked. They would start every day for the rest of their lives by visiting your blog...you get the picture.

The problem is that no matter how good posts you write, what most people will go by when deciding which blog to visit is The Title. In just a few words you have only seconds to capture a potential reader's interest before he or she moves on to the next blog, mail, RL issue etc.

That is why the title is so important. Those words are what will be skimmed by that potential stream of traffic and has to make them stop, make them curious and take a look. 

Here are some of the concrete ways to do this:


* Begin your post with a statement (Like The best horror novel ever!)
* Begin with a question (Like The best comedy ever?)
* Begin with something exciting or controversial (Like Maggie's Near-death experience proves there is an afterlife)
* Begin with something funny (Like Feeling hot? This review will rock your socks off)
* Begin with something that your intended audience REALLY would like to know (Like How to start writing posts that will double your traffic in a week)

I try to think Newspaper headline and ask myself "What would make me interested in reading this post?". Usually I choose a combination of the above tactics. For this post for instance, I tried to find a title that was:
- A question
- Controversial (it's not allowed to catch another person is it?)
- Funny (somewhat absurd at least)
- Of big interest for my intended audience

Of course I don't always succeed and you can't rely to heavily on one set formula. Sometimes you need to use your own intuition and imagination. Think psychology. If I add a link and name it DON'T CLICK THIS LINK! it will be really hard to resist. That's simple psychology. Our curious human nature.

Hope these suggestions help you. Let me know if they do - or if they don't.

Happy blogging!