Dr Tanya is back today with another quote about writing. This week the subject is headlines.

“On the average five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”

David Ogilvy

Whether it is a newspaper, an online article or a blog post headlines do matter. In the days before the internet the front page headline or the advertising hoarding of the daily paper might determine whether or not you bought it. Headlines have to grab your attention and make you curious. They must give information but not tell the whole story, otherwise why buy the paper?

Both of the headlines above are going to grab attention. Both tell you what the story is about inviting you to read further.

I admit that I take some headlines with a pinch of salt. Headlines are meant to make you buy papers or in the internet age to get views. If the news is not very newsworthy they may have to write them in such a way that you only get some of the facts. For example “TV star in Hospital Drama” (I totally made that up). You want to know who it is so you read on, only to find that it is some minor celebrity. If it was someone really famous they would use the name. I can still remember walking past a news stand in December 1980 and reading the newspaper hoardings saying “John Lennon Shot”. I had to buy the paper to find out that he was dead though.

So, if you are a blogger it does help to have interesting titles for your posts. This one isn’t one of those. If I’m doing a challenge post I use the name of the challenge. It will probably appeal to other people doing the challenge. I don’t have to get creative with it. Yesterday I posted photos of Naomi’s dog Teddy who had just been to the groomers. I could have called the post “Teddy went to the groomer.” but I thought “A Shaggy Dog Story” sounded more fun if a bit lame.

There is a lot to read on the web, news articles, blog posts, all sorts of information and nobody has time to read it all so we pick and choose. A headline or title that sounds interesting, funny or controversial is one thing that says “Pick Me!” to the reader.

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