Return on Intention

When it comes to writing headlines, take your time and do it right. The headline is one of the most important parts of your blog posting because thats what people most often see in a search result to decide whether to click through and read your post or skip it and go on to a different one. 

I have been reminded of this fact again recently when I was checking the analytics on this blog to see what people are reading. My second most read post is this one - Would you sell your subscribers email address?

This post is not reaching the right people, as the number way people are finding it are by searching for “How to sell email addresses.” This group is obviously not the group that I’m trying to reach with this post, and this post is probably not what this group is looking for. The bounce rate for this post is in the high 80% range. Perhaps I should have titled it “How to piss off your customers”, or “The fastest way to lose your customers trust”… but alas, there it is. Think about your headlines and make sure they are sending the message you want your audience to receive. 

To make good on the promise on this headline, go check out this post from CopyBlogger entitled 10 sure-fire headline formulas that work- they got it right on.