Think About Taglines
A tagline is a phrase under your website banner that sums up what you have to offer. At a minimum, you need it to orient someone who drops in on your website on a keyword search. Whenever I'm surfing the internet and I land on a site, I want some context as to its purpose. If I don't get that information immediately – like in the blink of eye – I'm moving on.
At a maximum, a tagline can sell what you do, generate interest in you that continues to build, and be so intriguing that it sticks in everyone's memory. Examples:
The Truth Is Out There (The X-Files)
To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before (Star Trek – Original Series)
Meta-Tags for the Worldwide Web. Just to clarify, meta-tags are different from what I mean by "tagline." Meta-tags such as your website title can help orient the visitor to what your website is all about. I use Internet Explorer, and when I go to my own website, I see a tab that comes up at the top of the screen that reads "Obsidian Bookshelf – M/M Fiction and Reviews." That description is my website title in my meta-tags.
For your meta-tags, you need to use the most basic, obvious descriptive terms possible. Never try to be cleverly obscure or tantalizing when writing for the web, especially when doing your meta-tags.
You want your meta-tags to match as closely as possible to the most popular search-terms that bring people to your site via search-engines – even on down to putting misspelling in your keywords if that's what is reliably bringing people to your site. For example, if you're a female author and you spell your first name Marion with an o (like Marion Zimmer Bradley), you should probably add Marian with an a just to reel in everybody who misspells your name.
Taglines are not Meta-Tags. Because your tagline is just a decorative phrase up near your top banner, you can go a little fancier with your description. You can be clever and less literal. But you still need to keep it short – about five to seven words to summarize what you do. Otherwise it won't be an obvious signpost to orient site-visitors nor will it be memorable.
You can go very basic: Val Kovalin. Author Site.
That's so basic it's practically a meta-tag, but there is nothing wrong with being obvious. I'd always advise being more informative than clever on a website. The following immortal taglines were famous in the past but wouldn't be effective on the worldwide web today because they are too clever and too tantalizingly obscure, but not very informative.
You Deserve a Break Today (McDonalds)
The Pause That Refreshes (Coca-Cola)
Slightly Longer Taglines. Examples:
Val Kovalin … M/M Fiction and Reviews
Val Kovalin … M/M Fiction That's Consistently Above Average!
(Okay, that second one was just for fun, ha, ha!)
Two Great M/M Author Taglines:
Because gay romance isn't fiction (author Kiernan Kelly)
Fiction that's pretty, witty, straight and gay! (author Storm Grant)
More M/M Author Taglines:
Many of the taglines quoted above are very up-front about the m/m and erotica aspect of the author's work. Other taglines hint at it, but get the point across. The most mysterious one probably belongs to Kirby Crow in that it doesn't even clarify the genre, but it does convey a striking mood.
(author Jordan Castillo Price)
(author Kirby Crow)
Whichever tagline you come up with depends upon what you want to emphasize, and you can emphasize anything you want. You should definitely come up with SOMETHING because a tagline is too good a promotional opportunity to miss. [I don't allow my blog posts to be copied in full. Please click here to see how to use an excerpt/blurb.]
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5 comments:
Hey Val..
What a great post you did today... I am one of the Lucky or Unlucky depending on the day -- who got caught out years ago when I set up my blog...
When I eventually got up to speed with Meta -tag - the name "Erotic Horizon" was already out there...(I had to come up with a tag line to counter-act the name)
And my in-box gets everything because of the name...
So I cannot agree with you more, your name or tag line is so very important to how people find you on the web.
Love the post...
E.H>
Hi, E.H., and thank you! I can just imagine that your in-box would be out of control, ha, ha! I think that's the downside to having a popular word like "Erotic" that encompasses a lot of territory.
I think your tagline is perfect to establish your blog's purpose. I like it:
"I read, I read a lot, I read a lot of everything."
Not only does it have a pleasing repetitive quality, it establishes your blog as a book blog, and then goes further to orient visitors as to your qualifications as a reviewer: you don't just read erotica, you read a lot of everything so you've got more context in which to evaluate books. Now there is an example of a truly good tagline!
I keep it rather to the point: Military gay Erotic Fiction. I write what it says on the (tag) tin. ;-)
That's a great idea Val. I hadn't thought of it. I love "exquisite nightmares". I just think the phrase is rich and evocative in just two works.
Isn't that gorgeous? Exquisite nightmares!
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