Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Post Titles - Tuesday's Tip

This is a post born out of frustration. You see, there was a time when I had so few genealogy blogs on my reading list that I could manage them all from my iGoogle home page. And back then I made an effort to read every post that appeared on my list. I left lots of comments, interacted with everybody else, learned new things and shared some laughs. In short, reading other blogs was fun! (And I had plenty of time left over to post to my own blog.)

With the recent blog explosion keeping up with everyone and reading blogs has become more like work. Sure, there are still enjoyable moments but I have a lot to wade though to find posts that I really enjoy. My frustration comes from a reading list full of titles that tell me little or nothing about what the post is about. Here's what my I saw on my reader on Monday.


A couple of the titles look interesting but the rest have cut off the part of the title that would give me an idea if I wanted to click and read. The only reason for putting the prompt in your title is so that it will show up in the roll up widget at GeneaBloggers. Consider flip-flopping your title so that the prompt is at the end. It will still get picked up by the Google Reader widget that creates the roll up.

Give your post titles some thought. Tease me, inform me but make sure you give me a reason to click and read!

17 comments:

Cheryl said...

Amen, Apple.

Cynthia Shenette said...

I made the change. Thanks for the tip!

Michelle Goodrum said...

Point well taken. Thank you!

Amanda said...

Thank you for this great, simple tip!

Tessa Keough said...

Excellent idea - thanks for coming up with it and posting it on Tuesday's Tip.

Susan Clark said...

You're absolutely right! Thank you.

Sheri Fenley said...

Oh I hear ya Sista! I just checked my google reader - It appears that I am following over 600 blogs! No wonder I feel like I cannot get caught up with reading much less blogging! Got to make the time to make that number more realistic.,

Nancy said...

I couldn't agree more, Apple! For me, the blogging prompts in the post titles get in the way. I sometimes post with the prompts in mind but rarely include them in the title (and, unfortunately, miss being included in the geneablogger listings, of course). I hope lots of other bloggers see you post. Thanks!

Carol said...

Thanks for the graphic, it tells all. Since I don't use this, who knew??

Donna Hague Wendt said...

I feel really silly to ask but - what's a prompt? Aloha, Donna

Barbara Poole said...

Thanks Apple, good suggestion. Now to change a bad habit!

Becky Wiseman said...

Great advice Apple - I hope more bloggers pick up on your idea!

Donna Wendt - a "prompt" is a specific topic for a given day that many bloggers use for writing blog posts. It is like "Tombstone Tuesday" or "Military Monday" or "Monday Madness" etc., etc.

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

Wow! I never can predict which posts will generate comments. Thank you all.

Carol - I think you follow at least as many blogs as I do. What reader or method do you use?

Nancy - I had originally titled this "Blogging Tip" but changed it so people could check and see that putting the prompt last does get included in the roll up. I would be very interested in how many people actually use the roll ups to pick posts to read. I personally don't think you are missing out by not using the prompts in your titles!

Amanda said...

Apple, I don't have the time to follow 600 blogs. I often use the roll-ups to pick posts to read, because if there is a particular topic that interests me (Surname Saturday and Tombstone Tuesday come to mind right off the bat), I can read all the posts on that topic, even for blogs that I don't normally follow.

ScotSue said...

Many thanks for your tip. I am quite new to blogging and thought I had to put the prompt at the start of the title for it to get picked up in the Genealabloggers listing. You are right that sometimes my title got cut short.

Susan,.

Jenna said...

I use Reader also, but always open the full client, not the gadget, so never noticed this.

I will pay more attention to my post titles in the future. Thanks for bringing this up.

Charley "Apple" Grabowski said...

Amanda - Thanks for your imput. I'll continue adding them to my titles for now.

Jenna - I can expand my window but then I have to move back to see my next category so I don't like to. I'm sure there is some short cut key I haven't discovered.