Category: Marketing, Theory, lifehack

If you Don’t Read this Post you will Die

Okay, well that is not entirely true but I wanted to get your attention for a good reason. Since this is marketing and relationship week I wanted to highlight two important things when trying to get people’s attention and keeping it.

1- The Title is Everything. Click your mouse twice if you use a blog reader. As I scrolled through my 300+ subscriptions I felt overwhelmed by the amount of articles and realized two things.

I need to unsubscribe 150 times from okdork.com. Secondly and more importantly is that I scan every article and stop at interesting titles. Yes, I have a favorites folder and give those people a little more slack but in general the better the title the better my chance in reading it. What are my suggestions on creating a great title:

1- Make it unique: great marketing tips or the greatest marketing tip ever written

2- Make it bold: things to do in Canada or 5 things to do in Canada before you die

3- Make it super long or super short: I really want to write about some companies that aren’t doing so well or Google’s Suicide

4- Numbers are helpful: interesting to read or 5 great books to read

5- Be specific: yummy delis in California or amazing delis in California for pregnant nurses

examples: techcrunch, readwriteweb, valleywag & seth godin

2- KIS. Keep it short. If I said I would give you free money would you take it? Hopefully yes unless you are a good friend and realize I have no job:) Anyways, in yesterday’s post if you made it through the whole thing, it said to email me and get $1. That’s it. Easier than panhandling. Only a few did it which I expected from the experiment. If I kept the entry short I would have gotten a higher response rate. I learned in business school that every word counts, so get to the point.

17 Responses to “If you Don’t Read this Post you will Die”

  • Anonymous
    July 3rd, 2006
    11:53 pm

    If you Dont Read this Post you will Die at Okdork.com…

    Two key things to get and keep attention in your blog writing.

    1- The Title is Everything
    2- KIS> Kep it short….

  • Devin
    July 4th, 2006
    12:02 am

    Are you sure the $1 response rate was because of the long article? Or was it because not enough people found a buck worth the time or email?

    That’s my reasoning for not replying. If you said $20, that’d be a different story…

  • noah
    July 4th, 2006
    12:15 am

    Emailing me would take around 20 seconds. Extrapolating that out is an hourly rate of $180/hour. Damn I guess it is not worth your time. In general the issue is people don’t read that far, don’t care or don’t think it’s real.

    When I met Bill Gates I asked him the question I read in my econ book about is it worth his time to pick up a $100 bill. He didn’t answer yes or no but declared his worth is linear so at different times he may be inclined to get that Benjamin. He was brilliant!

  • Michael Arrington
    July 4th, 2006
    12:53 am

    nice title.

  • Devin
    July 4th, 2006
    9:13 am

    Sure, it’s $180/hr projected out like that, but it’s still only ONE. I can save a dollar by driving an hour slower on the highway on my next trip to Denver..

  • Michael M.
    July 4th, 2006
    10:50 pm

    Omit Needless Words.

    A lesson I’ve learned the hard way again and again and again. But I found that, if you send an e-mail out to anyone other than an old lady, you better get your message across in the subject line or else forget it.

    For weeks, I sent out detailed memos on what our project team needed to get accomplished, when we were meeting, etc. etc. etc., and gnashed my teeth as nobody ever responded. Started writing e-mails with subjects like “Meeting Tuesday at 5 p.m.” and stuff started getting done.

    Strunk and White are invaluable teachers.

  • joe
    July 5th, 2006
    8:25 pm

    Dude, his worth is NOT linear.

    It’s been a year since we talked about this over ping-pong and you still say it backwards. At least now I know it’s not due to the beer…

  • john
    July 6th, 2006
    3:53 pm

    You mean like my titles?

  • Infared Earthlings 10 Times More Prone To Scoliosis, Newly Discovered Species Declares.
    July 7th, 2006
    7:38 am

    just testing. this is just a test. shut up, the shift key doesn’t work because i spilled coffee on it this morning. its red bull from now on. what a dumb idea, that wouldnt remedy the situation, i need something dry…

    damn, left that inner monologue at home again… now ill never be cool.

  • Blog Traffic #4: Titles = Life or Death at Okdork.com
    August 2nd, 2006
    10:47 pm

    […] I wrote another post that had some hints of why a title is important. I don’t think it got the attention it deserved and was going to spend this post writing about how important titles are. While I was planning on doing this I found a site called Copyblogger. […]

  • Mehul Patel
    August 6th, 2006
    11:34 pm

    This is a great write up and I feel its quite accurate and well described, too good :)

    Regards,
    Mehul Patel

  • iBjorn » Blog Archive » 5 Things You Should Know
    August 7th, 2006
    2:44 am

    […] How to Get People’s Attention (and then keep it) […]

  • Nico
    August 7th, 2006
    9:22 pm

    I think there should be a rule saying that a comment must be longer than the signature. Else, it looks like a spam.

  • Friday Free Business Idea: Wormhole Detector at Okdork.com
    September 1st, 2006
    12:42 pm

    […] Just kidding but Noah says titles are important […]

  • Angelina ------
    April 18th, 2007
    4:11 pm

    Excellent ! to grab attentions !!!!

    Read it otherwise you will die :D

    HAHAHA Funny

  • Mehul Patel
    April 19th, 2007
    10:25 am

    Angelina I must thank you for getting me back here and ofcourse thank Noah Kagan a lot too….

  • Rakesh
    January 9th, 2008
    10:20 pm

    Excellent post but i want to take your attention that Title is everything is true but it will only allows the reader to wait and read further but as soon the visitor read the content and doesnot like it or it is not sound then he will leave it immediatedly. Title will only grab the attention of visitor but if content is not convincing the you are going to loose the same visitor next time.

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