Do Not Read This… It Will Not Help You With Anything
Didn’t I just tell you not to read this? Why are you still reading? Well, maybe it just proves that reverse psychology does really work. Or it could have been because of the title itself? Anyway before I get more on that, I just want to let you know that this information is not important so do not read on.
If you are still reading this, it just comes to show you that writing effective titles for your blog posts is very important, especially if you want your readers to actually read it. I will be honest with you, I actually got this idea from SEO 2.0’s post called Do Not Read This. But to show you how it really works, I just had to post up my own.
Based on my own experience, if the title of an article does not appeal to me in any way, I won’t even bother checking it out. The title of this post is the reason that you came and opened up this article right? Or was it reverse psychology? In my opinion, it was both. With this type of post, you came here because 1) it told you not to read it, so you just had to; and 2) the title made you WANT to read it. So it really all depends on your headlines. I recently just found 25 Headline Formulas That Have Plagued and Blessed Web 2.0 over at Skellie’s blog, Skelliewag.org. The post really does show you the top headline formulas to use for your blog post and I’ve already incorporated one of them a few days back for one of my most popular articles (already), Your Blog Sucks And I Got 20 Reasons To Back It Up. What were the results of using this headline? A nice boost of traffic and comments. But imagine what would happen to that post if the headline was different. Instead of it being what it is, what if it was something simple like 20 Reasons Why Your Blog Sucks. Do you think it would have been more popular? I don’t think so.
I shouldn’t really have to go on with this since everything is pretty self-explanatory. Just always keep in mind that the title of a post is just as important as the content within it. If the title sucks, people won’t bother reading it. I’m not necessarily saying that you should ALWAYS use catchy titles for every single one of your posts. Just use it sparingly for your best pillar articles.
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I just saw your post on Digital Point mentioning your blog, so I thought I’de check it out.
Looks very good and professional, and I’v subscribed to the rss feed.
Cheers
Reverse psychology eh!
A little laugh from me at first but truly, I think its a method you should use for the killer post of the month or months in case!
It’s not so much the reverse psychology as it was the fact you sparked my curiosity as to what the heck you would be talking about in the post.
Zac Davis’s last blog post..The Magic of Blogging
I like your use of an interesting title. I made me read it.
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Seems you truly are sly! Convinced me into reading the rest of the article, at least. Effective post titles are definitely some of the biggest factors in getting more traffic on many social media services. Still, adding keywords is also essential - thats why I like plugins like All-In-One SEO that let you change the actual post title while keeping the one on your blog the same.
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I didn’t read the post. Did I miss anything?
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Interesting theory on the use of reverse psychology when deciding on post title. I love it!
The same kind of psychology can be applied not only to blogging but also to business and every other activities in life. Though too much of it may backfire in the end.