I think this is one of the shortest post I’ve ever written on Blogging Bookshelf (though it’s still 950+ words…), but it touches on one of the most important parts of blogging: having a great headline.
Below are a series of 6 different headlines that I brainstormed for a guest post I did. The first one is super lame, but they gradually get better until I come up with one that draws the reader in.
The guest post is here over at Traffic Generation Cafe. It’s all about the different things that distract bloggers from getting stuff done.
When I first sat down to write the article, I didn’t have an outline or anything in mind other than the general topic. So I wrote the following headline at the top of the Word document (I write all of my blog posts in Word documents first):
Different Kinds of Distractions that Bloggers Face
Now I’ve seen worse titles, but this one is pretty bad. It’s uninteresting, vague, and non-compelling. After I wrote the article (which, ironically enough, took be forever to do because I kept getting distracted!), I had an exact number to add to my title. Do this whenever you can; we all love lists. This is the result:
9 Kinds of Distractions You Need to Eliminate to Become a More Productive Blogger
This one is good because it’s specific and it has a number. It’s bad because it is just too long. It’s also too awkwardly written and too verbose.
The next incarnation was aimed at making it shorter and not as clumsy sounding. I eliminated the superfluous “You Need” (it’s implied, anyway) and changed “become” to “be.” That left me with…
9 Kinds of Distractions to Eliminate to Be a More Productive Blogger
But I didn’t like the double infinitive (to eliminate to be), so I thought of another way I could convey the same idea but with fewer words that got rid of the double infinitive. The result was…
9 Distractions that Inhibit Productive Blogging
Now we’re getting somewhere. It’s short and sweet. But it doesn’t really have that interesting punch, does it? It’s kind of boring and stuff, and it still sounds a bit clumsy. It doesn’t roll off the tongue, does it? And there’s not really any urgency. It doesn’t scream “Click me!” I needed to spice it up a bit, so I did this:
9 Distractions that Kill Your Blogging
Better, right? I almost left it at this, but I had extra space in the title (I always think about how a headline will look on Twitter. It can’t be too long or it won’t all fit, but it might as well take up all the space it can). And it still didn’t scream “Click me!” or “Read me!” loud enough. So I added what I call a “kicker”:
9 Distractions that Kill Your Blogging, and Why I Hate Shopping Malls
There. It’s interesting. It solves a problem (most bloggers get distracted). It’s a list. And you want to click it to 1) see how you can stop killing your blogging, and 2) see why on earth I hate shopping malls and how that relates to blogging.
Cool! Are we finished?
Not quite. THIS post’s title actually went through a few stages of purification, too. Here they are:
- The Evolution of a Good Blog Headline – Not interesting enough.
- The Evolution of a Great Blog Headline – Better. Why say “good” when you can say “great”?
- How to Turn a Crappy Blog Headline into a Great One – This one draws you in more. People can relate to writing crappy headlines and want to learn how to fix them.
- How to Turn a Lousy Blog Headline into a Great One – I changed “crappy” to “lousy” because some people might not feel comfortable tweeting a post that has “crappy” in its title :)
Make sense?
So the moral of this post is just to keep tweaking and rewriting those headlines or article titles until they’re exactly how you want them. The extra time is well worth it. My last post was about how you don’t need to worry about your blog being perfect, but I’d recommend spending as much time as you need to on those headlines! They need to be as close to perfect as possible!
Oh, and one final word about headlines, and this is possibly the most important thing to keep in mind: Your headlines need to make sense and be compelling in and of themselves! I don’t like seeing posts that are something like “Article Marketing, part 4.” If you’re writing a series of posts, name each one individually so that it can stand on its own two feet. So maybe part 4 of the article marketing series would be, “Which Article Directories Should You Submit To?” or something like that. And then in the first paragraph of that post, you can mention that it’s part 4 in the series.
Over to you!
Alright, now you can shamelessly promote your own blog in the comments by responding to one of these:
- What are the most popular posts on your blog? Share their headlines! (You can see my 10 most popular posts in the right sidebar.)
- Rewrite one of your lame headlines using some of the ideas from this article.
- Rewrite one of MY lame headlines using some of the ideas from this article.
- Want a critique of one of your blog headlines? Tell us which one and you’ll get a reply from me and whoever else feels like chiming in.
Everyone can post ONE link in their comments to their own blog posts if they’d like :) But do NOT just leave a one-sentence comment saying something like, “Help me fix this headline here: http://www.myblog.com/myarticle.” Write a real comment that adds value and then add your link in there, or else I’ll delete your comment.
{ 149 comments… read them below or add one }
as always Tristan you have something for us bloggers to think about. what more can i say except thanks again for posting something so simple but one that makes a lot of sense! c”,)
Glad you liked it! Thanks as always for stopping by and leaving a comment, Ao!
Sorry for being a little off topic, but are you Italian?
Nope. I’ve been asked that before, though. I’m a quarter Armenian. That’s where the dark hair and olive skin come from.
Armenians are wonderful guys :)
Think about Serj Tankian :)
Well, my top posts are tutorials that solve problems and big list posts having 50+ items. I usually don’t care that much about headlines but this post has definitely given me some food for the thought.
You don’t care about headlines? Oh man, I love trying to come up with the perfect headline. It’s an art form! Some posts can do great regardless of the headlines (like your tutorials and the 50+ item lists), but for average posts, I think that headlines can make a big difference.
Thanks, Ishan!
Well, I must say that I am a bit ignorant with headlines. Looks like I need to spend some time at perfecting them! Starting now for my next post! :)
Hey, you should sign up and read this pdf by Jon Morrow from Copyblogger. It’s all about writing the perfect headlines. I read all 52 pages of it. Very informative! http://headlinehacks.com/
Hi Tristan
When I had only been blogging seriously a little time another blogger did a post on the importance of headlines! I really took it to heart and started thinking more about my headlines.
Although loyal readers will come across soon as they see a post from a blogger they know and respect; a headline definitely gets people clicking over sometimes out of curiosity or just because the headline makes the post sound interesting.
The cautionary note however is that if it is an amazing headline grabbing lots of attention; the content of the post needs to live up to it :-) I have actually seen people venting when they have clicked on a post cos of the headline and it hasn’t lived up to the hype!
I don’t know that my most popular posts had the best headline. They did have the most interaction in the comments section so hopefully the content was okay too. There was: Small Blog, Big Ideas. Also Tweetheart, Commenter…or both??!! There are others but this is nearly as long as your post. Getting more like the length of Ingrid’s comments lol
Patricia Perth Australia
Patricia, I definitely get what you’re saying about the content of posts having to live up to their headline. I heave a sigh whenever I see something like, “This post will change your life!” or “This will change blogging forever!” I don’t think it’s ever been true for me!
