Make Headlines, But Not in a Miley Cyrus Kind of Way

So you’ve written a kick-ass blog post, or you want to write a social media update to entice readers to click your link. What now? Well, you’ve got to move the reader to action somehow. You’ve got to write a great (read omigodivegottareadthis) headline. 

Of course, if you search the Internet you’ll find somewhere around 3,302,382 x 10^8 articles and blog posts titled “Dos and Don’ts of Headline Writing,” or some variant. You’ve already done this though, right? That’s why you’re here. You’ve either done a search or you saw a social media post—either way, the headline for this blog post is the reason you’re reading right now. It caught your attention, filled a need, and drew you in. 

Read This

Before we move on to our (omigodivegottareadthis) list, consider this: people don’t want to read your article. It’s true. You don’t want to read this one either, but you are. You’re reading because the content is broken down into manageable chunks; each with an appealing heading and a promise of useful information. 

When we read content on the web, we tend to skim. We’ll look for headlines, lists, italics, bold copy…anything that’s easy to digest and/or seems important. Then, only if we’re intrigued, we will read the actual copy of the ad, article, or webpage. Even then, if we’re not constantly being drawn to the next sentence, it’s all over. There is too much content on the web for people to wait and see if your blog gets interesting. 

Try these 7 things next time you’re writing a headline, title, or social update.

Lead with a List

People either love or hate numbers, but we all love lists. A list promises a grouping of information that is usable. It breaks that information up into delicious nuggets of usefulness and it only takes one taste to know if one needs to move on to the next bite.

Use Strong Adjectives

It’s amazing, beautiful, powerful, and life-altering when the right adjective is found. The artful use of adjectives in a headline helps to let the reader know you’re serious and your content is worth his time. Avoid the toxic cliché. 

Don’t USE ALL CAPS

When we’re reading, we don’t usually read every letter of a word. Rather, we look for familiar word shapes and fill in the rest. All caps breaks up these familiar shapes and makes reading more difficult. If it’s too hard, we won’t do it. 

Name Drop

It’ hurts us, honestly it does, but this is actually an effective way to get clicks. If you can relate your content to a celebrity or a popular brand and include that name/brand in your headline, more people will click. 

Make it Urgent

Just letting people know your information is the information they’re looking for sometimes isn’t enough. If you’re offering the same or similar content as someone else, let the reader know they won’t be able to function properly until they read your post. 

Do a How-To

We all have questions, and chances are the answers are somewhere on the Internet. You’re an expert; let your readers know how to do something in just a few steps. “How to Boost Your Internet Traffic in 5 Steps” will probably get more clicks than “Boosting Internet Traffic.”

Explain Why, What, When, Who or How

By doing this, you can answer a question the reader didn’t even know he had. In answering this question, you can persuade or enable your reader while at the same time allowing him a sense of accomplishment. Give the reader an “I did it!” moment, and then leave enough room for him to formulate his next question—that you’ve already answered in another post.

Most importantly, be honest. Don’t deceive the reader. Nobody wants to feel duped, and if you make a promise and don’t deliver, you’re likely not going to get another chance. 

Do you have any questions? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter. We’ll try to answer them. 

It’s Web Copy, Not Copy the Web

Richard Aycock’s company, Widget Avenue, was growing and he decided it was time to redo his website. He had heard people talking about SEO, keywords, quality content, site maps and crawlability; he just didn't know what all that stuff meant. What he did know was benchmarking. All the clichés, “work smart, not hard”, “don’t reinvent the wheel”, “the right tool makes the job easy” became cliché because they were so true. Richard figured the best thing he could do would be to search the Internet for other businesses doing the same type of work as his company.

When I search Google for things my business does, this company keeps showing up in the search results, Richard thought. I’ll just copy the stuff on this website and put it on my website. After all, benchmarking is about seeing what the competition is doing well and figuring out how to do that particular something as well as your best competitor. Right?

Often times, people don’t think about the consequences of their actions. Add to that the immeasurable amount of information on the Internet and we find ourselves living in a society that believes if something is online, it belongs to the world. We all own the English language, some more than others. It’s the arrangement of words to convey a thought or concept, though, that makes up intellectual property. Some people try to lay claim to certain phrases like “let’s get ready to rumble”, “you’re fired” and “I am”, but these phrases are so commonplace it’s hard to make a strong case without a lot of money to back up the claim.  

