Underwriting Your Title

Hopefully you haven't arrived here thinking that this was a post about insurance or home ownership, because I am not an expert at either. I have begun to think I am not an expert on anything. I got to thinking about my blog and my writing style and I realized that I may be too clever for myself.

Have you ever written a blog post title that you were super proud of, but then what you wrote in the actual post was fairly ordinary? I fear that in my attempts to get people to come read my writing, I've bait and switched them with exceedingly funny titles. It wasn't an intentional thing. I like to think of my writing as good, bordering on clever most of the time. But my titles are incredibly turn of phrase worthy.

I guess the eternal question abounds :

(no not the chicken / egg thing! That one is easy!)

Title or Content, which came first?

Do you have a method that you use? Frankly, I'm up and down on that.

Sometimes the content just bursts out and demands to be written down. With raging ADHD, I am content if I can capture half of what is bubbling up. Most of my rants or conversation blogs start as content, then I'll create labels based on the content and often the title will come from the labels. Think "yellow submarines in strawberry fields, umm...forever, yeah!" and Bob's your uncle. I think my favorite example of that kind of post was my post : Funny Rented Zombies in Dirty Coats... On Ice which didn't get as much attention as I thought it might. Again, snappy title, post got 19 views and 5 comments of which at least 2 were my replies (because I'm conscientious a suck up begging for additional kudos lets stick with conscientious)

Then other times, I get an idea for a clever and snappy title. I'm so proud of my title, I'm hesitant to let it take the car out after dark and I'm worried that other blogs will pick on it, so I let it mature, this is code for 'sit there waiting for the ADHD to subside long enough for me to focus on making it great.' So, I don't often wait for the two week waiting period to be up before I pull the trigger, so to speak. An example there is Poke-Mon, like Jamaican Me Crazy! which lit up for a whopping 12 hits and 1 comment (proving that I can not only write some crappy material, but I am crazy enough to remind you about it AND not reply to the one comment, sheesh!)

Now, sometimes I feel like I get the title and the post right, but the analytics seem to indicate something is still wrong. In the post soon to disappear for the Monthly Top 5, I Didn't Know I Had to Onomatopoeia Before I Left the House was a solid gold post. The 119 views were an awesome tribute, but to what? I can only think that :

1. People really didn't know if I had made up the word
2. Students were studying poetry and had to look up onomatopoeia, and I've cleverly got the definition on my page.
3. People truly wanted to see where I would take them.

And given the 3 comments (and my 3 responses) I either :

 

1. Stunned them with my simple humor
2. Bored them to tears after they realized I did know what it meant.
3. Did I mention stunned them with the pure awesome of my simple humor?

I went all pictureless with this post. I wanted to see if I could do it. Pictures are my blogging crack! I could find a picture and write an entire blog about it.

 

In fact, send me links to pictures and I will pick the most boring and most interesting and write a post about each, featuring only that picture. I may have to post another (perhaps first) with your picture choices so you know I am being legit.

 

Oh, and in the beginning God created animals male and female of each kind, I see nothing about eggs, so the Chicken came first, then had a cigarette, then crossed the road for various and sundry reasons.

 

Have you ever under-whelmed your title?