Once posted, your blog entries develop a life of their own, for better or for worse. Some wither and die, others flourish and keep attracting attention. It took me a while to realize I have at least some control over this.
Early in my blogging days, pleased
with my own creativity, I often attempted to give wise-cracking names to my
blog posts. I thought I was making them
sound intriguing, when in fact I was obscuring the issue at hand, and making it
needlessly difficult for potential readers to find stuff that I desperately
wanted them to read.
Looking back at my list of posts, I
myself can’t figure out what some of them are about, judging from the title
alone. Why be cryptic? Why be a smart-Alec? (What’s the feminine of ”smart
Alec”? Smart Alexa? Smarty Pants?)
Here are a few examples:
When will they ever learn?
[Learn what? What are you getting at?]
Some respect for the dead
[Er... what are you talking about?]
Yes, okay, after reading the posts
the titles do make sense. But that’s not good enough.
Looking back, I can see why certain
posts keep getting hits, by web surfers who have absolutely no interest in what
I have to say. It’s the blog title, of course. One such case is my late
sister’s story, which I uploaded as tribute to her memory. The poor girl died
29 years ago, and the number of people who still remember and love her is
dwindling. The story is titled 405 South. So yes, lots
of people looking for driving directions involving this route innocently click
the link when it comes up in their search results. I bet that, when they see
it’s a piece of nightmarish fiction by a dead girl rather than matter-of-fact,
helpful directions of how to get from X to Y, they grimace and move on. I bet
not one of them got distracted, took the digression, and actually read the story.
[On the other hand, an old friend of
my late sister’s, who’d lost touch and didn’t know what became of her, Googled
her name and had a nasty shock.]
Like most bloggers(?), I often go to
my Stats page to see who’s been reading what, which of my posts is popular,
etc. Do you want to know which is the Numero Uno big hit? From my first posts
in March 2008 to the present? Of all the subjects I’ve ever covered, some of
them pretty important to me and my readers, the winner is “Obliphica
oil: What's in a name?" ; a trivial rant about the name
obliphica, which I found objectionable. It garnered more hits by far than any
other post. I guess lots of people Googled the word, perhaps wanting to know
where they could get this fad oil at the best price. And they couldn’t care
less that I thought the name was silly.
Another post with a misleading name
is An Open Letter to the Grievance
Committee. Unsuspecting souls looking for info on a local grievance
committee to whom they could complain about some injustice, say, found a post
that had nothing to do with any actual grievance committee; it was a post
strictly relevant to freelance translators and editors who are put in an
uncomfortable situation by clients. An important post, in my opinion, to me and
my colleagues. But giving it an inappropriate
title was a mistake.
In recent months I have tried to
make the names of my blog posts less “clever” and more to-the-point, making
sure they contained a relevant, informative key word or phrase.
E.g.: Kindle, cataract surgery, tips for
lectures and presentations, Linked In, etc.
Puns are great fun, and if you can
make a pun and still get your message across loud and clear – great, go for it.
But if you want readers far and wide to find you because of what you have to
say – keep it simple.
3 comments:
Interesting, Nina, thanks, and touching to read about your sister. No doubt that checking the statistics teaches one that many of the "readers" are very accidental visitors. I admit I am always looking for a witty, or at least catchy, title. Reminds me of one time in my BA when I handed a paper in English Literature called Blah, blah[don't remember], An analysis of Richard II by W. Shakespeare (thinking it's pretty cute, obviously...). The professor mecilessly wiped out the "W."...
Thanks, Tami, glad you liked it.
I, too, am often an "accidental" visitor but I do take time to read the blog entry. What actually catches my attention is an interesting title. I love stories and articles with humor so using a pun in a title isn't exactly a bad idea, but as you said, your main goal should still always be to get your message across.
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