The most common headline mistake
The realm of the esoteric seems to have invaded that icon of modern technology that is the World Wide Web. CNN reports that some Indian web designers are advocating the use of the ancient philosophies of Indian Vaastu Shastra and Chinese Feng Shui to resolve the harmony imbalances that, they say, cause websites to perform poorly.
Earth is the layout, fire is the color, air is the HTML, space is name of the Web site, and water is the font and graphics,” says [Dr. Smita] Narang, adding that each must be chosen carefully and strike a balance with the other.
Narang, a vaastu expert who has spent four years analyzing around 500 sites, says a Web site that is not designed according to vaastu rules will have few hits and will negatively affect the business.
What ever is the world coming to?
As Seth Godin aptly comments, “it’s easier than working on content”, and besides, this new craze is bound to make its proponents some nice and easy money at the expense of naïve business people who should know better.
All this kind of reminds me of what often happens with many advertising campaigns, where there is too much emphasis on ‘cool’, impressive ideas. After all, even in my own field of copywriting, it is easy to come up with a cunning play on words for a headline or caption. The real challenge is to write one that actually yields results by making the reader itch to read the rest of your copy.
Unfortunately these kind of headlines are on the rare side and ‘Feng Shui’ headlines that sound nice, but do little else, are often preferred – an all too common mistake.
Add comment June 28th, 2006