This may surprise you: I LOVE sharing but HATE (capital H) blogging.  There i’ve said it, and I’m not sure if it’s the glass of pinot on the table beside me or the fact it’s out there that is making me feel better!  Like so much so that despite sitting beside the fire on this early Friday evening I’m looking out the window watching my husband move a pile of wood chips and I’d rather be doing that!  Instead I sit here wondering why I hate it so much when I have so much good intel to pass on.  The answer: it’s just not my medium.  It’s an ordeal that could literally take me forever and with all the other things I’ve got on my plate I equate it to having a full time job, and that folks is literally the last thing I have time for.

In my negativity there are two positives; first that my Amazon order containing selfie stick, backup battery   and flexible tripod are set to arrive next week and since I got into ‘scoping‘ a few weeks ago (Periscope for those not up to speed on cool kid lingo).  This all equates to some sort of video blog format on the horizon and that not only seems way more fun to watch but so much less of a time consuming method for me to share via i.e. DO!

While I know many who FREAK out the minute a camera surfaces, I thought I’d at least share a few things that I’ve learned about writing these darned posts so that people actually read them.

2 Rules of Thumb:

  1. Title first.  Sounds backwards but that’s what matters the most – getting them to open it. Someone said 8/10 people read a post title, but only 2 open it.  Whatever the numbers think about it; it’s late, you’re exhausted after you’re busy day and you are lying in bed.  You’ve cruised instagram and are up to speed on the photo assortment so you head to Facebook or Twitter.  What do you do?  Read the headline.  For every 20 headlines you read, you may open 1.
  2. Commit, make a promise, give them what they came for.  If you’ve got my attention and told me you want to, for example, get people to read your blog posts, you better be telling me how to do that.  Whether it’s entertaining, instructional, helpful, or insightful just give the people what they want.

Enough said …except how the hell are you supposed to improve your blog or post titles?

Method 1:  Go with the Popular 6

1. HOW TO [DESIRED RESULT]

Cater to the quick fix and teach something valuable quickly.  (This is how we got you here!)

2. [NUMBER] REASONS _________

List and the longer the better.  10 best X, 50 tricks to, 5 best finds …

3. WHAT EVERY _____ SHOULD KNOW ABOUT _____

Target a specific group and draw their attention to a relevant topic.  What every mother should know about strollers.  What every entrepreneur should know about running lean.

4. WHY _____ IS _____

Explain your perspective.  Why blogging is my worst nightmare (!).  Why my brother is more fun than yours.

5. [NUMBER] WAYS TO AVOID _____

It’s the opposite of 2, sort of.  Negativity is powerful as more people remember the bad than the good (how brutal, I know).  3 ways to avoid getting red wine on your sofa.  25 ways to stay warm inside this winter.

6. MY [ADJECTIVE] METHOD FOR _____

People yearn to hear how you did it.  My secret method for getting people to open blog posts.  Think about what you’ve learned and give away your secrets.

And Here’s My Secret Weapon: Technology is Your Best Friend!

Coschedule Headline Analyzer

Meet the Coschedule ‘Write Better Headlines’ Tool, aka the Headline Analyzer.  Dream up your topic, throw it in and it will not only GRADE your headline, but tell you what needs fixing and if you’re short a power word give you 15 to try and put in your headline to get a better score.  I’m BEYOND addicted to this fabulous and FREE tool …and have yet to score over 84.  Did I mention it’s addictive?!  

PS If you don’t know about Coschedule yet, time to get with the times (especially if you use wordpress).  We couldn’t stand posting then having to go to every social site so turned to Coschedule to get our ducks in order.  Imagine being able to schedule your post to tweet for like 3 months from your blog post?  I know, what a concept right?!  They not only save me an insane amount of time but are paramount to getting our posts with these 84+ headlines out to masses in the first place.  Better yet, the YING to our YANG is actually a part of the modern day world and deploys a, wait for it, drag-and-drop simplicity!  

I digress …to their video to do the meet and greet – this girl is tired of typing 🙂

Coschedule