Whoever said that microblogging is for lazy writers has got it wrong. True enough, Twitter only lets you write 140 characters or so, but this limitation actually forces one to be more creative with what you write.

When you write a full-length 300-word blog post, you can take all the liberties you want in order to get your point across. You can post a photo, you can post bullet points, or you can even embed videos. With Twitter (among others), it’s just those 140 characters–not even enough for a full paragraph!

And so, just like writing an effective headline, it takes mastery to get that effective, attention-grabbing tweet done.

Use attractive adjectives

If you read a headline that says Awesome, or Amazing or Great, then that would surely get your interest, won’t it? How about Interesting or Mind boggling? Using these adjectives on a tweet would surely attract the interest of your friends, or even people casually browsing your tweet, especially if that person is interested in the topic that you’re tweeting about.

For instance, if you have a science blog, and you post something about CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, you can tweet and link to it with something like this: “Awesome pics of the CERN LHC. A physics junkie’s dream come true!”

Be sure to back up your awesome headline with awesome content or pictures, thoughh!

Use hashtags

A lot of people come across your tweets not because they’re your friends. Some would be doing searches for certain keywords. One way by which you can add tags to your tweets is through hashtags, or the # symbol, followed by the keyword.

Say, you’re tweeting about cars, you can add #cars. Or you can even be more specific by adding #cars #suv. This makes it easier for people searching for SUVs to stumble your tweet.

So, you can say “Just filled up my #suv’s tank. Boy, #gas prices are high these days.” And then you can link to your blog post describing your story spending big bucks on a full tank.

Use URL shortening services

Twitter’s character limitation is definitely very limiting if you plan to insert URLs to your blog posts. Fortunately, there are a handful of URL shortening services out there that convert something as long as a hundred characters or more into a tiny URL with just about 10 characters or less.

You can check out tinyurl.com, bit.ly, is.gd or other services. They basically give you the same functionality, but some, like TinyURL, would let you customize the name that comes after tinyurl.com/, so you can better remember a URL if you plan to use it elsewhere.

These services would let people click on the short URL and they would be redirected to the original source. Just be sure to use the more respected and reputable URL shortening services, as some fly-by-night ones might lead you to malware sites instead.

A good Twitter headline is short, sweet and interesting. Keep it that way, and people will keep following you, and they will most likely click on links in your tweets.

Writing great headlines is good SEO. Not only does it help search engines index your blog better with more keyword-rich titles and headers, it also attracts people to reading your posts. This is especially effective in those instances where users read your blog from RSS feed readers, and the blog post title is the only thing they see.

Top writers like Copyblogger’s Brain Clark would usually suggest that you write bold, attention-grabbing headlines. This drives people to dig deeper into your content.

Be specific

When writing your blog post title, be specific enough to describe the content of your article. Instead of saying “Writing Tips for Bloggers,” you could perhaps say “How to Use Headlines to Attract Readrs.” Or maybe instead of saying “Gadgets to buy this summer,” you can say “Top five netbooks under $300.” Making it more specific will appeal to a user’s imagination. There are thousands of writing tips out there. There are dozens and dozens of gadget blogs offering reviews. And a user will probably just navigate out of your RSS feed page or blog homepage if they don’t get interested enough.

Ask questions

Most good headlines and titles are in the form of a statement. However, if you want to get your reader’s interest even more, ask them a question. This helps give the feeling that you are encouraging interaction and contributions among your readers. This makes them feel important. And in turn, you gain an advantage by actually passing on to the readers some of the responsibility in content-generation. Instead of sayin “Top places to spend the summer vacation,” You can post an entry that asks “Where are you spending your summer vacation?” Then in a few paragraphs tell your readers what your summer vacation plans are. At the end, direct the question at them again. Publish, then sit back, relax, and wait for comments to come in.

Promise something exciting

Most linkbait writers know how to formulate their headlines such that it would attract much attention in social bookmarking sites. They sometimes make outrageous claims or very exciting propositions. This doesn’t necessarily have to be too outrageous, but at least make it exciting. Instead of saying “Download free software here,” you can say “How to save thosuands of dollars with these free software.” Or instead of saying “Apple launches new MacBook,” you can say “Why Apple’s OS X Tiger Blows Vista Away.”

Of course, you shouldn’t neglect to write good content, because great content is the foundation of a good blog. However, headlines help people find great content, and drive readers to your blog. Good headlines also make your blog post ready for social bookmarkers, because sites like Digg.com and delicious.com usually get the contents of the