Blast From The Past

How can you resist??

What you write above your post is just as important as what you write below in your post.

A post title is like a newspaper or magazine headline. When you’re standing in the grocery store line, and you have NO plans at all of purchasing a magazine, you just can't. Budget orders and all. BUT still your eyes fall to the headline that is your siren call. “Madonna’s Secrets to a Perfect Stomach” the magazine promises. “Oooooh,” you think, “I’d like a stomach like Madonna’s.”

You can’t help yourself, you find yourself reaching for the magazine in hopes that, yes, you, too, can get what the headline promises.

That’s the power of a good title. It’s a magnet that draws in your audience. If you write a stellar post, and you’d like to showcase it, then you just have to title it that way. There are so many opportunities for your post title to be seen, might as well make it a good one.

Let’s say you have posted what you feel is your best humor piece ev-er, regarding your threadbare yoga pants that have finally bitten the dust. You’ve worked on it, it shines, it makes you laugh every single time you have re-read it before finally pushing “Publish.” You want the world to laugh with you, it’s just so good. But, how do you get people to see it?

You ask yourself, what would you want to read ? “My yoga pants are old,” or would you be pulled in by the enticing “Naked and Threadbare in Yoga Class.”

Your post title can be seen in so many more places than just your blog. It’s the first thing visible in RSS feeds, it’s displayed in other blogger’s blogrolls, it can be seen with the comments you leave on other blogs. I myself have hopped over to another blog being lured by the post title left in the comment box. Who wouldn’t click over to “Exploding Yoga Pants and You: What You Need to Know.”

Twitter will show your post title, so will your Facebook page. Search Engines will pick up your post title keywords: someone will google “Yoga Pants” and Voila! arrive at your doorstep, and returning again if they like what they find at your blog.

Post titles are displayed on your own blog, under “my favorite posts.” A good post title will work that way, it will draw people to come  to your blog, and want to meet you. Of course, you still have to deliver. We all know the mantra, "content is king. content is king. content is king..." (sorry, fell into my ohmmmm moment there...).

So, let's take time with our post title, let's be creative: try switching the order of the words around. Take the few extra minutes required to think of something unique and enticing.

We can call a post “Heritage.com Says I Look Like A Man” or “Ashton Kutcher is My Twin.” Now, wouldn’t you be powerless and click over to find out more based on that promise of information of how a blogger you know is related to Ashton? I know I would. Wait, both would work for me...I'm easy like that. 

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