Musicians find themselves in lawsuits over songs sounding like other songs or containing the same lyrics. Sometimes it’s called “sampling” and the “artist” can get away with it. But we know better. It’s plagiarism. A high-school student writing a term paper, copying a section from a book word-for-word without giving credit to the original author will receive a failing grade from his teacher. A journalist stealing content from another journalist without giving credit or receiving approval will be fired—and likely have a hard time finding another writing job.

So, what of Mr. Aycock? What Richard didn't consider was that he would forever be a plagiarist. To top it off, that web content he stole now has less value. The best content is relevant AND original. If it’s only one or the other, it may as well be neither. Richard acted without thinking, and the result is, the company he stole content from will write new, better content.

Don’t be a Richard. Do your research. Write your own content. Or if you prefer, hire a professional to write it for you.

If you liked the story of Richard Aycock and have something to add, or if you just want to get in touch with Clever Ogre, hook up with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Social Media Etiquette for Everybody

Every day we make decisions about what to say, how to act and react, and whether or not to let that guy who’s honking his horn and flashing his headlights merge into traffic. We try to be polite-some more effectively than others. Why is it, then, that people are so often quick to do or say the wrong thing online? Etiquette is important, no matter the medium. Here are some basics to always remember.

Let people know who you are. Be sure your profiles are filled in completely, including a photo, bio and contact info. If you have a website, be sure to link it – and it never hurts to link to other social profiles as well.

Use names and @mention people. When you’re dealing with the public (assuming you’re managing social media for a business) saying the name of the person with whom you’re talking really goes a long way, both to endear you to them and solidify a connection. As an added bonus, using the person’s name helps you to remember.

Give credit to the original content creator. Not everything you share on the Internet came straight from your mind. Be sure to mention the person who did create it. It’ll boost your cred with others, and it’s good Karma too.

Don’t mass-post (also known as an instadump). If you’re managing social media for your company (or yourself for that matter) it can be easy to share several things you have found in mass succession. This crowds the timelines of your friends or followers. Do it a few times and some of them will almost certainly disconnect from your feed.

Don’t go #hashtag crazy. Hashtags are everywhere now: Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Instagram, Vine… you name it. They’re a great way to search through content, but too many of them in an individual post can be quite off-putting. As an aside, don’t hijack other’s hashtags. That is, don’t try to make a popular tag about you/your product.

Keep your privates private. If you’re having a conversation with someone via direct message or email, don’t share any portion of that conversation publicly Also, if a situation requires a delicate touch, be sure to handle it via private medium.

Don’t use social autopilot. There are some great social media management programs available. These will let you schedule your posts to go out right when you want them to, no matter when you actually enter the content. Don’t forget; just because the program will take care of the initial post, doesn't mean it can answer any questions or respond to comments. It can’t.

Don’t mix voices. If this is a social media presence representing a business, don’t use “I”, don’t talk religion or politics (unless that’s your business), and don’t alienate potential customers by posting a lot of opinion pieces.

Prooferad. Make sure your statuses are pithy and properly spelled and punctuated. Use the right words. People will notice. Also, we know we misspelled proofread. We wanted to be sure you were paying attention.

If you have anything to add or if you dispute any of these, let us know. Tweet us. Facebook us. Email us. Just be sure your spelling and grammar are up to snuff.

SEO Is...

In the early 1840s, a very wise person coined the phrase “never talk about religion or politics.” Opinions regarding these two things are arguably the most deeply held beliefs among most Americans. We either agree, or we don’t. Vehemently. In either case, it’s best-in polite company-not to discuss these topics and potentially incite a row. We say, add to this list of taboos the topic of search engine optimization. SEO professionals have widely varying opinions as to what’s best when it comes to getting a website seen, and everyone believes his or her method is the best, without question. Well, we’re ogres and we've never been too keen on obeying the rules, walking on eggshells or candy-coating the truth. As such, we’re going to lay a little SEO knowledge out there for you. Pick up what you can use.