Thanks for the great comment, and I hope to see lots more posts and guest posts from you soon :D
I suck at headlines. I spend too little time tweaking, and too much time writing. I have also been too occupied with Scribe and looking at which headline will be the best according to Google (adding the right words to the beginning of the headline).
When I write for Google, it’s not easy to create an interesting headline for the readers.
Usually, the headlines that most people click on (according to my experience) are the lists. For instance, 15 tips to make …
Thanks a lot for reminding me, I need to focus more on headlines. They’re probably the most important part of the blog post – if we don’t have an interesting headline, nobody will read the post.
I think writing good headlines is an art form, and it’s something I really enjoy. You say you suck at headlines, but I think you get a lot more SEO traffic than I do!
Thanks, Jens!
I’m with Jens. I spend a lot more time writing than I do fussing with the headline. And I’m guilty of recently writing a series of posts using the same name with a # after it.
I so like how you showed the evolution of your title! But it’s interesting that you didn’t talk about keywords in your title. What are your thoughts on that?
Here is a lame title, although a pretty popular post, that could use some work:
Article Ideas When You’re Not Feeling Creative
http://www.peggybaron.com/blog/article-ideas-when-youre-not-feeling-creative/
I’d like to see you work some Tristan magic on that! ;)
Thanks,
Peggy
Hi Peggy,
That’s a great idea for a post, all I’d do is add a number to the title. Looks like you’ve got 18 didn’t ideas, so I’d go with that: 18 Article Ideas for when You’re NOT Feeling Creative. Hope that helps :D
Honestly, I don’t care too much about keywords in my titles. I try to optimize my titles for social media rather than search engines. I do SEO my permalinks/slugs/whatever they’re called, though. And I should be optimizing (for search engines) my post page titles, but I haven’t been doing that recently…
And as for what I would change for your title… I’d actually change it to exactly what Kiesha said! I also like capitalizing one of the words in a title, so 18 Article Ideas for when You’re NOT Feeling Creative is what I’d go with :) If you were going for an SEOd title, I’d probably change it to 18 Article Ideas for When You Have Writer’s Block (people are more likely to search for something with “writer’s block” in it).
Thanks for the great comment, Peggy!
Thanks Kiesha and Tristan. I had thought of putting a number, but wasn’t sure 18 had the punch that a number like “10″ does. lol. I like the capitalizing of NOT.
Peggy
Hi Tristan,
I’m guilty – I don’t spend enough time thinking about headlines as I should. When I’m in a rush, I miss so many opportunities to maximize the effect – but of course, I don’t realize it until afterwards, when it’s too late to bother. But I do have a few success stories, one is:
10 Ways I Like to Thank Twitter Followers for Retweets
http://weblogbetter.com/2010/07/13/10-ways-i-like-to-thank-twitter-followers-for-retweets/
Kiesha, that IS an intriguing title. I just clicked on it!
Here’s a question that’s something I’ve wondered about before, and I’d be interested in your take on the subject: Do you think it’s better to say “you” or “I” in blog posts? It obviously depends on the subject matter of the post… But for example, you could have something like “10 Ways I Get More Blog Comments” versus “10 Ways YOU Can Get More Blog Comments.” And I guess there’s also the more generic “10 Ways to Get More Blog Comments.” Any thoughts?
I never really consciously think of this when I write posts and I don’t have any data to back this up, but I think having “You” in the title is pretty powerful.
(And thanks for answering Peggy’s question about her title. That’s exactly what I would have said!)
Hey Mate!
I totally agree with you on this, mate. The title of an article has got to be awesome enough to make people think: “OMG! I gotta read that!”. Your loyal readers will forgive an occasional lame title, but people won’t become loyal readers if your titles aren’t awesome.
Nice one, Tristan!
Kind regards,
Steve
Thanks, Steve! And you’re spot on; your regular readers don’t care what your titles are. The optimization is for your potential readers. I appreciate the comment, man.
Hey Tristan, I remember that guest post, and the clincher for me was the “why I hate shopping malls” part, because that just made it a lot more human. It kind of lets you know “hey there will be some fun in here too, not just blogging advice”
Anyway I’ve had some huge blogging titles. I haven’t been considering the “retweet repurcussions” even though I struggle with the long headlines because I usually like to add something personal in there instead of just doing a “cold retweet”. I definitely need to consider that more in the future.
I’ve gotten better mostly because between Scribe SEO and Yoast seo plugin they keep nagging me about optimum title length. sheesh! i’m glad they do but sometimes it’s a pain :)
Oh one final thing, check your RSS free ebook offer. I usually use Google Reader, and in the feed where it says “name” and “email” I wasn’t able to see any fields to enter into. You’re supposed to be able to complete the form right in the feed, right? hopefully it’s just a fluke in mine, though…
Anyway thanks for the post, I’m going to try to tighten up those post titles!
I love your latest title, John. Well, not so much the title as the whole freaking post.
I’ve looked into Scribe SEO but man… I just hate buying products with recurring monthly fees! Do you like it?
And hmmm… That’s odd about the fields not showing up in Reader. I just checked it out and you’re right. I don’t know what I can do about that, though. You can see them on the feed URL here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogging-bookshelf
Maybe I’ll add a link there so that those who can’t see it can still click through. Thanks for the heads up!
Yeah I hate those fees, too, but I figured I’d just buy it and use it until I can trust myself to do all that stuff manually every time. Really it’s just nagware that bugs you about keywords and the number of outgoing links, etc.
I have had some problems with the software refusing to acknowledge the changes that it bugs me about, but I haven’t dug real deep into the issue yet, could be me.
What plugin do you use to add those fields in your feed? I might be able to poke around and figure it out…
Very nice points Tristan, I like to spend some time carefully deciding the headline for my posts, it’s something vital due to the very nature of the media our blogs are conveyed through. One starts to wonder, though, where things would have brought us if Twitter didn’t have the 140 characters limitation. Would people pay more attention to the content within the posts rather than just to the headline? Would we have to write catchy paragraphs instead? Some crazy thoughts to ponder about.
That’s a great question about the 140 character limit, Gabriele. I think I’d probably make my titles longer. And I think I might even focus more on my first 1 or 2 sentences. Hmmm… That’s really interesting to think about, and I might have to write a post about that :)
Crafting killer headlines – a great way to spend the afternoon!
