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Good opening line is crucial for catching a potential reader's attention. On Helium, writers get paid when their articles are viewed, so getting readers is that much more important. In newspapers, professional journalists call it a lead'. Opening paragraph often printed in a bolded font.

The difference between newspaper's readers and those reading articles online is their attention span. Online reader is just one click away from different information and a different article. So to catch and hold their attention, each sentence should have meaning and be crucial to the article.

Unnecessary repetitions, ones not made to emphasize your point, will make your reader lose interest in your article. Uninterested reader will click away, instead of clicking to read more of your stuff. And on Helium, that means that in a long run you will lose potential revenue.

Another point against repeating the title at the beginning of your article is how Helium publishes content on its pages. All the reader sees at first is the title and the beginning of the first paragraph.
Now, most of the articles published here are of the one of the many' kind. Meaning there is more than one article on the same subject. And to get the reader choose your article above all the others, the first paragraph needs to have this extra oomph'. Something witty and eye-catching. Is repeating the title going to achieve that? I honestly doubt that.

I also have a personal reason for which I detest authors who repeat the title at the beginning of the article. I'm not saying it's particularly deep one, but I'm passionate about it nonetheless.

Word count.

It's something very important on Helium. If you don't meet the minimum, you can't publish your opinion. And because Helium favors descriptive titles, by repeating it, you often can raise your word count up by even 15 words. The title of this article is 10 words long. And sometimes those 10 words can make a difference between publishing the article or not. I, for one, am against cheap tricks like that.

I do realize, not many authors need tricks like that to meet the needed quota. However giving up quality and content and exchanging it for what? Aesthetics? Spam? Disbelief that readers can remember what they are reading about?
I don't really know, what it is that makes authors repeat the title at the beginning of their articles. But I don't like it and find it highly unprofessional. For whatever reason.

Learn more about this author, Jane Rutherford.
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