I see that if I want to have people rush to read what I post, I need to work on my headlines and titles. I just write my blog to be aware of what I am doing, what I have recently done, what I have been thinking and experiencing. Since Google makes it easy to create a blog and post to the whole blooming world, why not ? I have quite a few friends and relatives that stay in touch with us through the blog or because of it. Most material about blogging assumes I want more readers and that I want to "convert" my readers into paying consumers of my stuff.
Much of what I see on the internet and in print is aimed at getting more readers and at exciting those that do read Fear, Fun and Filoz. Here are the last five titles I used:
I see that I might be more in accord with today's internet practice if I tried for a little more color, more excitement, more of a shock.
No. 1 above might be titled "Meditate or die!" I realize the truth is that we could meditate or not but regardless, we will die. But if I want more color, more force, maybe I can excite more.
"Vibes" is about being in love, being bewitched, have the experience of a tune you can't stop replaying in your head except it is not a tune but a member of the opposite sex that is deviling. More direct wording might be "Can't stop thinking of her". Headlines can be a little bit untruthful so maybe I should call it "Persistent salacious thoughts" or "Sinning in my head."
No. 3 might be more exciting as "Sorry I'm not dead." You know the Mark Twain remark "rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated". Or, jubilantly, "Old man is still alive!!!"
L. Kirby knows all sorts of dirt so I might re-title No. 4, "Longtime associate tells the TRUTH". I bet crowds would rush to see what that is about.
If I want to try to be inflammatory, I might call No. 5 "Don't be stupid".
I do try to notice if the headline is provocative and I do try to notice if the article tells what the headline indicated was in the writing.
