Ten Tips to Locking Eyeballs Onto Your Blog

If you’re doing any kind of internet marketing, you’re likely going to blog. Blogging is a great way to build a loyal following of readers while providing fresh, keyword rich content that search engines love. But as you’re blogging, how do you capture the attention of more and more readers?

The answer is with a compelling title. Hey, it would be great if people would read your blog regardless of whether or not the title was amazing but that’s the case. People don’t have time and they want to only spend their valuable attention on something that they feel is worth it. So your blog’s title needs to highlight to them that you are worth their 5 minutes. Here are 10 tips to help you create great blog titles:

1. Always always always add value. Highlight the benefit to them. (Ahem, “lock eyeballs onto your blog”). This answers the one question that ever reader wants to know before they start reading: “What’s in it for me?”

2. Make the title clear and obvious. Although “locking eyeballs” is a little on the metaphorical side, it is still pretty clear what I mean. There are, however, far more obtuse possibilities that you should avoid because if it’s confusing, people will click away.

3. Watch for double meanings. You might think of your blog post title in one way but someone else could take it in an entirely different way. Don’t write your title and hit “publish” immediately. Chew on it for a while and consider whether it’s appropriate.

4. Keywords. These don’t hurt. If you can stick ‘em in, do so. Don’t go crazy. Something like: “Internet marketing tips for internet marketing professionals who love internet marketing” is just going to annoy people.

5. Tips, Ways, Tricks, Tactics, Ideas, Strategies, Whatever. These listy-type of blogs are easy to read and usually quick to understand and apply. That makes them ideal. If possible, use a number (Ahem, “Ten Tips”).

6. Ask a question. This is an effective technique but you need to make sure that the answer to the question is answered in the blog. Not only that, but you should make sure that your readers wouldn’t automatically answer the question themselves. A title like: “Are you stupid?” would get answered in the negative without someone needing to read your blog.

7. Be controversial. This is a great way to generate some attention for yourself, but just make sure it fits with your brand. If you’re selling to kids, you won’t want to use 4-letter words, for example.

8. Count your characters. Just about every social media network in the world lets you push your blog post to the status line. And many of these status lines limit you to 140 characters and that may include an authorship attribution and a link. So if you want someone to retweet your blog, make sure there’s room for “RT @PLRNetMarketing Ten Tips to Locking Eyeballs Onto Your Blog at http://plrinternetmarketing.com”.

9. Take a lesson from made for TV movies. All made for TV movies seem to have a colon and a modifying phrase as in: “Donald Trump: The Man Behind the Myth”. Your own blog titles can work well with a colon to separate a main title and a modifying phrase. In this blog I might have written “Blogs in Internet Marketing: Ten Tips for Better Titles”.

10. Prompt repeat readership by indicating that this blog post is part of a series. For example, if I added “Part 1″ onto the title, you’d be more likely to watch for Parts 2, 3, 4, etc.

Don’t let your great blogs be wasted. Give them great titles so that they’ll be found, shared, and will compel people to read.

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