No blogging and no feed reading last week meant I had 3,000 articles demanding my attention this morning. You learn a valuable lesson when faced with such a daunting task; namely, unless you want to waste days reading articles you tell most of these screaming articles to hush up without even really reading their content.
This sifting process helped me discover that there really are only 5 types of articles that I actually deem worthy of my time. These are articles that:
- Might be Helpful (Ministry, Writing, Cheap books, Parenting, etc.)
- Might be Humorous (Everybody loves a good laugh)
- Might be Happening (Current Events, Music, New Inventions)
- Might be Historical (What can I say I’m a history nerd?)
- Don’t Fit the Mold (If a title has me wondering, “what in the world is this about”, I’m likely to star it and read it later).
This has also taught me a few lessons about blogging.
- If My Title Stinks So Does My Article. Okay, not really. But to the person scanning through Google Reader, if the title doesn’t hook or make me think that it’s one of those five things above, I won’t star it and I won’t read it, no matter how good it actually was.
- Controversy Only Gives Traffic for a Day. Some controversy may be helpful. If so, then I’ll read it. But I found myself happily skipping over about 200 articles on needless controversy that really doesn’t matter to me a week later. The only way controversy really gives you steady traffic is if this becomes your identity. And who wants that? Not me.
- Pictures Really Do Help. It catches my eye and makes me think the article is an easier read than if it’s a lengthy block quote.
- So do lists and bullet points. Again it makes me think I can peruse it quickly and think about it more later.
- Your name matters. I’m more likely to give an article from a reputable author a little more play than I am a guy I’ve hardly heard of. I’m that guy that people have hardly ever heard of. So I better get my foot in the door quick or I’m not going to get starred and read later.
- Use only what is necessary. If I can say it in 1 word instead of 5 I should.