“Different Kinds of Distractions that Bloggers Face”
would be lingized by me into:
“9 Gloriously Simple Tips To Transform Horrible Blogger Distractions Into Enviable Blogging Gold!”
Although I’ll admit – I just love using the word ‘soul-searing’ instead. You’d be surprised how applicable that can be once you’ve spent decades dealing with my passel of kids…. :)
That’s awesome Barbara! And yes, your headline does scream “Barbara Liiiiiiiiiiiinnnggg!” That’s one thing that I do love about your blog. It’s you!
Tristan,
Mea Culpa! I sometimes spend the time to create great headlines, but not always, even though I should.
I really liked your genesis of a blog headline title. Show your “mistakes” gives a good view of the process of a headline and what makes a good one. As per usual, another great post.
Thanks, Steve. I appreciate the kind words and the comment, man! I knew as I was changing that headline that I should save the revisions for a post some day… I’m glad I did.
Hey Tristan,
I agree – keep on tweaking and rewriting those headlines till they are exactly the way you want them to be..Yes indeed..
But you know sometimes I think I spend too much time on headlines…haha..Fixing to check out your guest post over at Anna’s blog…
Later man!
Yeah, I can see how it would be possible to spend too much time on headlines. But I guess it’s possible to spend too much time on anything on our blogs, eh?
Thanks for the comment, Adam! I hope you had a great new year.
Hi,
Thanks for the information you posted here. I sometimes find it hard to make a good and catchy headlines for my posts. Well sometimes, depending on the topic, I would change the headline several times before I hit the submit button on my blog post. Even in the photos that I post on Redgage, I realized that the ones with good and catchy headlines gets the more view.
Again, thanks for sharing this
John, I even will change my headlines after they’ve been posted! If I feel like something isn’t getting retweeted as much as I think it should, I’ll change the wording around a bit. I tweak and tweak and tweak and tweak. And I’m still usually not happy :)
Thanks for the comment! I hope you had a great new year!
I often find myself struggling with headlines, usually ending up with something specific but way too long and clunky when of course I want something that is snappy and precise. I will be referring back to this article the next time I find myself struggling. Thanks, Tristan.
Snappy… Yes! That’s the word I should have used. Headlines need to be snappy and precise. Well said, Ronika, and I really appreciate you stopping by. Thanks!
Ronika,
With your last post entitled “5 Ways to Be More Like Howard Stern” I think you’ve got the title hook down pat! It made me click and read it!
Peggy
Thank you, Peggy!
I don’t usually like reading long posts but yours wasn’t a problem at all because it was broken into smaller sections. I loved the way you showed as all the different stages you went through, what was wrong with them and what you did to get to the next one, explaining the why you did it along the way.
A good heading has to be one of the most important part of the post as it’s the first thing people see, almost the only thing they see in a search engine, and it has to grab their attention. A great post.
As I said at the beginning of this post, I do tend to have longer posts (2000 to 3000 words isn’t uncommon), but I realize that some people don’t like that format. As a result, I try to break up my paragraphs, use headings, and make bold the important posts. I’m glad you made it through :)
Thanks for commenting, Sire!
So am I, but I reckon I would struggle with one that is 2000-3000 long. I love reading but not off the monitor, I find it too much of a strain.
Hey Tristan,
I am definitely guilty of not paying too much attention to my headlines and I know that it’s a huge mistake. I have a hard time coming up with any headline whatsoever for my collective novel blog because my posts depend entirely on the comments people leave. However, my most popular posts have one thing in common: they ask a question to the reader. I realized that if I engage people the response is usually very good. It’s not magic, though. Sometimes I ask a question and I get completely ignored (lol). I know now that it all has to do with HOW I’ve formulated the question.
I tried to change headlines a couple of times and yes, when I spend more time on them I can definitely see the results.
On my “ventures in blogging” blog I’m a little more careful, and I usually get a decent response (considering that I don’t devote as much time to the blog as I should).
Headlines serve as a hook, but if the right bait isn’t there, the fish just won’t bite!
Great post!
BTW … I wouldn’t dare to rewrite one of your headlines ;)
I know how you feel about the questions thing, Carolina. I get around this by just asking as many questions as I can think of! You can see that most of my posts (my recent ones, anyway) have 4-6 bold, bulleted questions at the end. I don’t want my readers to think they have the excuse of having no ideas to go off of.
“I wouldn’t dare to rewrite one of your headlines.” Hahaha. I laughed when I read that!
Lol, my most popular post is “100+ Top free wordpress themes” but i think that’s only because the spam bots got to it :P
It’s all about interest, and having a great blog headline will build that interest. You have to find something that will make the readers go, “ive got to read that”
My second most popular post was my birthday post which i also included somethings about me, so there may have been interest in finding out more about me… Or just wishing be a happy birthday :P
That’s interesting that your birthday post was so well received. I plan on writing a birthday post later this month (my birthday’s on the 27th), so hopefully it’ll work out for me, too :)
And that’s really funny that the spam bots got to your WordPress themes post! Brutal, man… brutal.
I love how you’ve included the process of refining the headline. That’s a very useful way to frame the concept and to help others implement it.
I’m glad you liked that, Alison. I know a ton of other bloggers have written about writing good headlines, so I tried to bring something uniquely my own to the post. Thanks for stopping by!
Hi Tristan I’m Jk…this is my first time here at bloggingbookshelf. I see you on many of the same sites that I visit and I had to stop by to see what you were about. My initial impression was…why couldn’t I have found this place sooner!
I really put thought to my headlines, but I realize that it’s not an area of expertise for me. So, reading this gave me a much better grasp of the process and importance.
I really don’t have a lot of value to add in this area, besides thinking outside of yourself in terms of what would attract others to read your [hopefully compelling] headline.
Happy New Year!
“Why couldn’t I have found this place sooner!” Yes! THAT is what I like to hear, Jk. Music to my ears, my friend. Music to my ears.
I really like what you said about thinking outside of yourself to come up with a good headline. That’s a fantastic point. It’s really important to sometimes take a step back and look objectively and what we’re doing. Sometimes our personal preferences aren’t always what would be best for our readers. Thanks for adding that!
Hey Tristan,
Another thing to add to the “Must Do List”. I like the idea of writing the post in a Word document first, must do that. Titles are always a bug bear for me, I struggle with them so I tend to shy away. I will follow your guide lines.
Cheers
Pete
Thanks for stopping by, Pete. If you ever would like a second opinion on some titles, shoot me an email. It’s something I really enjoy doing.
I really like writing in Word first. That way I can turn off the internet, close my browser, and just write write write without distractions.
