I finally got caught up on all my comments after being gone. In the process, I popped over and checked out my spam filter and had to laugh long and hard.
Titling our posts can create quite the interesting attraction to certain…uh hum…customers.
For instance, my post “My Nose Doth Grow” captured the attention of spammers wanting other body parts to…well…grow.
I’m guessing I can toss out “my” and “doth” as the instant attraction culprits. “Nose” likely is not the victim either–that one is reserved for plastic surgeons. So, sorry to throw you under the bus, Grow, but you must have tickled the fancy of a certain subset of lurkers.
Which makes me wonder: do online landscaping companies net as many body enhancement spam messages whenever they blog about growing flowers, green grass and trees as I did talking about lying? If so, I’d quit the business.
Ultimately, this whole spam thing brings me full-circle to a writer’s online presence. What we write and how we write it greatly impacts the type of viewer visiting our sites.
Duh. That’s about as common sense as not picking your nose in public.
But we can forget how vital it is to come up with a snappy post title that will garner us the attention we want. We, who pick through thousands of words to write whole manuscripts precisely and succinctly, forget the full impact of choosing our title words carefully.
I often type search words into google and end up at a random site that has nothing to do with the topic I requested. Mostly, it is a result of titles. And while these tangents can be fun to those of us who quest random knowledge for no reason at all, my guess is that most people don’t like being seriously misdirected.
How much thought do you put into your post titles? Do you find that the use of some words garner unwanted attention, while others garner no attention at all? What’s your funniest search engine story?
Words from the Woods 
Post titles are extremely important, and most of us don’t like being misled. However, if you can choose a title that’s funny, and also totally relevant to your topic, you’ll definitely get more visitors. A funny title implies a funny post, though, so we mustn’t fail to deliver.
My good one was “C is for Climax” during the April A to Z Blog Challenge. I figured if my visitors were looking for something other than a writing tip for mystery and thillers, it was just too bad. I got a few chuckles out of it, but no mean comments.
LOL! I remember giggling over that letter myself!
You’re right about the funny factor promise. I think your point is a great reminded for us when we query. We must match our letters to our manuscripts, as nobody likes to fall down the wrong rabbit hole.
Titles are definitely important… unfortunately, I completely, 100% suck at coming up with halfway decent ones. Sigh.
I don’t think that’s true, Mia. I love your blog and haven’t thought any of your post titles suck. Period, let alone 100%.
Thanks for the advice and wisdom.
Thanks for reading it, though I wouldn’t go as far as to call it wisdom…not since the pulled all 5 of my wisdom teeth! Just experience.
I haven’t had anything that entertaining yet! Wow 🙂
I try to keep my post titles pretty short and on point most of the time. I’d read that advice somewhere and have just stuck with it.
Well, you are a model blogger, so it must work. I should try that sometime. Only problem: rules and I don’t always get along so well!
For some reason, the “search engine results” on my blog’s stats page frequently shows the phrase, “Great Minds Think Alike in Latin.” I’m sure they are disappointed when they see my blog post about AQ and finding a writing community. 🙂
Layinda, that is funny. Have you ever posted anything in Latin before?