Jason Unger

Here's Visual Proof Your Headlines Matter

Posted by junger - 10/07/08 at 12:10:22 pm

We've talked a lot about how much your headlines matter online and that when you produce a bad headline, your competition gets a leg up.

But if you still don't believe me, take a look at this listing of headlines:

(from the pfblogs.org RSS feed)

Without clicking through, can you tell me what these stories are about?

• Still Risky
• The Worst Decade Since the Thirties
• Long tin hats and canned food?
• Important Level
• Biweekly Mortgage Spam

While you can get a general idea from these titles ("Biweekly Mortgage Spam" is probably about emails or letters about a mortgage that come every other week), these headlines fail to tell the reader what the story is actually about.

There's a reason you should write your headline first — without it, you're not going to tell readers why they need to check out your content.

How to Write a Great Headline

The easiest way to write a great headline is to distill your story down to its root. Ask yourself these questions:

• What's the point of the story?
• How does it benefit the reader?
• If I was looking for this, what would I Google?

Once you've established the point of the story (hopefully something you've thought of beforehand), back up and look at it from your reader's point of view.

Is your reader going to get anything out of this story? What are they going to take away with them?

You can easily write a story for yourself, but if your reader doesn't benefit, you're not going to keep them around.

The third question — "what would I Google?" — is arguably the toughest question to answer. You need to step out of the silo that is your Web site and user base and think like a newbie.

If you want to teach someone to balance their checkbook, consider what they would look for — "how to balance my checkbook," "how do i balance my checkbook," or "how to balance your checkbook" all seem like logical searches.

3 Great Headlines In Action

Penelope Trunk, whose blog Brazen Careerist attracts a dedicated and vocal community, uses great headlines.

• 3 Things to learn from the crashing careers of the super-rich
• How to find meaningful work
• You should make Sarah Palin your mentor

They give you the point right away. You don't need to dig deep to find what they're really about. And to top it off, they're provocative (Disclaimer: Brazen Careerist is a client of Junger Media).

How to Easily Practice Great Headline Writing

There's an easy way to practice your headline writing without having to write any stories: Twitter.

With its 140 character limit, you're required to get straight to the point and tell your followers exactly what they need to know. It's not a great medium for in-depth writing, but it's an easy way to analyze what you want to say and the best way to say it.

While you're at it, follow me on Twitter and I'll check out your status.

Surprise: Your Users Don't Have Time For You

Posted by junger - 08/27/08 at 09:08:13 pm

Your readers have better things to do than read what you have to say.

Don't believe me? Try these facts on for size:

• 79% of your readers scan text; they don't read it
• Reading on a screen takes 25% more time than on paper
• Intro texts are skipped by 2/3 of users

That's all according to Jakob Nielsen's research, as conveyed during Usability Week 2008 in New York.

Why don't they have time for you? They don't think you're useless, but they care more about themselves. Who can blame them?

Your readers come to you to get a specific piece of information, and then they move on.

So to keep them around, you should bury what they're looking for, right? Wrong.

Give them what they want — right away.

3 Tips for Fast and Easy Comprehension

To make you content easier to digest, use these three methods:

• Lead with the conclusion.
• Shorten your sentences. Use one thought per sentence.
• Visually separate key points with lists or bold.

Old media writers are horrible at this. They bury the lead somewhere in the third or fourth paragraph. Each paragraph is more than 3 sentences long. And the conclusion is at the end.

Don't worry about "giving away" the ending before the reader has done any work. That's not how they see it. Remember: you are not your users.

If you consistently deliver the information that your readers want and how they want it, they'll be back.

Make them happy. Give them what they want as quickly as possible. Or they'll choose someone else to give their time to.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Selective Ignorance

Posted by junger - 07/21/08 at 08:07:10 am

How does a member of the media, self-proclaimed online junkie and non-stop Web surfer learn to tune out most of the Internet?

It's not easy, but I did it, and you can do it, too.

In his best-seller The Four-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss advocates 'selective ignorance' and fighting information overload.

When I read the book, I pulled a this-doesn't-apply-to-me, since, well, I work in the media. I have to be overloaded with information — that's my job … right?

Wrong. Here's how I conquered my information overload and learned to love selective ignorance.

Remove Your Distractions

RSS feeds are a great way to get information, but you've likely subscribed to way more than you can handle. Stop checking Google Reader every morning — you're already starting your day off on the wrong foot.

While I love podcasts as much as the next guy, they're just something else to pay attention to and are likely to distract you from the task at hand. Try music instead. Since I started using Pandora instead of iTunes, I'm doing a lot more in a lot less time.

If you need to communicate by IM or email, don't make your self available 24/7. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Check your email at specific times during the day (once on the hour is a good place to start) and only hop on IM after you've gotten through your most immediate tasks.

Surf Smarter

Online, every story is seemingly about the details. The smallest things — or pretty much anything about the iPhone — are unlikely to affect you.