Hey Tristan,
Nice one here. Titles are actually something that I only recently started caring about. Now, that does not mean that mine are any good, but I do know that I want to improve (and that is always the first step, right?).
Anyway, I agree – the last one is the best. I am a sucker for the appearance of randomness in writing for some reason. Perhaps it is my short attention span.
To answer your question, there are two posts on icebluebanana that get a bunch of attention from the search engines –
5 Myths About Goal Setting
http://www.icebluebanana.com/5-myths-goal-setting-theory/
and
How to Determine if You Use Your Time Wisely
;)
Truthfully, I don’t like either title, though I suppose the first is a bit better than the second.
So, I will now try to redo the second one right here, right now….
How to Determine if You Use Your Time Wisely
How to Know if You Use Your Time Wisely
Stop Worrying and Learn to Use Your Time Wisely
Start Using Your Time Wisely
How to Start Using Your Time Wisely
Hmmm. Not sure I really like any of them…
Anyway, great ideas & I appreciate you posting them.
Have a great day!
Yes! Randomness! THAT is what I was trying to get at with the whole “and why I hate shopping malls” thing.
I definitely think “How to Start Using Your Time Wisely” is better than “How to Determine if You Use Your Time Wisely.” I might add a “NOW” to the end, or a number at the beginning (“4 Ways to Use your Time Wisely NOW”). But then you lose the “How to” at the front, which is always a nice thing to have.
I don’t have any data to prove this, but I think the capitalized word draws attention to the headline. That’s not terribly important when the reader is on your blog, but I think it matters when someone is looking through their Twitter feed. Their eyes are drawn to that capitalized word that stands out.
As for the 5 Myths About Goal Setting post… I like it. It’s short, clear, and intriguing. Another possibility would be to add some urgency or consequence to it, like “5 Myths About Goal Setting that Harm Your Business,” or “5 Myths About Goal Setting that Will Blow Your Mind,” or even “5 Goal Setting Myths that Prevent Your Success.”
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Mark! I always appreciate and enjoy your comments.
I recently posted one on masterbaiting (no that’s not a typo). A little risque but worth it IMO. Titles are a sneak preview of what’s to come, so a very important thing to keep in mind. Good tip on spending time on the headlines, even though I don’t follow it. I generally come up with them quickly and stick to my gut. But that doesn’t always work for everyone.
Masterbaiting, eh? Hahaha. Nice.
Thanks for the comment, man, and I’m glad you liked the post.
For me, there is a constant battle between my inner copywriter and her boring but necessary SEO-focused editor. The very best titles are those that make good use of keywords and still manage to get a visitor to slow down long enough to read the post, but I don’t often put enough effort into my titles to achieve that goal.
Oddly enough, my most viewed blog post, “How not to get good backlinks,” doesn’t work for either the copywriter or the SEO police. It’s just a fun little filler that wasn’t intended to go anywhere.
Yes, I know that battle well, Cindy. Right now I’m focusing more on social media optimization rather than search engine optimization, as far as my titles go. I do SEO work for my slugs/permalinks/whatever they’re called, and I should be doing it more in my title tags.
Isn’t it funny how some of those “filler” posts make it big? It’s kind of fun, isn’t it? :D
Thanks for commenting!
Your headline is what brought me here from my blog, Tristan. That, and the fact that I like you. :)
I love your practical example-based approach to the post; definitely great way to come up with something new.
I am a bit brain-dead write now to think of any good examples for you… maybe next time.
Ana
Aw, thanks Ana :)
I definitely know how being brain dead goes. I commented on 104 blogs today! And it’s 1:20 am and I still have a couple hours worth of stuff to do before I can go to bed. SIGH. I do appreciate the comment, though. Thanks again!
104… That’s incredible, my friend.
But you know what, your efforts are definitely paying off, no question about it. Look at your blog! It’s incredible how much traffic and interaction you are getting – my hat goes off to you.
Question: what do you use to style your answers to your commentators via email?
Ana
Thanks, Ana! I pride myself on having a great community here :D
It’s a plugin called ReplyMe. You can download it here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/replyme/
I like it because people don’t get to choose whether they get the replies or not :) And I personally don’t like it when I get emailed ALL of the replies and comments for a post, so I don’t use one of those plugins.
Hi Tristan,
I have been playing around with my headlines more and more these days too. I usually make the title of my page different (more keywords) than the post title for search engines to pick up on. I really liked this post and how well your words speak to the person reading it.
Have a great day!
Thanks for the kind words, Jared! Glad you liked the post. I make my permalinks/slugs/whatever they’re called different for SEO purposes, and I try to change the page titles but I always forget :)
I write AMAZINGLY crappy headlines. One of my headlines has the word “Kinderbrutenstalts” in it. I mean, who the hell even knows what that is? (its a kid hatchery btw. i.e. incubator)
Another one is “Can a Specialty Shop Selling Superpowers and Underground Lairs Turn Profit?” I mean, talk about lack of SEO juice lol
Anyways, our interview comes out in two days. The headline will be Interview With a Blogger Extraordinaire and Social Media Pacesetter Tristan Higbee. Not bad….I think :-)
A kid hatchery… Hahaha. That’s great!
“Can a Specialty Shop Selling Superpowers and Underground Lairs Turn Profit?” Hahaha. Awesome. Just awesome.
I’m excited about our interview coming out. That was a lot of fun, man.
from looking at the comment luv lines posted down these comments section it looks like most of these bloggers are already implementing your advice or they were already good at it!
anyway headlines is always something i think about , but by the time i decide on one how do i know if it is good or bad, by traffic?
one of my most popular posts traffic was generated by stumbleupon, probably not headline
anyway my current headline was already chosen before posting this comment or reading your post, but it might be a good one, right?
tell me what you think, and i think i am not qualified to judge other peoples blogs seeing that i am a photog working on the blogging!
thanks for the good info as always!
How do you know if it’s good or bad? That’s actually a really good question. I can just tell when I write a bad headline! Apart from that, don’t think that traffic is the best metric. I mean, sometimes you’ve got a great title but the post just isn’t that great so it doesn’t get much attention.
As I hinted at in the post, I try to ask myself before I publish each post, “If I saw this headline and had no context about it and knew nothing of the blog it’s on, would I click on it and read it?” A good headline needs to draw people in while being self sufficient, so to speak.
Also, I often change my headlines once I’ve published a post. If I feel like a post isn’t getting the attention it deserves, I change the title. Sometimes this helps, sometimes it doesn’t.