In the early days of the Web, back in the 90s, search engines cataloged websites. Their “spiders” would then download the page and crawl the content looking for links and topics. In August of 1997, John Audette of Multimedia Marketing Group documented the phrase “search engine optimization.”

I searched teacup poodle; why am I seeing results for oolong and earl grey?

Initially, the search engines’ algorithms relied on webmasters to provide information letting the engine know the content of the site via keyword meta tags and index files. It didn’t take long for programmers to start looking for ways to game the system, coming up higher in end-users’ search results. Eventually, a simple Web search would return links to sites that had nothing to do with the actual query. Webmasters were stuffing meta tags with anything they could remotely associate with the product or information actually being displayed.

An old internet marketing joke goes (something) like this: 

A SEO expert walks into a bar, bars, pub, Irish pub, tavern, watering hole, beer, wine, whiskey, whisky, shot, shotgun, rifle, pistol, bandolero, tequila… You get the idea.

Search engines adapted. Traditional methods of utilizing keyword density, inbound links and link farming used to get businesses a spot on page one of Google. Now, those practices may get your site flagged for spamming.

Wait, so SEO is dead?

We didn't say that.  There are still lots and lots of companies out there willing to sell you a $500+/month SEO package of blogging, link building and general Internet voodoo. Some of the old practices are still very valid in modern marketing. More important, however, are things like quality/original content, frequent updates, social sharing and well written code utilizing embedded keywords, heading tags and alt image tags.

The old SEO methods of telling people you had something (keyword stuffing) and then not delivering on content are dead. Search engines are getting better at showing us what we’re truly looking for. Thank you, search engines.

Sound off!

Do you have any SEO experiences – positive or negative – or is there anything you’d like us to blog about? Get in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter or via email. 

Ogre Shawn Knows the Key Code: It’s F#m

Alright, listen up. If this is your first time here, look around a little. This is the final installment in our Clever Ogre “What are the ogres listening to?” blog series. We’ve talked about all kinds of different music, from Christopher’s old school jams to Nora’s punk bluegrass (Punkgrass? Blunk?) across to Dadant’s reggae and Dan’s jam bands. We finally had a chance to catch up with ogre Shawn and get his take on the listen.

When we found him, Shawn Grimes was sitting in a dark cubicle in the corner of the basement. It smelled like a coffee shop in a cave. He was wearing headphones and typing away like a crazy person. Shawn is Clever Ogre’s front-end web developer. He doesn’t work in words or images, instead he uses special characters, acronyms, and abbreviations to do his work. In other words, he’s free to rock his music loud and constantly.

So, loud and constant it is. If Shawn is streaming music he’s either using rdio or Pandora. He cranks his headphones to drown out all external sounds allowing him to dive deep into codeland. When coding, he turns to his favorite band, 311, for good tunes. Alternately, if he’s in the mood for mostly lyric free music, he’ll listen to Deadmau5, Skrillex, or some other dubstep-electronic grooves.

If Shawn finds himself cleaning the house or doing other non-web related work, he listens to a wide variety of music. Of course, 311 makes a return, but he also likes to throw in Mumford & Sons, Jimmy Eat World, Sufjan Stevens, Sublime (even with Rome), Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed, and pretty much any 90s alternative including Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Stone Temple Pilots. Old habits die hard, indeed.

On the off-chance he finds himself with little to do other than relax, he puts on some Pink Floyd or Adele. The melodies of Adele and lingering instrumentals of Pink Floyd allow his mind to rest. It’s tough when a person thinks in <html dir=”top”> <head> all the time. A little decompression is important for everyone, but for a programmer it’s kind of like when a daycare worker is finally able to be around adults and have actual adult conversation.

Phew. That’s 100% of the ogres. Do you think you’ve gotten some good tunes out of this series of blogs? There certainly has been a wide variety of artists in these posts. If you dig or hate any of the bands mentioned, let us know. We’re all over the place and ready to hear from you.

You’re already clicking around the internet. Click here to check us out on Facebook and here to Tweet us. Oh, don’t forget to click here to go to our website.

Music is My Literature – the writing ogre listens

If you’ve been waiting for our next ogre music blog, your wait is over. If you haven’t, hopefully you’ll be waiting for the last one – which will be out after this one.

