Uh, perhaps I should clarify that. I’m quickly developing a short list of tagline phrases that are so overplayed that they automatically lead me to assume that the blog behind the link has absolutely nothing original to offer. In other words, they’re like a horrible body odor that keeps me away from your writing.

• “The latest ____ Buzz” - If you fill that blank in with the word “Tech” or “Celebrity” it’s pretty much an uphill slog from there. I don’t like the word “buzz.” In addition to being overused, it implies an insect collective of emergent behaviors. I propose the phrase “cluck” as a substitute. It more aptly fits the character of the American consumer. We sit in our little coops and cluck and cluck and cluck until we’re fed with some new gadget or other similar diversion. It gets released and we peck at it until the next thing comes along.
• “Miscellaneous Ramblings” - I can’t fault this one too much because it almost precisely describes my own content. On the other hand, I refuse to use it because it’s too general. Are the ramblings supposed to be funny or angry? Do they cover a range of topics or just a few? I need to know these things before I pull a page up. I glanced at the mybloglog page for John Chow’s site half a dozen times before I clicked on it. His tagline is “The Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Dot Com Mogul.” When I finally clicked over I discovered that the site is neither miscellaneous nor rambling. It’s rather specific, informative, and well-written. Change your tagline, Mr. Chow!
• “A _____ Blog” - Please think harder. There are literally 395 million blogs (yes, that’s more than one for every person in the U.S.) about making money on the internet. You have three tenths of a second to tell me why yours is special. Oop! Too late. The same thing goes for movies, gadgets, etc.
• “Your one-stop source for ____” - If your site is called “wikipedia” then maybe you could get away with this. If not, be realistic and tell me what’s really on your site.
• “Just an ordinary guy/girl” - Oh, you’re ordinary? Great, I don’t care. Let the ordinary people use myspace to fulfill their need for self-absorbed blog diarrhea. I want to read about the extraordinary.