Customize Your News Headlines and Track What Matters with Xygnal

Where do you go to read the news? Are you able to customize your news source and filter out the topics that interest you and the ones that don’t? More than likely you can’t filter anything, which is why Xygnal is a breath of fresh air. Many people start their day by reading the top news headlines, but often don’t care about many of the headlines. With Xygnal, you can customize the news based on topics that you’re interested in; no need to wade through all of the irrelevant topics or articles that you may have no interest in.

Xygnal is currently in an early beta stage and has just one website that works on any device or browser; there are no downloads or updates required.

This section shows you the top news headlines and the trending topics within those headlines. While you can’t view the whole story on the site, you will be able to see an excerpt and link to original source. Additionally, you can also see how long ago the story was posted (in minutes, hours, days) and you can click to see related articles.

Xygnal offers 3 options for each article: you can save it (to later view under Saved), share it (on Facebook, Twitter, Google+), and/or track topics within the article.

The tracking features gives you the option to track any topics or keywords within the article. So if you are reading an article about social media and it’s also talking about Facebook and Google, you can track Facebook and/or Google so that you can keep up with other articles that are related to those topics.

When you click on a topic to track, you can choose to track it for a day, week, month, or you can ban the topic (by clicking on the red crossed out icon show above).

When you go to the “Tracked” section, you’ll be able to see all of the topics trending in your tracked topics along with articles related to those topics. The tracking feature is a great way to filter out the topics that you’re most interested in.

This section is where all of your saved articles go. They will stay here until you remove them. As you begin to save articles, you’ll also be able to see the most popular topics within those saved articles.

The search feature does just as expected: it lets you search for any topic and then view articles based on those topics. Again, you’ll have the same options as above (view related articles, save, share, track topics).

There’s not much to offer in the settings just yet. You can edit the topics you’re tracking or banning, check your email address, and delete your account. That’s about it.

Remember, Xygnal is in early beta so there is still a lot features being added and changes being made.

I’m not very fond of the design, but I love the concept and can definitely see myself using Xygnal as my main news source on a daily basis. It’s nice that users can customize the news to their liking by tracking and banning topics. This way, you only see articles based on the topics that matter to you, instead of having to sift through it all just to find what you’re interested in.

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You Can’t Wow Them Until You Whoa Them; Writing Headlines

Do you suck at writing headlines? Does it seem like you can’t get your blog posts read? Maybe it’s your headline. You want the headline to stop them from skim reading so you can wow them with your content.
There’s been a lot of talk about content lately. I hate to repeat that content is king, but it really is. However, if your content isn’t getting read, it doesn’t matter how great it is, no one will know about it.
How do you get your content read? First you have to grab the reader’s attention. You do that with a killer headline. In fact, you should practice writing headlines as much as possible. If you’re sitting there bored, can’t think of what to write, try writing some headlines.
First and foremost, headlines should be capitalized. That’s what grabs the reader’s attention. Filler words like to, or, for, by, etc. do not need capitalization, but all other words in your headline should be.

Example:
==> 7 easy ways to cut your costs
That doesn’t really grab a persons attention. A better way to write it is:
==> 7 Easy Ways to Cut Your Costs
This headline stands out and is more likely to grab the readers attention.

Can we improve this headline? Where are we cutting costs? Is it in business? Grocery shopping? Vacation costs?

Let’s pretend your reader is searching through RSS feeds. She’s trying to save money. Your site is all about saving money, but you have some other headlines to compete with.

The reader is skimming through the headlines. She finds:

Cut Your Grocery CostsSave Money on Your Next Grocery BillSpend Less Money on FoodCut Weekly Food Costs

Those may be interesting titles, but then she finds your headline and it states:

==> 7 Easy Ways to Save Money and Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half

This one is more likely to grab her attention. Why? Because you’ve told her it’s easy. People like easy. You’ve told her you’re going to save her money, which is what she’s looking for and you’re going to help her cut her food bill in half. This is a big plus. Saving money is one thing, but cutting the bill in half is better. However, if you use a headline like this you need to deliver on the promise. Never mislead a reader unless it serves a purpose.

That’s a pretty good headline, but we can also add some emotional pain if we want to. People are generally looking for solutions because they are in some kind of painful situation, including financial pain. In this case we could expand that headline even more:

Tired of Spending too Much on Food?
7 Easy Ways to Save Money and Cut Your Grocery Bill in HalfUsing emotion in your headlines and the beginning of your article will not only grab her attention, but also let her know that you’ve been where she’s at and you’re going to give her some solutions to her problems.

Another thing to remember is your target audience. In my example I used ‘she’ instead of a generalization like ‘they’ or ‘the reader’. Why?

Because it’s easier to write for one person than it is to write for a crowd. If you target one person and speak to that one person, you will actually reach more people. Thinking about everyone in your target audience can also be overwhelming. What can you possibly say to all of those people? Instead, pick one person in your target audience and write to that person. It becomes much easier when you focus on one person.

There are many ways to grab a reader’s attention, but if you spend a little more time working on your title or headline, you’ll get a better response rate than you would with generic headlines.
Spend time each day writing out headlines. This will improve your skills and it also prepares your mind to start thinking more about headlines. Before long, it’ll be a breeze to come up with a great title.

For more tips on writing headlines, read this attention grabbing post and this one about sexy content.

View the original article here