Regarding the title of your last post… I like it. Do you think it would be better as something like “Seminole Indians Attack! – Photos from a Reenactment”? I dunno. Try out the different styles and see which ones you like and which ones your readers seem to respond well to.
Thanks, Greg!
Oh, I hate writing headlines (and it is so obvious on my blog).
At the moment the most popular post on my blog is named “Wanna blog better? Top 5 blogs to learn from “. No, I am not satisfied with the headline and yes, I know it can be so much better.
But I have never read a post like this to teach me how to do it, so I will do better from now on!
The headline I like the best on my blog (till now) is my last post (below comment, CommentLuv link) and I actually wrote it following your tips from another post.
Thanks
Sad! I love writing headlines!
I actually like your “Wanna blog better? Top 5 blogs to learn from” title. Because everyone wants to blog better. And you’ve got the numbered list element in there… Nice job!
I do like the title of your new post, too. I’m so glad you used the tips from my analogy post! That is one of my personal favorite posts on my blog here.
Thanks for commenting, Brankica!
What can I say, I’m another one that is “guilty as charged”. I know what a great and attention grabbing headline can be and how it can go “viral” just because it is screaming to everyone click me. Obviously you do need a content that matches the title or else…
You got me definitely think though and will try this strategy and “spend” more time tweaking headlines. They are without a doubt extremely important and one should never neglect the power of a great title.
Thanks, DiTesco. My favorite blog posts are ones that get me thinking, so I’m glad this post prodded you in that direction. I appreciate the comment, mate!
Hi Tristan,
Whenever I need to brainstorm, especially when leading a group session, everything is on the table. It doesn’t matter how silly, out-of-place, unrelated, etc.
The important thing is to get the juices flowing.
Often, the best and final idea originated from the worst idea. It begins really bad, then we try to pretty it up, and so on. And like a game of Telephone, the final product is often so far removed from it’s humble beginnings that it’s unrecognizable.
But one idea will spark another idea. Free Association can be powerful, if you loosen the reins.
I have come up with brilliant ideas (well, Mom thought they were works of genius) that I never would have though of in a million years if not for the exercise of “toying” with words, subjects, synonyms, antonyms, “reminds me offs” and so on.
I’m babbling. I’ll shut up :lol:
Rick
Hahaha, that is an awesome comment, Rick!
I’ve one the same thing before with my headlines. Just start jotting down whatever comes into my head. And you know the interesting thing about that? I’ve actually come up with titles that I like so much I end up rewriting the post around that title!
You can have a powerful engine under the hood (great content), but if what everyone sees is a clunker (lousy headline), you won’t be picking up any chicks in it :)
I’m going to try this free association thing more often and see what I come up with. Thanks, Rick!
Yo Tristan!
Great post. This is something I don’t do inherently, purifying headlines, but I do try to think of the most tricks I can add to the headline from what I know about copywriting.
I love adding the random element, like the shopping malls. Also I use lists often. People are just so dang interested in lists, they’re wondering whether the list covers who they are or the ones they don’t know about. It definitely attracts the eyes for sure.
Yeah man, lists are money (get it?). And I really do enjoy the randomness factor. I’ve seen some people using the shock factor a bit too much and failing to really relate it to their subject matter but hey, if you can do it, it’s freaking awesome.
Thanks for stopping by, Greg!
I know how important to creat a good headline,it make our blog more special and really impress the visitors to click the headline to find out what’s going on. Honestly , i am not good on this one and creat a title for my article so you can see all my article headline title is very simple and maybe it is not attractive. However, i will spend more time to tweak my headline and learn from this article.
Wish all the best for you on this year, Dude. Thanks for your sharing.
Ryan
We’ve all got our different strengths, Ryan. Some are great at making money with AdSense while others are great at writing headlines. That’s the fun part about blogging; there’s so much we can do and learn still!
Thanks for the comment!
No question about it — the headline is your hook!
The “meat” of your post can be exemplary but if the title sucks, no one will ever set eyes on your masterpiece. As much as I love to write, I always stress out over headlines and I know the stressfulness stems from understanding just how critical it is to grab someone by the collar to get them to read your stuff.
I love how you’ve taken us through your headline-creating process of going from “sucky” to “sensational”. Really awesome post, Tristan!
Two of the most popular posts I’ve written are entitled “Selling to People Who Aren’t Even Shopping” and “Turn Your Own Mess Into Your Marketing Message”.
“Selling to People Who Aren’t Even Shopping.” I like it! That’s something that every online business owner is going to click on when he/she sees it!
I’m glad you liked the post, Melanie! I felt when I was rewriting the headline that all of the different versions would make for an interesting article.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Thanks for the reminder Tristan! I have read articles before that emphasize the importance of writing a great post title, but it is not always something that I take the time to do (until now). I actually just updated the title of my most recent post, after reading this post!
Some great ideas here in the comments too.
I only have one ‘success story’ to mention and here it is http://changesational.com/2010/11/30/what-losing-weight-taught-me-about-blogging-and-how-it-might-help-you/
I think having the word ”you” in the post title is important – after all readers like to know you are thinking of them (or some facet of their blogging life) as you write!
Thanks for the thoughtful post!
Mon
Yes! Way to act on what you read, Monica! That’s great!
I also like the word “you” in titles. They don’t care so much about what *I* do; they want to know what’s in it for them.
I appreciate the comment, as always :)
I want to have my post to have perfect elements, such as headline, keywords..etc
But i am very bad at choosing headlines, though when i see my first post almost a year ago, i am getting better :-)
As long as you’re improving, that’s what matters, right? :) Thanks for stopping by, Kimi!
I think Headlines make an article more attractive.Nice post Tristan.I am very bad at choosing headlines.i hope i can choose good titles if i follow this method.
I hope this method works out for you, too, Pavithra! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. I really appreciate it :)
Hi Tristan
Thanks for sharing this post I found it really really helpful, my blog titles suck and I know it, but I am going to use your tips and try to get more enticing ones.
Thanks again Alex.
Awesome, I’m glad you liked the post, Alex! Let me know if you want some help with any headlines. Thanks for the comment, buddy.
Cool how you showed your thought process, Tristan. Not sure how you arrived at the shopping mall deal, but it works! I thought to myself, “Why the heck did he put THAT in there?”, but a-ha … that’s the point! My best headline was probably “3 Simple Time Management Tips to Supercharge Your Productivity”, although it’s a bit long and for some reason a post with a lame title has the most comments. Must’ve resonated with some people and they tweeted.
