According to Moz.com, the headline makes the message. And by the way I notice that folks on Facebook read a headline and seem to magically know something about the content of a link, there is definitely something to this. Here are a couple of takeaways from their story because few of you will actually go read their story.

-Explosion in content competing for readers’ attention: A Day in the Internet shows that 2 million blog posts, 294 billion emails, and 864 thousand hours of video are created daily. Each day also brings 400 million tweets.

-80% of readers never make it past the headline: According to some sources, on average, eight out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only two out of 10 will read the rest.

Now look at this chart. They say that “list” stories draw the most attention. Cracked.com has built an empire on lists. So apparently, the interwebs has come down to two dominant themes: porn and lists of stupid things. But, I know you guys are better than this aren’t you? Otherwise, I wouldn’t be the King of Tactical Media. So tell me I’m right and this is utter BS or do I have to start putting up fake formulaic headlines to drive traffic?

Congrats Cam and Caity!

Our sweet spot for articles is generally in the 6-24 hour window meaning we have a pretty good idea of what will be posting within that period of the future. This is because most articles are written at some point in this window of time before being published and are prescheduled. Frequently, we have to preempt this schedule to address breaking news.

Regularly, we receive sale notices from companies that want us to inform our quite substantial reader base about their sales. It’s a free service that we provide to industry. But, all too often, we receive these notices at the last moment and we are expected to just put them up regardless of anything else we may have planned. Unfortunately, this phenomenon tends to interrupt weekends and holidays (SSD published 365 days a year).

On an editorial level, these sales don’t do anything for SSD but we share them in order to let our readers know about deals. But, because these sale notices are increasingly being sent to us just as the sale commences, we must take measures to better integrate them into our editorial queue.

Consequently, beginning 9 July, 2013, sale notices must be submitted 48 hours before their desired publication. For example, if we receive a notice of a sale beginning on Thursday 11 July, we’d need to receive that notice on 9 July. If it shows up on 11 July, it’s going to be published on the 13th.

We are investing a great deal of time and money in a new solution that will allow vendors to post their own sales, free of charge. This will be great for vendor and reader alike, as it will be a one-stop for deals. But, until then, this policy will have to suffice in order to prioritize the editorial content of SSD.

Bag Rats, the UK answer to box nasties. After our recent mention of Box Nasties, we received this report from a Royal Marine named Alex.

I saw your post about the box nasty lunches you guys get. They don’t look too bad to be honest!

Well, compared to the ‘bag rats’ we get over here in the UK. Typically a brown paper bag with a nasty sandwich, a yellowing apple, a bag of crisps (chips) and a cold cornish pasty (a type of savoury pastry) filled with some kind of ‘meat’.

The problem is, the civilian contractors who make them can be evil buggers. Case in point – the attached image of a so-called ham sandwhich. This sort of thing happens all the time!

Thanks for putting this into perspective for us. At least we get meat, even if we can’t figure out what type it is.

Part 1 of the two-part NRA Life of Duty series ‘Outlaw Platoon’, based on the book of the same name, is now available online. Part 2 is scheduled to be released July 17th, with a trailer available July 3rd.

In 2006, a platoon of men stationed near the Pakistani border sat in the crosshairs of some of the Taliban’s best trained and fiercest fighters. They were not elite members of any Special Forces team or Special Operations Command, but front line Infantry soldiers caught in the crossfires. Foot soldiers by design, but outlaws at heart.

This is the miraculous story of how a small collection of soldiers became a band of brothers, forging an unforgettable bond – from the New York Times best-selling book of the same name, written by Sean Parnell, platoon leader and US Army Ret.

www.nralifeofduty.tv