I know, it's difficult to admit that. But it's true. Don't fret if you don't know the details — the big picture is what matters.

When you are getting your information, only go to a few sources. Three of my favorites are Techmeme, Drudge Report, and Google News. Each is a great aggregator of what I'm interested in: technology, politics and mainstream news.

When you do surf smarter, do it at specific times of the day or after you complete a specific task. The worst possible thing you could do is open up a new tab while you're in the middle of something else. You're asking for trouble.

Let Information Come to You

Don't be the town crier — there are plenty of other people doing the work. Let them worry about keeping themselves in the know.

Unless you're actually breaking a news story (which you've presumably acquired in a different way), there's no immediacy to 99.9% of the information online. You don't need to know everything that's happening the moment it happens.

You'll find out what's going on through your network of contacts. If you want to find out more, then you can go look for it.

Ever since I stopped worrying and learned to love selective ignorance, I've mapped out a new project, took on a freelance gig, and found time to play my Wii. It's all about time — what are you spending yours doing?

For a look at what I'm doing with my newfound time, follow me on Twitter.

If You Can Tweet It, Why Blog About It?

Posted by junger - 06/12/08 at 11:06:27 pm

Twitter is the best tool for getting information on the Web. I don't say that lightly, but it's designed exactly for how we interact with the Internet.

We don't read online. We especially do not read long content. So limiting what you have to say to 140 characters forces you to get right to the point — a great way to practice your Web headlines.

Add in the fact that you're getting content from people you trust, and Twitter becomes an amazing way to get and convey information.

But as a Web publisher, Twitter puts you in a predicament: if you can get your message across as a Tweet, why bother blogging about it?

Penelope Trunk argues that Twitter is for a different side of you — not necessarily your blog face. "If you express yourself in the same way on a blog and on Twitter, then you don’t need both," she writes.

Brian Clark said Twitter "may well be the end of Copyblogger," but instead of sending out tidbits on copywriting and online marketing, he tweets a lot of quotes.

They say Twitter is about conversations, but in reality, it's about delivering valuable content to your followers.

I just finished a book recommended to me on Twitter. I've suggested a site about moving scams to Chris Pearson, who was looking for a mover. And I've helped convince Davis Freeberg to sign up for Vonage (though I didn't get a referral, darn).

Penelope is right — Twitter is for another side of you: the shorter, more-to-the-point side. I was thinking about writing a blog about Leo Laporte's new TWiT Live, but I could say it in less than 140 characters, so I tweeted it instead.

The people who subscribe to your blog and the people who follow you on Twitter do it for one main reason: they're interested in what you have to say. (Forget for a moment the trolls who follow everyone just to be followed.)

Don't fret if you find yourself Twittering more than blogging. It's not that big of a deal.

As long as you're delivering useful content to your audience, everyone wins.

Follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/junger

5 Ways to Automate Your Facebook Experience

Posted by junger - 05/12/08 at 03:05:44 pm

Automating your life is easier than you think.

My finances are on autopilot — and it's been the best thing ever.

Not only does it save you boatloads of time, but it's actually pretty comforting.

So how do you automate the biggest time waster in your life — Facebook? It's easier than you think.

Here are 5 ways to automate your Facebook experience.

Import Blog Posts as Notes

Every one of your blog posts can automatically be imported into your profile — easily. In Facebook:

• Click on "Notes" on your left-hand Applications navigation.
• On the right-hand nav, click on "Import a blog" under Notes Settings
• Enter your blog URL, check off box, and click "Start Importing"
• Verify your RSS feed is appearing correctly, and "Confirm Import"

Ta-da! Your blog posts are now automatically being imported into Facebook.

Subscribe to Friend Updates via RSS

Find what your friends are doing by getting their status updates delivered to you via RSS.

On facebook.com/friends, click on "Friends' Status Feed" in the right-hand column.

Subscribe to the feed in your favorite RSS reader (I recommend Firefox's Live Bookmarks, since there isn't anything more to read than the one-line status).

Sync Your Twitter and Status

Why update your Facebook status if you're using Twitter to do essentially the same thing?

TwitterSync automatically posts your latest Tweets as your status. You can add a verb like "tweets," or "is twittering," "is," etc. before the update, or leave it completely blank.

The official Twitter app also syncs your status and tweets, but (until recently) automatically adds "is twittering" before posting your status.

Add Flickr, Digg, del.icio.us to your News Feed

Don't waste your time uploading your pictures, bookmarks and more to a specific service and to Facebook — automatically import them into your Mini-Feed.

On your profile page, under the Mini-Feed header, click "Import." This will allow you to import items from

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• Flickr
• Picasa
• Yelp

Share Stories with Shareaholic

Instead of heading to Facebook to post links or stories on your profile, use Shareaholic.

The Firefox plugin lets you share any Web page on Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Mixx and more without leaving the actual page.

What did I miss? How are you automating your Facebook experience?