The other night, while watching Project Runway, I was
finishing a post about the use of clichés. One of the contestants, a non-native
speaker named Dimitri, criticized a competitor by calling him a “one way
monkey.” He quickly corrected himself and restated “one trick pony,” but not
before I grasped onto that one-liner as a great turn on a traditional, overused
saying.
I named my post that, and, because I am still a whore for my
reader data, I watched hour-by-hour as the hits to my blog shot through an
opening in the ozone layer. (Actually, I think I went to bed and checked in the
next morning. I do have some restraint.)
I had no intentions or even the slightest expectation that I
would draw traffic with this little maneuver; I was simply pleased at the
serendipity of the moment (and with a little last-minute help with a title) and
leapt upon it. But it did draw traffic, and I certainly learned a few things about the power
of a post name from this unplanned event.
I heard later that a similar, intentional ploy is used by some blog writers who have chosen to name their posts by search terms that might be common to
their audience, but not necessarily related to their content. Like one titled “Hot Elf Chicks” written by a role-playing
gaming site.
I’ll give you one guess who told me about this. ;)
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