Have Upworthy-style headlines gone too far?
OK, so we all know that in the gridlocked blogosphere, a punchy headline will help to generate more traffic to our website. In fact, most writers of my acquaintance spend almost as much time finessing a title as they do crafting the article itself.
Not that there’s anything essentially wrong with employing a little hyperbole to lend weight to your story. After all, ‘Cambridge boffins discover the secret to eternal youth’ is bound to cause a bigger reaction than ‘Huntingdon-based research company announces new enzyme for use in anti-ageing face cream.’
But there’s a balance to be struck, natch. Undersell your story and you’ll risk leaving it languishing in the Internet doldrums; oversell it and you’ll only disappoint your readers who may decide not to come back for more. Which brings me to the object of this week’s rant. More...
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