Astro-NUT “LUST in Space”!

I was recently browsing YouTube for videos related to writing, and I came across some very long and interesting videos of Cory Doctorow discussing issues with new media. One questioner asked him why Boing Boing has become so popular, and I thought that part of his answer was worth sharing here for aspiring bloggers. He said that writers who come to blogging via journalism tend to write catchy, witty headlines. I forget his exact example, but here’s mine: You remember that story about the lady astronaut who drove halfway across the country to assault her romantic rival and was in such a rush that she even wore a special astronaut diaper so she wouldn’t have to make any bathroom stops? Many writers would be tempted to title a blog post about that with some witty headline such as Astro-NUT “LUST In Space”! The problem is, nobody searching for coverage of that story is going to be searching for “astro-nut lust in space.” They’re going to be searching for something like “astronaut assault rival drive + diaper,” so a more pragmatic, descriptive headline, such as “Astronaut drives halfway across country to assault romantic rival,” might be better. If you want to be witty, be witty in the second paragraph, where you won’t be shooting yourself in the foot Google-rankings-wise. Anyway, I thought that was really good advice, though nevertheless you may have noticed that I was not able to restrain myself from giving this very blog entry a catchy, witty headline.