Linkbait Without a Hook

What do the following blog post titles have in common?

“Mid-week Roundup”, “Links 2008-03-19″, “Updates”, “Weekly Links, #3, March”, “March Wrap-up”, “Comment”, “New sites - March”, “Best of the blog, March 2008″, “Blog Update”

Did you feel inspired to read any of those posts? Did any stand out for you? Would you add any of them to Digg? Thought not. Neither would I! They look sooooo boring. But, did you know there are bloggers out there who actually write their post titles with the aim of attracting readers and persuading them to read the post within?

There are others who deliberately design provocative titles for their posts that make them stand out among the hundreds and thousands of other posts in the blogosphere. They use buzzwords and catchy phrases to try and suck you in. They’ll ask rhetorical questions with their blog post titles that will intrigue and fascinate. There are even those who use a little dry humor to make you laugh and read on.

It’s a disgrace! Those imaginative and innovative bloggers are stealing the tricks of the journalism trade to boost their readers. They’re chasing after new eyeballs for their webpages. They are, perish the thought, trying desperately to make you, the innocent reader, subscribe to their blog.

I hope by now you realize my tongue is firmly in my cheek. Of course, they do that! They’re the bloggers who get read, they’re the bloggers with the enormous feedcounts, they’re the ones who are making an impact on the blogosphere.

So, what kind of blogger are you? An “Updates - 2008-03-24-12:00:00″ kind of blogger or a “Grab Me by the Blog and Bite Hard” kind of blogger?