On Tuesday I wrote this article:
Receiving only eleven comments, it did not excite much attention here.
It has, however, become one of the best-read articles in the site's history. Yesterday it attracted around 35,000 reads, having attracted well over 20,000 on the day it was published. That made yesterday the fourth biggest day ever in the site's history with regard to traffic - the total reads exceeding 50,000.
I know the traffic is coming from social media. Beyond that, I do not know. But something about the way in which I am advertising posts on social media seems to be working, although quite what in this case I am not sure.
What I do know is that predicting which articles might fly on a blog is nigh-on impossible.
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That’s good news, well done! Why a sudden large audience? Is it simply that the title is indicating what is the most important topic to most people who are now struggling with mortgages, loan repayments and not law and order etc. Labour party take note…
Indeed
I’m pretty sure that the article garnered more than 11 comments, it’s just that the Hakeem Olajuwon factor was in play ( best NBA blocker if you don’t get the reference ).
Maybe unrelated, but a couple of days ago, for the first time ever, among football, cycling and local news, a post from Tax Research appeared in my Google news feed. Jumped out because it was not a picture with a headline below. It was either this story or ‘The cost of living crisis is now seriously reducing people’s financial resilience’. Something mainstream, not esoteric!
That one is also going very well
For me, your blog, unlike much in the mainstream media, contains evidence and a rationale for your conclusions, as in this article. Contrast with the MSM who simply regurgitate press releases. Many articles simply state “the govt has increased interest rates to combat inflation”, without analysis, presumably because the author doesn’t understand what they’re talking about. This is a party line just as it would be in any totalitarian state – to repeat without question what the powerful say, which is not the purpose of journalism. I remember reading someone say that the purpose of journalism, when someone powerful says it’s raining, is to look out the window to see if it is. I read your blog, and the other commentators here, because you’re using data, evidence, and looking at how a system actually functions, which is informative and educational. I despair at what is on offer in the MSM.
Thanks
People generally only read headlines.
If it’s relevant and benefits them in some way, they click.
It has to be relevant to “normal” readers, not economists!
Agree, Ian, and writing articles and picking good headlines require different skills. I believe newspaper headlines are chosen by the editor or sub-editors rather than the article authors for that reason.
True
It is not easy to get right
In 1985, I got a job writing for a computer magazine. In the first week, they sent me on a journalism course. I was a little indignant, because I knew how to write having spent 4 years writing essays for my degrees.
How wrong I was. For example, I had turned my nose up at The Sun, but learnt that its headline writer was its most well-paid “journalist”, and now appreciate to this day, that The Sun writes the best headlines for its audience, bar none.
There are lots of online articles with tips. It took a while, but this is the best I could find:
Write Better Headlines, https://www.constantcontact.com/blog/how-to-write-better-headlines/
Essays are nit a good way to learn to write
And I am sorry to say most undergraduates don’t write good essay, largely because they refuse to answer the question or have not learned the basics of writing.
Writing for a critical audience teaches writing better than almost anything I know.
I will look at that article.
As the Victorian merchant John Wanamaker famously said: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”.
Are you not aware that government yield curves (and statements made by the bank) quite clearly demonstrate the expected path of interest rates (base rates) and demonstrate when (and how much) rates are expected to fall?
Why pretend that you’ve come up with some amazing prediction that the whole of the market doesn’t already know?
Now, if you have a few on the current shape of the yield curve and where you believe that market expectations are wrong (and why) then that might actually be something worth blogging about.
I have explained all my reasoning
If you have not read it that is your problem
As for forecast yield curves? Sorry – they can be hopelessly wrong.
Built what is really amusing is you referenced nothing….
I highly recommend watching Will Storr’s TED Talk on the subject of story telling. His book of the same name is worth its weight in gold.
To summarise: when you write the first line of a story – a headline if you will – it needs to create a gap, a question that has to be answered. That’s what piques people’s interest and encourages them to click through to find the answer.
The title of your tweet does that: when I read it I think, why? Why does the Bank of England have to give in? To whom or what will they give in? And why have they been holding out?
Questions that need answering.
https://www.ted.com/talks/will_storr_the_science_of_storytelling
Thanks