Don’t Write Bad Headlines

So I wake up this morning, open up Firefox and start scrolling through my RSS feeds. Something catches my eye. It’s a headline that seems too good to be true. I click on it, and guess what? It is.

Whether it is a piece of hyperbole (“40 ways to instantaneously get 2 million readers”) or just a title whose tone doesn’t match the content (i.e. posts that promise new content but contain old advice), I feel misled by one blog almost everyday.

When you write headlines, don’t be misleading. Don’t lie. Don’t exaggerate. Don’t promise content your post can’t deliver. This may seem like obvious advice but even the best blogs write bad misleading headlines. Some even encourage others to do this.

Perhaps I’m not describing you, your blog, or your headlines. Awesome. But maybe I am. Misleading headlines work in the short term, and that’s why they are so popular. I’ll click on your misleading headlines three or four times. But eventually I’ll stop.

PS. One final warning, this problem is especially rampant in how to blogs, specifically blogs on blogging, and even worse on blogs on blogging to make money.

Over at Blogussion, they have compiled a great list of articles on how to write better headlines.

Eric Cummings writes about for On Violence, a blog on counter-insurgency warfare, military and foreign affairs, art, and violence, written by two brothers–one a soldier and the other a pacifist.