Some ideas need multiple headlines
I wrote a post on this blog about a week ago contrasting good and bad design, titled Kickstarting your marketing. It wasn’t a very descriptive or compelling headline, but it didn’t matter much for my blog. If you’re subscribed to my blog, you’ll probably (hopefully) give me the benefit of the doubt and read a least a few lines in to see if the post is worthwhile.
The title of every episode of Seinfeld had only one word or term in it. The reason: Seinfeld co-creator Larry David didn’t want the writers wasting time thinking up clever titles for shows.
I feel the same way about writing headlines for blog posts.
However, when syndicating out to new audiences, you need to have headlines that capture attention.
Business Insider picked up “Kickstarting your marketing” but changed the title to “Pitch The Benefits, Not The Features”. Not very exciting, but definitely descriptive and more appealing to their business audience.
I submitted the post to Hacker News with the title “Why Kickstarter’s design kicks ass (take note Diaspora)”, which caused a bit controversy in the comments but did get attention.
