Taking The Bait

byburntout

526 followers

13 years ago

 One of the things that I do well with is reading every headline that appears on my home page and chasing after one article after the other. That headline is a hook and I'm one big fat cat fish who just can't resist. I swish the title around in my head like a wine taster, a connoisseur who recognizes the subtle nuances of excellent grape captured in the heady brew I am sampling. Overcome, I find I'm just a lush after all and drown myself in the article attached to it. Then it's back to the table to feel the strength and quality of another headline attached to yet another article.

That's what I want. That's what everyone who struggles with article writing wants. A title so powerful it demands attention and drives the reader to action. Drives them to the article. That article is magic. It is so compelling and casts a spell so complete that clicking on a product link is all they want to do. I want to write like that. Others do. What's my deal?

I beat my articles until they can barely limp onto the word document and line their creepy nouns, adjectives and verbs into recognizable alphabet soup. Somehow I strip the heart and soul out of every one my articles. Clean. Well dressed. No errors and sterile as a fresh dressed church manikin.

So it's back to studying how everyone else so naturally infuses life into their headline; trying to figure out how they can capture me when I can see the holes in the articles they wrote. Simple fact is they are alive. The pitiable written word is still alive ten million written volumes later and in the marketing world that translates into readers interested enough click on a link.

That's what I want... I want my articles to get up and walk. I want them to shake someone awake and take them out for a drink. Get in the car reader, you're not doing anything anyway. We're on the road to success and if you don't trust my driving, then that's just to bad because I'm not killing another article with a politically correct ending.