Best,
Scott
As far as the shopping mall thing goes, here’s how I came up with it. I thought to myself, “OK, this post is about distractions. What is something that distracts me? What is the ultimate distraction? Where I am distracted the most?” After a bit of brainstorming, the mall is what I came up with :)
I like your “3 Simple Time Management Tips to Supercharge Your Productivity” title! It’s catchy, it’s got a number (aways a nice thing), you’ve got the keywords in there (time management tips), and the zing of “supercharge” is great!
OK Tristan, your article here was 950 words but I think you more than made up for it with the 2500 word comment section ;-)
Here is my Headline Pet-Peeve List:
1. It’s completely cryptic and thus I have no clue what the article is about
2. It’s just flat our boring
3. It’s a bold face lie (‘How to Make $55,555.55 every month forever) (Actually, it’s catchy but I can tell the author has never done this so I might just hate them when I’m done the article ;-) )
4. The vernacular is way out of my league (How MetaPhysical Principles of Inertia Affect Google’s Algorithm Logistics)
Oh, and by the way, you never do any of those for Tristan, as your headlines are always dang good, kinda like the smile before the laugh.
Later brother.
Actually… The comment section so far is 7,888 words :D
But Marcus… “How to Make $55,555.55 every month forever” doesn’t allude to ME making that much money… Just how YOU can do it. That’s no lie :)
Your others… yes! I wholeheartedly and emphatically agree with (And of course I agree with the $55,555.55 one, too). Though I’d probably read “How MetaPhysical Principles of Inertia Affect Google’s Algorithm Logistics” just to wrinkle my brain.
Thanks for the awesome comment, man!
We’re pushing 9k at this point Tristan…I think you need to do an experiment on the power of commenting sometime. You could do a post that had no words/body and was entitled something like:
“I have nothing to say but I want to see your comments anyway” (or something goofy like that)
It would be fun ;-)
Later buddy
That would actually be kind of fun… “I talk too much on this blog. Talk to me about whatever you want, ask me any question you want.”
Or I could make it more specific and crowdsource my readers for blogging tips… “Give me your best blogging tip in 250 words or less and I’ll make an ebook out of all of them.”
Oooo. I like that. Hmmm… I’ll have to think about that one…
Tristan – Thanks for the tips on developing a compelling headline. It’s good to know that I’m not the only one who tweaks and rewrites their headlines or article titles until it’s just perfect. Once upon a time I used to write great articles but I wasn’t getting the readership I thought I should be getting.
That’s until I discovered how to write better article titles and that’s when my readership grew. With that being said, an average headline will almost always hurt your article’s chances of getting exposure. Great to see the process you go through for each post you write.
I agree 100% with what you said, John. I like how you mentioned that your readership grew when you wrote better headlines. I think my headlines have been an integral part of this blog’s success, too.
You know what else your comment made me think of? Well, you know how a lot of people say that yes your headlines need to be great, but they’re useless without great content? It’s been my experience that the people who can write the best headlines can also write the best content! So that’s not much of an issue :)
Thanks for the awesome comment, John! I really appreciate your input as always.
Tristan
Anothr great post!
This is why I keep coming back to your site – you grab a readers attention and know how to get people to come back!
i also like the evolution of your titles – there are so many times that i cant come up with a catchy title – writing content is usually easy for me – but coming up with a title SUCKS!
if I am writing a product that I just bought, then the title is easy – however when I am trying to get someone’s attention – then it get quite harder.
my blog is relatvely new so I dont have too many popular posts but I find it that anytime I write about easy ways to make money I get much more traffic and replies.
Thanks, Chris! I appreciate the kind words, man.
I LOVE writing headlines! It’s like a puzzle, trying to get all of these different elements to come together.
Oh, and I got your request to be on KeywordLuv.com. I’ll be updating it a lot over the next few days and it’ll be adding it sometime then.
Wow, Tristan. What a fantastic homework assignment! It really gets us to think. :)
Strangely enough (or maybe not so strange), one of my most popular (in terms of comments) posts on the blog is How to Wake Up Early with Enthusiasm: The Ultimate Guide. I do admit that I put some time in creating the headline, while also maintaining my SEO keywords (wake up early).
Another pillar post just as popular, which I created months ago, is my post 10 Practical Ways to Make a Living Online. I also put a lot of work into this headline, though I think this headline is a tad better than the one above.
Overall, I should work more on my headlines. Usually I just go with whatever comes to mind first (that I have some liking to), and I don’t put any additional thought into it. That’s definitely going to change after reading this article – though it should have changed already (I’ve read more articles on creating good headlines than I can count!).
Anyway, I’ll be doing the homework assignment privately (a bit embarrassed to dissect headlines here). ;)
As always, awesome post!
Christina
This is a big problem for me. I try to write headlines that tell the reader what is in the article, it doesn;t always work out though. Maybe 2011 will be the year I crack it. :P
Yeah, Dean! Make 2011 the year that your headlines rock :D Thanks for the comment, mate!
Tristan,
You are so right on. I have a tendency to be so matter of fact with my headlines….boring.
One of my best recent headlines: 17 Useful Free Web Tools for Blogging and Fun
This headline incorporated SEO and some of the other good points you have given like being a list post.
“17 Useful Free Web Tools for Blogging and Fun.” I like that, Sheila! Like you said, it’s SEO-friendly and still interesting.
Thanks for the comment, Sheila!
I used to have fun thinking up snappy titles Tristan, now I just try and make sure the title describes the post. I also usually only have short titles, as I want all of it fitting on one line of my Wordpress blog. (I keep shortening it until it fits).
I’ve noticed that my titles with numbers in them get more comments. I checked another year end blog who did a roundup of his 20 most popular posts, and 16 of them had numbers in the title! (Sorry, I can’t remember which blog it was).
Tristan is there any particular reason you write your posts in Word first? Does it download into the blog without any problems?
Thanks for this reminder about the importance of titles, I must admit I had lost focus on this.
John
Leamington Spa, England
John, there are 2 reasons why I write my posts in Word first: 1) so that I have them saved on my computer, and 2) I can turn off my internet, close everything else down, and just focus on writing. I get too distracted when I write in my browser.
That’s really interesting about the most popular posts having numbers in their titles. To see for myself, I just went to Copyblogger and looked at the “popular posts” thing in the sidebar. 21 out of the 30 posts had numbers in them! Very cool. Though I guess we’d have to look at the number of posts in general to see how many of them have numbers in them.
Any particular reason you want your posts to fit on one line? Is it just for aesthetic purposes?
Thanks for the great comment, John!
