How to Get Your Message Read: Compose Useful Subjects

I see a lot of Topics in this help forum that simply state "I Need Help." If members could write more descriptive topics, I think it would be more helpful.

Here's the text of an article I wrote for my Camera Club's Newsletter to help members get more attention on our own forum. So I hope by reprinting it here, it will help this help forum:

Write Good Topic Subjects: What is the aim of the subject of a topic? To get someone’s attention! Imagine if there were no titles in a library, newspaper or magazine. Or if all the titles were something like “Interesting Article,” or “You’ve Gotta ReadThis,” or “I Need Help.” You wouldn’t be interested, right? So here are some tips to help you write subjects that will inspire action:

• Suggest an action in the subject. For example, “Let’s photograph in Rockville next Saturday” might be better than “Idea for pictures.”
• Add details to the subject. “2GB SD Memory Card for Sale” will be more effective than “Item for sale.” Even if nobody clicks on it, you will have gotten an important part of the message across.
• Use an action word in the subject. Try “Visit this site to learn how to produce effective HDR images” rather than just “Good Tutorial”.

So, when you post a topic, take some time to decide on a title that will help the reader understand both the purpose and the topic of the post. Think of it like writing a small sentence, and you’re likely to have more success with your posts.

Some really good advice there, thanks Jonathan.

Yes, thank you Johnathan, this is good advice.