What Is In A Hub Page Title?

Allow me to have a little laugh

A recent hub I wrote seemed to get quite a lot of sudden, and unexpected attention. You see, the thing is that I happen to write hubs which are generally political rants. I'm an opinion guy. If you want to go as far as to call my hubs op-ed, hey, I won't argue with that at all. I'm not a professional writer and hey, op-ed writer sounds kind of professional. Aren't those the guys who get paid to write neat little opinion pieces and columns for major newspapers? I'd certainly enjoy a job like that. Speak my mind. Tell it like it is. Bust a few chops. Get paid. Who could argue with that?

My grandfather was notorious for keeping things right, smack on the table and speaking his mind. He was a no holds barred kind of a guy when it came down to that sort of a thing. It could well be that that's exactly where my own opinionated self came from. In fact, I'm certain of it. If I ever accidentally wind up making a real living doing this gig, I'm definitely going to have him to thank for it.

I only say 'accidentally,' because I'm not really trying. Well, maybe not...

As for what I can ultimately be called as a result of sharing my thoughts in the written form; op-ed writer, or opinion hubber, blogger, wannabe? In the end I simply write opinion pieces that happen to reach a couple of people out there in Internet land. That's good enough for me. What that may garner for me as far as a title goes...?

For whatever it's worth, my grandfather didn't really give a damn what you called him either. "Titles aren't my thing. If you want to call me an asshole, fine. But it better pay good if you're going to call me that." Getting paid to be an asshole, now there's a thought if there ever was one. (Insert wink emoticon here.)

What's this got to do with the price of tea in China?

I raise all of this little tidbitty (is that even a word?) information about the kind of hubs I write, because while those kinds of hubs do generate an interesting bit of traffic—especially if you happen to be writing on a real hot button topic, for example like the Arizona immigration law issue which I've written several hubs on and which continue to get a lot of traffic, a lot of which is organic traffic at that—the general consensus is that they also generate a limited amount of traffic compared to other types of hubs, and are more limited in the Adsense revenue that they may potentially generate.

If you're here to make money, it may stand to reason that writing political hubs alone may not be the best way to go about that. My best performing hub is, for example, "FORGET RAGÚ, SPAGHETTI SAUCE FROM SCRATCH IS EASY," essentially a recipe for spaghetti sauce. My political hubs aren't even close to that one.

So, what about that title thing?

The recent hub in question, the one that got all that unexpected attention also happened to be just another political hub. For me, that was what made it so interesting. I wasn't writing any different material. I was simply writing about the recent troubles Sen. John Kerry ran into with his little yacht when he tried to park it in Rhode Island to avoid paying somewhere in the ballpark of $500,000 in taxes. In it I also brought up a couple other of our interesting Washington tools who don't like to pay their taxes—none other than Mr. Rangel, and one Timothy Geithner. But I don't want to run off course here. I'm easily sidetracked, you know.

The point is that what generated that spike in traffic was not the content—in this case. I wouldn't even say it's my best written hub. In fact, looking back at it, there's quite a lot more that I could very well have done differently with it.

The point is that what drove the spike in traffic was the title of the hub.

Show me yours, and I'll show you mine

That was the title of the hub. "Show Me Yours, And I'll Show You Mine." Of course one can easily decipher exactly why such a title urges a peek. How could anyone resist at least going in to see what might be offered there? Without question it's a fairly provocative title. It's a draw. I'd look. Not to mention the fact that I also included a picture of a pretty girl as well. There was that hint of, dare I say, sex. And well, I don't think there's any secret at all that sex sells. Always has. Always will.

The title, of course, in the context of the opinion piece that followed it, was about me showing you (the elected and appointed government leaders) my tax dollars if you show me your tax dollars fairly and equally.

I don't necessarily write for traffic spikes

I just like to write. It's that simple. To me, all of this SEO stuff and keyword usage is a little bit confusing. I've tried to sit down and write with SEO in mind, and all I end up with is a fuddled mess that doesn't make any sense at all. I'd much rather spend my time simply shooting the breeze about what's on my mind, and let the cards fall where they may.

I might add that I think my strategy is working so far. At least for me. I'm doing my own thing and it's floating my boat.

So, when I chose to use the title, "Show Me Yours, And I'll Show You Mine," I really had no intention of making any new waves. I had no intention of drawing in anyone other than the 270 or so followers that I have as of this wriiting. I thought of my fellow hubbers like Habee, Breakfastpop, Tom Whitworth, and Sherri Sapp to name a few (and that's naming a very few, so my apologies to all the others I certainly missed). I thought that they would get a kick out of that title. In a nutshell, I was aiming simply to accomplish two things. They were, to make my political point, and to give the readers a little reason to crack a smile.

Based on the comment thread I think it worked. At least so far as giving the readers a reason to crack a smile.

My final thought and I'll leave you go on your way

I don't write for traffic spikes. I said that. Still, I do write for readers. I don't think there is a one of us here who writes on HubPages, or anywhere for that matter, who doesn't enjoy being read. What would be the point otherwise? Even if you happen to be one of those hubbers who could care less about the writing part, if you are one of those who simply wants to generate traffic and Adsense revenue, and maybe sell a thing or two here and there through Amazon, you still want to be read. Those readers are what make it all happen. If they don't find you, there will be no one to click an ad, for example.

So, getting them to come in and take a peek is the very first half of the battle. The title is the neon sign that lights up in the window and lures everyone to the prize. The fancier it is, the brighter it is, the more provocative it is, the more likely it is that it can cause one to pause to step inside and have a closer look.

If the sign can't lure in the passersby, who cares how good the steak is inside? No one will ever know.

That certainly is the case with my hub, "Show Me Yours, And I'll Show You Mine." Not that the steak was great. But the sign got them to come in anyway.

Based on the average numbers, most of my hubs that do the best are the one's with titles that are a little bit suggestive of something, or antagonistic in a sense. "Corporate Boards Are Glorified Thiefs," for example, kind of antagonistically stirs my fellow conservative hubbers' pots. We conservatives generally are on the side of corporations, and so this title makes some readers think, "What in the hell is this guy talking about."

At the end of the day, what is in a Hub Page title? In a word, traffic. At the end of the day that's what you want.