Keys That Click - Minding your own design business and other observations

Posted in Blogging, on May 7th, 2010 by Carlos.

When it comes to being an active participant, I’m relatively new to this design-related blogosphere. I’m not an expert blogger. I don’t make any money off of it. So, perhaps what I’m going to say won’t be popular amongst others out there who have been doing this for a much longer time, are successful at it, and even make money off of it. But heck, it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to.

Here it goes. I hate posts titled with a number of reasons, tips, suggestions, anything that I need to, nay, MUST, know. For example: “198 Reasons to use HTML5″, or “83 Inspirational Photographs to Get You Thinking Creatively” or even “6 Reasons You Shouldn’t Name An Article With Titles Like ’6 Reasons…’”. Yes, I made those up (well except for the last one, that’s real), but that style of title/article seems to be very common on many design blogs. These titles continuously fill my Twitter feed and frankly, I just ignore them now. And that’s a shame – just because the title is like that, it doesn’t mean there isn’t any good information in the article itself.

Is it perhaps time to let this trend die and go back to focusing on letting the content speak for itself? In a stroke of complete hypocrisy, here are my 6 Reasons You Shouldn’t Name An Article With Titles Like ’6 Reasons…’

1. It’s Overwhelming. Sure I was joking with numbers of 198 this, or 83 that… but I’m not far off from what actually goes on out there. More isn’t always better. Really, it rarely is.
2. It Provides Useless Information. Does posting the number of steps, tricks, reasons, etc. really make the title more compelling? For example, take this: “23 CSS Tricks You Should Be Using” vs. “CSS Tricks You Should Be Using”. Does adding the number truly add value to the article and entice people to click to read on? I honestly don’t think it does.
3. It’s Less Personal. Presenting your title with a number in it  seems rushed and less personal. Take the example in Reason 2. The title without a number seems a little more calm and personal. You’re presenting some useful information to the reader. Throw a number in and all of sudden you’re just rushing to get the reader some information and moving on to the next topic.
4. It Becomes Noise. There seems to be so many articles titled like this now, it’s so easy to get lost in all the noise. As I mentioned, my Twitter feed is full of these now. Numbers no longer impress me.
5. Quality over Quantity. I’m not saying that all the articles that have titles like these don’t have valuable information to share, but the title can really turn people off, in my experience at least. How about reducing the number of items in your post and choose the really good ones, rather than throwing a whack load of options at the reader.
6. I Just Wanted to Have Six Reasons. Useless point? Exactly.

Please, don’t interpret this as a dig to the many talented and well intentioned bloggers out there that provide us with endless streams of suggestions, tips, and general know-how. Like I said, just because the article title isn’t my favourite, it doesn’t mean that the content isn’t good. Maybe it’s just a matter of presenting it differently so that it feels like you are trying to have a dialog with your readers, rather than just naming off a list of items and moving on your way. Alas, my readership is low, so I’m sure this won’t make much of a difference out there, but at least for my part, I promise not to participate in titling my articles in this manner. Well, starting after this one at least.