Why Your Blog Post's Headline Can't Be Ignored

I realized something as I was going through my RSS subscriptions and Twitter time lines, I started to look at how I was selecting what to read. I rely heavily on RSS and Twitter for my daily consumption of news and blog updates, I have hundreds of subscriptions and follows. No one can possibly read everything that comes up and I noticed I was focusing on the headlines of the articles. If it was not catching me I would move on to the next one leaving it behind. That article could have had exactly what I was looking for but time is precious and with so much to read I would rather get a bad article with a good headline than reading every article.

The headline of a post or article has always been important, but now in the way people consume information it's vital that the headline works. Let's take this post for an example and headlines that are accurate about the post but say different things to a reader scanning headlines.

Blog Post Headlines. What about them?
Headlines are Important - It's a statement, closed, the informational point was delivered.
Don't Ignore Headlines - Thank you for that tip.

You can do the opposite and give too much away in your headline.

Good Headlines Make It Easier For Twitter Users To Decide What To Read - Great tip!

I thought about it for a while and came up with the one you see here.

Why Your Blog Post's Headline Can't Be Ignored  - This poses a question to the reader. It makes them stop for a second and think about it. I wonder why they can't be ignored, what's his angle? The click on the link and enter the blog post to read it. (We'll see...)

The more I read and see other tips and styles to writing, the blogs is your window for the readers into the process and your work. Don't make it cloudy. The content is for your current readers, the headlines are to get new readers in to share. You could have the best article you have ever written, award winning even, but if your headline is not grabbing people to go in and read it then what good is it?

Time to turn the page...