Just How Much Does Your Choice of Headline Really Make For Your Blog Posts?

Over the months since I've setup this blog I've seen decent traffic levels.  I've derived most of the visits from posting links on DZone, Reddit, YCombinator, and then reposts from readers.  I've noticed that some posts really pull in good traffic (like the post I wrote about skype4py) and others just don't seem to catch on.

I've not had much luck in guessing which posts would generate the highest amounts of traffic and this got me thinking ...

The spike from posting web dev microframeworks to social media sites

So it seems that it all boils down to the headline/title that I choose for the post.  My latest post about web development microframeworks is boring and probably not of interest to most people; however, the skype4py post, while barely useful IMO has generated decent traffic and continued to bring in new readers via the search engines.  Another great post was "110% easier screen scraping" which I guess was because of its appeal to people who are frustrated with traditional screen scraping techniques.

The bottom line seems to be that you must thoroughly research the demand for specific keywords and then make sure to have catchy titles that entice people to read the post.  I've failed to do this for a lot of my posts and have suffered with low readership because of it.  Don't make the same mistake!  Spend the time researching search volume, ad costs, etc and nail down just what keywords will get you continued traffic.