Killer Headline

~ Geoff Stamper

I try to assemble and/or use things before reading the directions even though that instinct continually backfires. It just feels like cheating to read the directions. You do not look at the answer key before starting a crossword puzzle. I just skimmed The Golden Rules of Blogging and realize I should have read it back in 2016. Micah Baldwin is quoted in the book as saying a blogger wants conversations to occur about the topic but writers just want people to read what they write. The distinction seems too simple. I see writers in a broad tent that includes all sorts of people with different and overlapping interests. Nevertheless, I am finally ready to consider the blogging “Golden Rules.” Rule 1: Blog for your Target Audience. My lifelong target audience has been hot chicks but my posts seem to concentrate on grandparenting and any other target that wanders by. I have also missed the mark on Rule 2 (Self host, do not use WordPress) and Rule 8 (Stick to one topic or niche). Rule 10 insists that I blog about my topic, not about myself. That will never work because my topic is myself. Rule 12: Always include at least one image. I would definitely pepper my blog with pictures of myself if I were not so negligent about acquiring technical capability. Rule 14: Killer Headlines are essential. Nailed it. Rule 18: Do not steal someone else’s words. Oh yeah, Robin Houghton wrote these rules. Rule 28: Know all the rules before you begin. Oops. Rule 9: Always end with a question. Who keeps hiding my car keys?

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36 thoughts on “Killer Headline”

  1. I always check if all the parts have been included and examine hardware like screws, nuts and bolts, braces, hinges, etc. Easier to send back if not assembled. Anything from China usually has a bunch of problems. Seems the concept of “quality control” is not part of the language. Found out what DIY means: “do it yourself” assembly and really avoid that.

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  5. I have NEVER followed any rules as they pertain to blogging. I’m more of a “Write what you feel” kind of person. And I’m glad you stick to your guns. Lol. I enjoy your blog.

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    1. I just love being physically able to write because I am unable to do so many things like sing, paint, play a musical instrument, cook, or bait a hook. But I can barely imagine how good it must feel to get paid for writing!

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      1. I no longer care about making a profit I honestly started my blog to get broader access to an international audience. I blog for me but if I notice certain kinds of posts barely make a dent I refrain from posting. I think my audience is diverse because the blog is as well. Yeah there are a lot of cute animal things but as you know I also once did a series of drawings on fighters.

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  8. Ha! I love your take on this Geoff! It’s all about the desired outcome. If the outcome is to know what you would write if you wrote for 1000 days straight, then you win the challenge. Now you know! Literally no other way to know. The people coming along for the ride are the bonus. The rules are always about making money because that is something that can be codified. Self-knowledge is priceless and elusive, non-quantifiable. I like being part of the bonus. And I like your headlines!

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    1. You are so right. Without minimizing that certain doors are closed, I have always marveled at how easily someone in our culture can share experiences often reserved for the elite. In 1980, I ran more than an hour and a half behind Alberto Salazar in the New York Marathon but was in the same race. Later I experienced all the fun and agony of writing and publishing a novel except, of course, the extra joy of receiving acclaim and a payday. But the experiences are there for the taking.

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  11. Wrong business for hot chicks. I am always reminded, and in my youth thankful for a paraphrased bit of wisdom from Burt Bacharach. Once I found out girls liked piano players as much as they did football players I immediately quit getting the crap beat out of myself trying to be a football player and began to take piano seriously. As far as assembly and function I stand in your footsteps as an extreme hypocrite. For as a product specialist my favorite but often unspoken acronym was RTFM. I return to the manual as a last resort and have a six quart plastic bin full of “spare” parts for furniture and appliances. The worst is after an automotive repair and you hold up a bolt and wonder what the hell…

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    1. Which is exactly how I blog. It was Debussy who said “Works of art make rules. Rules do not make works of art.” Before we jump off a cliff, though, Picasso warned “Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.” Somewhere all that got lost for the sake of safe homogeneity.

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  12. I get a laugh out of some of these books that people write about blogging and their accompanying suggestions/rules. The thing I like best about blogging is there are no rules.

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  13. Pingback: Killer Title – The Haps With Herb

  14. Here’s some words to live by – and it sounds like you’re killing them: If all else fails, read the instructions.
    I have a habit of referring to instructions or directions as “destructions”, and I stand by that malapropism.

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