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Do you feel that your best content slides through the social sites without getting the attention they deserve? Do you spend hours researching to write valuable posts only to see a trickle of traffic, a handful of votes, and no new subscriptions? What are you missing? Why are you not pushing those buttons in your audience’s brains?
11 Comments     

Comments

from planetc1 642 days ago #
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Sphunn for the use of SEOBait.

from qwerty 642 days ago #
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Anybody who quotes Murakami deserves a sphinn at the very least. Haruki rules.

from SEOdisco 642 days ago #
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Damn... Baited by The OC, again!

from Phil 642 days ago #
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Mmmm... sneaky, very sneaky, but top of the priority list for sure!

from DVOLA 641 days ago #
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its the age of the clever writers ! clever writing rules !

from GotanRaider 641 days ago #
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Guys I'm honestly interested on your feedback.

Besides the fact that the headline drew your attention to click through and read the post (you DID read the post, didn't you?) : did you get anything actionable out of it? Do you feel you will write better headlines because you have read this post?

If that's not the case. Does any of you feel a bit deceived by the mention of Tom Cruise in the headline and the post not following through that?

I would like to know your take on this since there has been some discussion about it:
 http://sphinn.com/story/7870

from billslawski 641 days ago #
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Likewise, sphunn for the Murakami quote.  It needs to be done more often.

I'm never quite happy with my headlines, so posts exploring the topic are always welcome.  I didn't miss the lack of inclusion of Tom Cruise in the article.

from qwerty 641 days ago #
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I'd say that if you can find inspiration from any source when you write titles (or when you write anything) -- music, imagery, or whatever -- then you're doing something right. I don't know if it's essential, but I'll bet it's more satisfying if you can do it. My last blog post has a title based on a line from a very old song. I thought it was kind of cute when I wrote it, and of course that's generally the kind of title you end up regretting, but I'm not beating myself up over it.

from Sem-Advance 640 days ago #
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@ GotanRider

I clicked through to make sure it was an average post as I suspected.

Seems like something we have said in the SEO community for years.

"write content for people, not search engines"

Not sure this post says anything else.

Ohhh it does I forgot.....it points out how the usage of marketing is often not thought out well in advance.

Who said social sites are where the target market happens to be? Who says that social sites drive a targeted 'buying' customer????

In some instances they do but most often they do not.




from GotanRaider 640 days ago #
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Thanks for the feedback Sem-Advance. Let me bounce some ideas with you.

-- "write content for people, not search engines", Not sure this post says anything else.

I don't think that is the point of the article. It is one of the premises though. The point of the article in my opinion is the use of cultural cloaking devices in headlines to make a connection with our readers and persuade them to perform an action (click through, read the article, post a comment and hopefully subscribe to our RSS Feeds updates)

-- Who said social sites are where the target market happens to be? Who says that social sites drive a targeted 'buying' customer?

I think that depends on the niche. I'm not trying to sell hearing aids to 80 year old ladies promoting my domains on Digg.

For many niches however engaging in social media communities is a fast track to exposing to the right markets.

Not to mention the additional benefits of connecting with people who are in the business (which can bring more businesses and synergies) and the explosive stream of links you can benefit from with a succesful social media campaign.

Most people consider the latter to be the major benefit of engaging in social media.

from Sem-Advance 639 days ago #
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Ok well explain to me what culture cloaking is as the words together are non-sense at best.

Culture cloaking means you present a culture to people and an opposite culture to search engines?

Next what exactly is a culture cloaking device and where can I find one? How can this device as you put it be placed into a headline?

Perhaps you mean something more akin to bait & switch, or misconception? perhaps even deception & deceit?

Culture Cloaking would seem to mean something much different than what is being written in the article.





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