Am I the only one to get annoyed at negative blog post and article headlines?
- What Not To Do…
- Why Your …. is Failing
- The Ten Don’ts of …
You get the idea and have seen plenty yourself, I’m sure. Such titles put me off, they annoy me, and they do not persuade me to read the actual content. I may be missing out on some great information but I’m not encouraged to give the author my attention.
Aren’t more of us likely to react better to positive headlines, perhaps more:
- How to Succeed at …
- Ten things to do to…
- and one I spotted recently “Are your fees high enough?” instead of “Are your fees too low” (hat tip to Mark Lee for that one)
Is it just me? What do you think? Do you take much notice of an article’s title? Are you put off by negatives or irritated by positives, perhaps?
Babs
photo credit: AngSocialMed via photopin cc
I’m with you Babs – and thanks for the mention and link.
Over and above my blog posts I write a weekly column for AccountingWeb.
http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/category/tags/mark-lee
Every now and then I choose a ‘negative’ title as conventional wisdom holds that people respond faster to negative headlines and news stories in the media. Some readers make clear their distaste for this. But the number of views of my articles on AccountingWeb often hits 2,000 faster for such posts than for those with ‘gentler’ titles. I have just checked though and, of my top 5 articles (with view numbers ranging from 10-30,000), NONE of them have ‘negative’ titles. 😉
Thanks Mark, and you’re welcome. How wonderful to have such data to look through (and get you!). Useful to know, too.
I do understand that we need to grab people with the headline (much as I hate doing that) and the reason behind such, but I really won’t do the negative view. I need to check these things with you guys in case that is just my Pollyanna complex kicking in, though. 😉
I t very much depends on the target audience too. I’m happy with readers who like it gentle but with a firm nudge now and again.