Jadelynx
Titles are the first thing your readers see. They are the attention getter, the thing that entices (or repels) people to spend their valuable time reading what you have to say. It has to convince them that they NEED to read what you have to say. That they will benefit from it.
A title is a promise.
Look at it like this, a title is the outfit that you wear on a first date. You don’t want to be sloppy, and let your date think that you didn’t care enough to make sure your outfit fits well and looks nice. You don’t want to be inappropriate and wear an evening gown for a date at a casual restaurant. Most of all, you don’t want to dress in an overtly sexy manner, if you don’t plan to follow it through. In other words, don’t make promises you don’t plan to keep.
Titles are the same way. They can be written well or not, be true or false and misleading. Being a writer for many years, I see a lot of article titles. Many could be improved with simple, easy changes. Something as easy as more reader attractive titles could result in more traffic for your content. So how can you write better titles for your articles?
The following are three ways that you can write more effective, professional titles and make sure your post is wearing the right outfit for it’s first date.
#1 A title must have is good sentence structure, and capitalization.
#2 The title should be appropriate to your article and audience.
Don't use slang terms if you are writing to professional people. Don't use all caps, or lots of !!!!!!!!!! Never use curse words or other terms meant to shock people. The reaction you will get for things of this nature will almost always be negative.
#3 Your title should not promise things that your post does not fulfill.
Your title should not promise things that your post does not fulfill. In other words, don't title your article "A Cure for Cancer is Found!" and then proceed to write an article about the dishonesty of pharmaceutical companies. People will be angry they have been lied to in order to get them to click on your article link. Dishonesty is never a good idea when it comes to titles. Some people think that any click is a good click but that is not true, as the people will leave as soon as they realize the article is not going to deliver what the title promised and your bounce rate will soar.
They may also remember your name, if you make a habit of this, and they will stop clicking on anything you write. Some bloggers think that none of these things are important. They feel that what they write should be their own style and should not have to adhere to the rules of good writing. That is one thing about having your own blog to write; you can do whatever you want, and write however you want. This school of thinking is neglecting to take one basic factor into consideration. When a person writes publicly, they are generally writing for their readers, and not for themselves. This has always been an important tenet of published writing.
Do you think that with the popularity of blogs that this fundamental precept is no longer valid? Do writers still write for their readers, or do they write for themselves without a care as to what possible readers will like?
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These are interesting rules, i think ee cummings would argue this first one.