By now, we hope to have turned you on to at least one really good band or artist. Have we succeeded? We can’t hear you or read your thoughts, so please nod at your webcam. Cool. Speaking of music, we recently told you Christopher listens to a lot of really good, but obscure, music; Chris Dadant likes his music melodic, driving, and jammin’; and Nora likes a little punk in her bluegrass. What about Dan?

Dan Fugate is Clever Ogre’s writer and social media manager; sometimes he even does graphic design. Writing doesn’t afford the same listening freedom as social media and design, so he has a couple of listening trends. This has been bittersweet for the one-time loud singing jam band enthusiast.

Being a writer, you might expect Dan to be a voracious reader. Well, he’s not. He goes after and gets into music the way other writers devour books. He often says “Music is my literature.” We believe him. When he’s writing, music generally leans toward instrumental stuff. Widespread Panic, the Grateful Dead, Phish, the London Symphony Orchestra, and Deadmau5 are where he turns for lyric free tunes.

Behind the social media and design wheels, Dan likes to add the lyrics back into his listening. The same jam bands from before are present, but also folks like: Mumford & Sons, MGMT, Keller Willaims (who he’s going to see at Vinyl in May), the Black Keys, and Ok Go.

Dan also has a soft spot for female singers. The emotion that comes through is “so powerful”, he says. When he’s in the mood for lady listening, he turns on: the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Feist, Mates of State, Tori Amos, Regina Spektor, and Sugarland. Melt and swoon.

He will listen to most anything once and he’s found he has no place in his heart for rap, r&b, or the heavier rock/metal stuff. They have too much anger and screaming for his liking. Dan has a bit of music snobbery in him too. He’s of the belief if a band can’t perform as well on stage as they can in the studio, they’re not worth his time. He says he’s just about stopped listening to Modest Mouse after seeing them live.

Alright, readers, that’s 80% of the ogres down. Now, if we can track down Shawn Grimes we’ll feature his preferences next time to round out this musical exposé series.

Let us know how we’re doing. Have we turned you on to any new music? Sound off on Facebook or Twitter.

No, I Can’t Hear You. My Music’s too Loud.

Once again we’re here to tell you about an ogre’s music preferences. If you’ll recall, Christopher is a music snob with a broad, eclectic musical taste (except for reggae) and Nora listens to everything she can cram in her ears. This time around, we’ll talk about Chris Dadant’s ear candy.

Chris is Clever Ogre’s chief designer. As a result, he is in the best position to use music as an IV drip. When other ogres have to stop listening so they can take a phone call, concentrate on a series of words, or focus on lines and lines of code; Chris can keep the music pumping and draw inspiration from the rhythm.

When he’s designing, which is pretty much all the time, he listens to music that drives him – moves his thoughts from point to point. He listens loud. Music, to Dadant, serves to activate the mind and remove external distractions. The Black Keys, MGMT, Phoenix, Wolfmother, these are the bands that drive the broad strokes of Chris’ designs.

When it comes to concentration, he mellows out the sounds a little. The same music Chris uses for concentration is what he chooses when it’s time to relax. John Cleary and the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, Eric Lindell, Blackberry Smoke, and Bob Marley are just the right mix of dip, drive, and dance.

Chris’ preferences sway with the weather as well. In the summertime, his mood is high, and his musical tastes reflect this with an extra injection of reggae. Once the temperature starts to drop and the grill gets warm, the music gets a twang and the Illinois country boy comes out with some George Strait and Eric Church.

The only genre Chris tends to shy away from is screamo. In his own words, he’s “hard of hearing as it is” and can’t tolerate a lot of screaming and yelling in his music. Understandable.

As for live music, Chris, like all of the ogres has an addiction. He can often be found listening to James Adkins, one of his favorite local musical talents, wherever he’s playing. He recently saw Kermit Ruffins and the BBQ Swingers at the Blue Nile in New Orleans. Also, he never misses a chance to see his pals Boukou Groove play. Usually, however, this requires a trip to Destin or South Walton but he says “It’s well worth it to hear some real New Orleans Funk.”

Alright, three ogres worth of listening.

Are you finding any new bands or artists to check out? We hope so. Get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter to let us know.

Thanks for reading.