While reading tips on ProBlogger.net on how to improve your blog, it occurred to me that I should look into lessons I’ve learned as a print journalist on how to improve articles and headlines and apply it to my blog. I keep this blog as online equivalent of a work book – in the hope that it could improve my writing – after reading a Poynter article on how writers can improve their craft.
Headlines are important in any printed medium because these lead readers to stories. With the large number of blogs all serving RSS feeds out there, a sharp headline and an even sharper first paragraph or lead help in drawing visitors from the RSS reading public to actually visit your blog.
A good blog headline gets readers’ attention, tells them the story or part of it and draws them into visiting the site and reading the rest of the article.
Here are tips I dug up – from old and worn notebooks I used in various journalism seminars – on how to write good headlines. I hope a few bloggers out there can find these useful.