September 13, 2012 – YA Chit Chat

Yesterday I had 620 hits on my blog, all because I used three words in my title: “Are Those Real?”

The article was about finding inspiration for writing fantasy by discovering unusual, unique sea creatures that look like something out of a fantasy/sci-fi novel. The question “Are those real?” tend to always escape our lips when we find something so extraordinarily and unbelievably beautiful and strange.

The title, however, may have misled people into thinking they were going to get something quite different. (I do have to say, though, I had 79 searches for blue dragon, blue mollusk and sea swallow which did appear in my post.) While I love getting 620 hits in one day, I somehow felt like I let a bunch of people down. It was also not an accurate number of hits for my blog. And if the traffic was due to a double-entendre, then the traffic was ‘wrong’ for my site. I have no way of proving this, however, so I’m going to relish in the numbers for 24 hours.

I’m a Young/New Adult fantasy author. My blog is devoted to the art of writing and anything to do with fantasy…the dragon kind, that is, not erotica.

While a catchy title landed traffic on my blog, was it the kind of traffic I wanted? I’m not sure. What I do know is that I’d rather have a small, faithful following I can talk to and interact with than mega numbers with no personalities behind them. Of course I want lots of hits and followers on my blog, but I don’t want to sacrifice my integrity for them. Now, if a gazillion YA readers and fantasy fans wandered by my site every day, I would be very, very happy. 🙂

What about you, fellow bloggers? Do you think catchy, double-meaning titles are harmful or helpful to blogs?