Purely for aesthetic purposes Tristan, it must be the artist in me. ;-)
John
Woohoo, great hands-on example of how to develop a good headline! Definitely one of the most important aspects of a good blog post, because it’s the bait & book so you can real readers in. I think my best one was the How To Make A Six Figure Income As A Pro YouTuber. The “how-to” are usually winners.
I should look at some of my crappy ones and think about changing them to look more appealing. Excellent advice Tristan. Thanks!
I agree, I think that one is your best headline. That was a great post!
I often change my headlines around after I publish them. Like I have one that mentions Christmas in the title, but since Christmas has passed, there’s really no point in keeping it that way, right?
Thanks, Elise!
Hi!
Great post here Tristan, I always find hard time to figure out the headline for my posts. Headline is important to establish a good impression to make visitors read our post.This post surely will help me improve headline of my articles in future. I will copy your techniques :). Thank you.
Awesome, Rammesh, I’m glad you found this useful! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.
The most popular posts on my blog are those with awesome keywords that no one thought of using but are getting searched a ton. I would say I base all of my titles around keywords. And then I try to make them interesting. But then again, it was written by me so who wouldn’t be dying to read it?
BTW, I love the word lousy. For example: “This chocolate chip cookie is lousy with chips!”, where lousy actually means “full of”. I know, makes a ton of sense!
“But then again, it was written by me so who wouldn’t be dying to read it?” Hahaha. That’s awesome, Susan. And so true ;)
Huh, I’ve never used “lousy” as “full of.” I like it!
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
This blog post is “lousy” with comments! Damn yo! I’m lucky if I get 20.
Oh, and the main reason this post has so many comments is that I commented on 104 blogs that day :) I’ll be writing about it next week.
Hi Tristan:
After reading your post, I had to scroll down for almost one minute or more to reach to the comment form. Wow that was a big list of comments. I have written a few articles on this topic too. Now I came up with a formula for myself. That is I add two keywords in my title, with medium high search volume and other low, about the topic of the article, and I try my best to write the two key words to explain the subject of the article. I am working on shortening the length of my titles as I do want to use my original permalink for most places for more traffic.
Your post is awesome as it really tells how to create best titles for blog post and what to avoid.
fran A
Fran, I like your technique of including 2 keywords in a title. I’ll have to try that!
I’m glad you liked the article, and thanks for so much for taking the time to leave a comment!
It is really important to have an eye catching headline so you could drive traffic on your post. Normally, a bit of exaggeration is necessary in order to produce a one great headline. A way to be too literal in that sense. I like how you come out with the title “9 distractions that kill your blogging” because that’s the most common problem of bloggers.
I agree Samantha, some exaggeration in a headline can go a long way, and it’s a great tactic to use to get people to click through!
I do roll my eyes, though, when I see ridiculous claims in headlines. Stuff like “Make $10,000 overnight!” you know?
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment!
There’s nothing better than a good headline! Well…good content might be better…but you have to suck the reader in first.
I’m definitely guilty of not spending enough time thinking about my headlines. But I do find myself smiling a bit when a good one pops out of my head. Writing a good headline is probably more satisfying for myself than it is for the readers.
Yeah… good articles are fun to write… But good headlines are just really fulfilling!
Yes! I love coming up with great headlines, and I’m right there with you as far as smiling at my own brilliance goes :)
Thanks for the comment, Eugene! I appreciate it, man.
Tristan
I saw your ‘Blog Commenting’ strategy whilst I was doing some surfing about three weeks ago. I thought it was pretty cool – stupidly I didn’t bookmark the site though!
Since then I’ve been wanting to use that strategy on my own site – but I wanted to give the proper attribution to you for a great idea before I started using it. I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to retrace the steps to your site so I could bookmark it and give you the credit you deserve for an intereresting, original and great idea.
Thankfully I found my way back here so that I can give the proper attribution – which I’ve just done in a blog post at my site. Hope it’s cool that I borrowed your great idea! If it’s not, let me know and I’ll take it down!
Paul
Well I’m glad you found me again, Paul! Of course I’m fine with you using the comment policy. Thanks for the comment, buddy!
Tristan
You’re welcome – I’ve now bookmarked your blog on my list of blogs to read so I’ll be stopping over more regularly to check out more of your posts. Looking forward to finding more great ideas like the Commenting Policy!
paul
Hi Tristan,
this is a great post. I like they way how you develop your perfect headline. It makes a lot of sense to me but I haven’t put to much thought so far into my headlines. I’ll better do.
Whatever we put into a headline, the content of the post has to correspond to it – I fully agree with Patricia above.
Thanks for sharing your insights.
Take care
Oliver
Thanks, Oliver! I love coming up with headlines; it’s an art form :) Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! I really appreciate it.
There is so much good stuff in here it’s hard to know where to start. OK. I’ll bite on the idea of having my blog headline ripped to shreds. Here’s my latest: http://www.brainyvideo.com/blog
Having a check box to ask for the free gift right above where we make comments is so brilliant! It’s non-intrusive, inviting, and innovative. How can you resist?
I haven’t been to your site before. I got here from Paul Wolfe’s onespoonatatime blog, where he told us about your blogging response strategy. It seems like a truly useful innovation.
Yeah, I really like the check box thing :D It’s a premium plugin called Subscribers Magnet and you can check it out here: http://www.bloggingbookshelf.com/go/1subscribersmagnet/
Ok, you want your blog headline “ripped to shreds,” eh? Hahah, let’s see what I can do.
“How a Video Hero Saved the Homeless Man With the Golden Voice.” That’s already a pretty good headline (and the rest of yours are also good already, so nicely done! Your headlines are better than most!
I would have titled that post something like “How YOUR Shaky Videos Can Get Millions of Views and Change Lives.” Because that’s something EVERYONE can relate to (shaky videos) and that everybody wants (a changed life and millions of views). When I first saw the headline, the first thing that came to mind was “ANOTHER post about the homeless guy?” (But your great post goes beyond just mentioning him and saying that it was a triumph of social media and video.) Had I seen that headline in Twitter, I probably wouldn’t have clicked on it. When I read a blog post, I want to learn something that will benefit ME. And by putting “YOUR” in there, you emphasize that it’s something that everyone can do if they know how to do it correctly.
Hope that helped a bit!
Thanks for stopping by, Steven! I’m glad you liked the blog, and I’d love to see you around here more in the future :)
Hi Tristan – terribly late .. and may just read the next few!
Quality of content – essential;
Different content if you’re in a competitive market;
Building a rapport with your readers;
The headline comes quite often .. as we write – and don’t be too clever, it can put people off;
Finally .. you know yourself quite often from the comments and their reaction to your post.
