By popular request in comment threads and emails, I’ll be putting together a Saturday digest of election-oriented diaries from now until November. This project emerged from the Community Power! Election Season diary written Feb. 20. Next week I’ll introduce you to a couple of other Kossacks who will be joining me in running the project.

Each digest will include a list of election diaries published during the previous week and categorized by region. A separate section will include diaries written in the previous week by incumbents, new candidates and wannabe candidates. (Diaries by incumbents may or may not be directly related to the coming elections.)

Digests will also focus on a few tips for making diaries more persuasive, informative and written in a way that encourages everyone to read them even if they live 2000 miles away from the spotlighted contest. This week, we’re talking headlines.

Just as with a story in a newspaper or magazine, a headline can make or break a diary. That is, you can attract an audience or drive it away by the words and structure you choose. Crafting great headlines is something even some of the best writers never quite get the knack of, but everybody can train themselves to become better at it. Too many writers spend hours on research and writing their diaries, then slap on a 30-second headline. Spend some time at it. A good practice is to write three or four possible headlines and choose the best one. Happily for bloggers, some of the old rules from the old media – like character counts – don’t apply in wwwLand. But some do. Here are 10 guidelines to think about:

• Headlines are bait. Instill curiosity: “Paternity Test Demanded for Florida Abstinence Campaigner”; “Voters Eager to Punish Liberals, Selves”

• Conversational headlines appeal to the most readers.

• Use the active voice. Good verbs work wonders. “To be” conjugations bore readers.

• There’s power in humor, but serious stories suffer from overly cute headlines. Headlines with a twist of an old cliché reel in readers. But take care not to twist too far.

• Beware. Double entendres can help or hurt. “Cops Pinch Lewd Nude” works; however, “Clinton Wins Budget; More Lies Ahead” has problems.

• Be succinct. Short headlines are punchier and easier to read. Ernest Hemingway told a whole story once in six words – “For sale: baby shoes, never used.” A helluva good headline, too.

• Match the headline to the story. Don’t deceive. Nobody likes being taken for a fool.

• If the diary is about a candidate, the candidate’s and/or district’s name should usually appear in the headline.

• DON’T WRITE HEADLINES IN ALL CAPS. Besides “shouting,” they are hard to read.

• If it’s not BREAKING! don’t lie about it.

From this week’s collection of election diaries, I’ve picked what I think are four solid headlines. But even most of them could be tweaked:

NY-Sen: GOP eyes notorious Bush war-flack Dan Senor. (Perfect)

Sen. Richard Burr: Playing Politics in Right Field. (N.C. Sen. Richard Burr: Playing Politics in Right Field)

A call to Netroots – There’s a Dem willing to fight against DeMint. (Calling the Netroots – There’s a Dem willing to fight DeMint)

Is it all about the Benjamins? The GOP primary for governor in Wisconsin. (Is it all about the Benjamins? In Wisconsin’s GOP primary, yes)

The election digest follows below.