Zachary M. Seward http://www.niemanlab.org writes that The Huffington Post applies A/B testing to some of its headlines. Readers are randomly shown one of two headlines for the same story. After five minutes, which is enough time for such a high-traffic site, the version with the most clicks becomes the wood that everyone sees.

Put the Author’s name above a headline to get more clicks

Paul Berry, Chief Technology Officer at The Huffington Post, said Huffington Post editors have found that “placing the author’s name above a headline almost always leads to more clicks than omitting it.”

Also, The Huffington Post’s new social media editor, Josh Young, has also been soliciting better headlines from readers on Twitter. Interesting use of Crowd-sourcing?

Takeaway

The Huffington Post is considering separate East Coast and West Coast editions.

Why?

Take the Oscars, It’s old news to East Coast readers by noon, but fresh for the West Coasters logging on.

Read more here: http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/10/how-the-huffington-post-uses-real-time-testing-to-write-better-headlines/

Will real-time rating lead to “better” headlines or more popular ones?

Related posts:

1. How to write Link Bait for Digg, Reddit & StumbleUpon Want to be on the very first page of Digg.com?...
2. Real Estate Prices Collapse in Virtual Worlds due to Real World Recession Reflecting the fall of property values in the real world,...
3. What Andrew Chen Can Teach You About Writing Killer Headlines If you want to see great web copy, read...
4. How to Write Web Content This article explains how to write content and how to...
5. Career Outlook for Technical Writers and RFP Managers in 2006 Hi Folks, I’m preparing a report on salary expectations for...