People tell you if you’ve hooked them … and they often appreciate the thought process – I know one or two of my posts have that magic, one or two should have done, but I made the mistake of being too clever.
Cheers Hilary
Hilary, I really like what you said about being too clever with your headlines. It’s true, you just want something snappy and simple that doesn’t leave readers scratching their heads.
Thanks so much for the comment!
Well, I certainly learned a lot from this article. I never gave much thought to my headlines- yikes! I even was doing one of your big don’t dos – article post- “Saving Tip #2″. I guess I should have titled it something more like “Saving Money at the Store with a Calculator.” I’ll def think a little more with my next article.
Loved your guest post at reviewzntips. Glad I found out about you guys; I’m always looking to improve my blog.
Great, I’m glad you liked the article, Kristina. I definitely agree that “Saving Money at the Store with a Calculator” sounds much better than “Saving Tip #2″! People don’t care what number in a series your post is, and if they DO care for some reason, they’ll figure it out after the first sentence or two.
And I’m glad you found out about “us guys” too, even though it’s only one guy running the blog :)
I really enjoyed your post and tried to put it into practice right away to create a title that hoefully will resonante with readers of our New Year’s resolution health blog. I heavily relied on your ideas for my title, How to Turn Your Failing Resolution Into a Great One. Thanks!
I’m glad you liked the post, Trina! “How to Turn Your Failing Resolution Into a Great One” is an awesome title, so nicely job! That’s something we can all, unfortunately, relate to :)
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment!
My most popular post to date appears to be How I Make $5,000 a Month as a Paid Blogger. Apparently lotsa folks would like to be doing that…though personally I’ve kind of cut back on the blogging in favor of reported stories at this point. Kind of got burned out on doing 70+ blog posts a month.
Was just turned on to your blog by a reader on my blog today — looks like great stuff here!
Yes, that is one heckuva headline, Carol :) I think I found that post originally by someone tweeting it. I clicked on it because that’s something that I was definitely interested in finding out more about!
70+ blog posts in a month, eh? Yes, I feel your pain! Last year I ran three daily blogs!! It was horrific, and I’ll never blog daily again.
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment, Carol!
For my other blog; My headlines are normally my train of thought, if its an issue it says Issue X with solution, though a blog post I try to keep it funny or tied in to my post as I usually write posts based on a different concept.
Example a ‘link love’ post I wrote was based around ‘Wind, Water. Fire Earth’ etc
I like how you said that headlines are normally your train of thought; it’s great to have headline creation be an integral step in your blog post writing process. Thanks so much for commenting, Daki!
Great way to show the process. I am gulity of not spending enough grey matter on my headlines. When I see great headlines like yours and others I am always amazed saying how do they find these.
If you have time how about my latest one http://www.prospirity.com/2011/spirituality/2011-your-year-fo-receiving-cast-your-burden-on-me
By sharing this here makes me realize even more how important it is to have the “right” headline
Ooooh, what a fabulous idea: revamping my blog post titles.
So I guess the ‘rules’ are:
1/ make it clear it’ll be a list (so reader won’t fear getting bogged down in detail)
2/ make it intriguing (food for thought that one, definitely a great suggestion)
3/ make it dramatic (great, not good).
4/ don’t alienate your more conservative users (avoid swearwords).
5/ make it clear they offer a solution.
I’ll be adding that to my bag of tricks, thanks!
I have to say, though, I am more attracted by a post that actually has swearwords in the title, because it makes the chance that it’s a BS (slightly) less, but rather an honest, to the point, “relateable” post. I don’t do it myself as I want a family friendly site, but as a reader, I prefer them.
I don’t have a comment on any of the four tasks you’ve given, but I can say that coming up with the right headline is my biggest struggle. I usually make them too long, and I get so frustrated with the process of making them better, that I usually settle for something that isn’t right, but by that time, I no longer care. Then, later, I kick myself for running out of patience with it. I need a headline fixer-upper tool, I guess. Got one? LOL.
Thank you for writing this article. I never spent a lot of time working on my headlines. I certainly didn’t think of headlines to be SO important that it deserves its own time.
I like it how you demonstrates the evolution process and that it is okay to start with a boring headline and then slowly change it to an exciting one.
Hey Tristan! Can’t say my headlines crack. Following a process somewhat like your’s, I jot down a title, then take it through a few iterations. I usually have 5 or 6 headlines/titles at the top of the page while I write.
But I can still manage to come up with some matter-of-fact, this-is-what-this-is-about, kinda plain headlines. Working on doing it with a bit more pizazz, Tristan!
Headlines are super important! I’ve noticed that when I write a great headline my traffic almost doubles. Thanks for all the great tips… I’ll be putting them to good use!
we should also use words like “secret”,”how to”,”tips”,”tricks” to get attractive title……..
Interesting Observation Tristan.
I think one of the best kinds of title are lists tiles, such as “10 ways to…”, 5 best thing…” and etc.
For me personally, one post has become the most popular and sort of the center stage of my site. My site is about making money, so most of my readers are looking for different ways of making money. I had a post in mind about different simple ways of earning money online, so, it made sense for me to title the post “53 ways to make money online”.
It worked like magic!…
Another kind of title I think works good is titles that incorporate both the problem and the solution. The best example I can give you is actually the title of this post “How to Turn a Lousy Blog Headline into a Great One”!
Problem= your blog headline being lousy
solution= how to turn it into a great one
You see how powerful that kind of title can be in attracting people how have the same problem and are looking for a solution!
This is amazing. I really followed how you transformed a good headline into an excellent one! Thanks for giving me an idea!
Very insightful, Tristan! I never really thought of the impact of the title before. I should probably rethink my titles! That was a very good example too! I love how you took that lame title and turned it into something I would click without hesitating.
Also, I’ve recently begun making list posts and they’re really fun to make. I also realized that it was one of my most popular posts. Good to know I’m not the only one who feels that way.
You made an article excellent and a thought provoking one, title blog is really important because it attracts more readers. I use to think a better title for a better blog.
Hi Tristan, so glad I came across this post. I spend a significant amount of time coming up with headlines and it’s not easy–at least for me. You are spot on when you say “writing good headlines is an art form.” I genuinely appreciate you sharing your strategies and the fun that can be found in the process. I definitely get into analysis-paralysis mode sometimes and I think the tip about optimizing titles for social media rather than search engines is a gem! :)
Thanks!
Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and
wanted to say that I’ve really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts. In any case I will be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again very soon!
{ 4 trackbacks }