Ingenious
Pronunciation: \in-ˈjēn-yəs\
Function: adjective
3 : marked by originality, resourcefulness, and cleverness in conception or execution
Synonyms: see clever
Everyone who writes knows it feels like one giant contest to come up with both a story and post titles that are at the same time, catchy enough to shout out “Read my story about that thing, not all those 6392 other stories about that thing… okay?”
If that’s not bad enough, those who publish online are supposed to make sure they not only come up with something clever to attract attention to their story, but also remember to use keywords and all that other mumbo jumbo so their story will rank higher up in search engine listings.
It’s enough to drive a writer batty. It has been said, that headline puns are the domain of the paper and ink newspaper writer, and that those who write for the online world should write clean, informative headlines rooted in SEO.
Here are a few I thought were rather clever!
1. Gypsies, a tramp and grief
The Spokesman Review
Cheers gave way to jeers at a Madonna concert when she condemned mistreatment of Romania’s Gypsies.
2. Sweet Surrender: Sugar Curbs Urged
Wall Street Journal
Most women should limit sugar intake to 100 calories, or six teaspoons, a day. Men should limit their consumption to 150 calories. That won’t be easy. A 12-ounce can of cola has 130 calories, or eight teaspoons.
3. The Buoy Done Good
Mirror.co.uk
A blazing flare in each hand, Mike Perham celebrates becoming the youngest person to sail solo around the world.
4. Strike puts brakes on new drivers
St. Catharines Standard
A strike by driving examiners is cancelling about 70 road tests a day in St. Catharines, according to the private operator of DriveTest centres. That’s the average number of daily tests booked in the city during the summer for new drivers and motorists
Older stories:
5. Great tits cope well with warming
BBC News
At least one of Britain’s birds appears to be coping well as climate change alters the availability of a key food. Researchers found that great tits are laying eggs earlier in the spring than they used to, keeping step with the earlier emergence of caterpillars.
6. Man who snatched wig will have toupee
TAIPEI (Reuters)
A man was detained in Taiwan after snatching the wig of a member of parliament who had complained against the former president Chen Shui-bian’s release from jail, officials said on Tuesday.
So… do you always focus on the keywords, or do you focus on coming up with titles that will attract the eye of the reader who has to decide which one of those 6392 stories (about that one thing) they’re going to read? Do you worry about SEO, or do you write titles that someone like me, will notice for their cleverness and consider worthy of being called ingenious?
Good grief SEO is the last thing I worry about – a whole load of people turning up only to be disappointed is a ‘orrible thought. I did a post called ’70’steen Nude’ or something like that still gets hits on a daily basis. I’m seriously considering deleting it as 100% of the people arriving are looking for something else and will never return again ……. unless I replace the photos of course – tee hee
Since I work for a newspaper I focus more on the headlines, out of habit I suppose. My blog has been found by people searching for the most ridiculous things though. Sometimes it is LOL funny.
DP – How do you know they won’t return again? They might be captivated by the fabio-esque avatar and wonderful ’scent’ that seems to waft over from the monitor when one is at your site… you underestimate your appeal DP…
Leeuna – I admit I tend to forget SEO at times and go for the funny title. I’m probably a newspaper writer at heart… Sometimes I get angry at all the SEO/Marketing Guru hawking out there and just wish we could all write and be read for being funny and not because we crammed all the right keywords into our first paragraph and figured out the right meta-tags and all.
All that kind of ruins the fun.