The Art Of A Good Article Headline

SRW · Nov 16, 2010

I have noticed that one thing our Blog authors struggle with is a good headline that grabs the reader's attention to your entry. Here's a great article (used with permission) that will help in giving you all some tips on how to improve your headlines:

10 Tips to an Awesome, Eye-Jerking Post Title

10 Tips to an Awesome, Eye-Jerking Post Title

Awesome Content: Set Up For Online Success

Post titles are drastically under rated. Most bloggers fail to realize that their post title is the number one advertisements for each of their articles. An articleâ€™s title has to put on the gloves and go head-to-head with dozens of other post titles in peopleâ€™s RSS readers, email accounts and search engines.

Itâ€™s your job to get your post title ready to perform like the champ it has the potential to be.

I want my headline to be so compelling that it seemingly smacks my readers in the face with a sudden compulsion to read it. I want my post title to be so dramatic that casual internet browsers canâ€™t help themselves but to dig deeper and find out what I have to say. Hereâ€™s how Darren Rowse from problogger.net puts it:

Many bloggers pour a lot of effort into writing engaging and interesting posts, but then just slap any old title onto it without realizing that in doing so they might be ensuring that their post is never read. ~ Darren Rowse

10 Tips to an Awesome, Eye-Jerking Post Title

If youâ€™re ready to start grabbing some attention and start driving traffic to your blog or website then this is exactly what youâ€™ve been looking for. Hereâ€™s 10 tips that have assisted my blog in rapid growth:

Be bold. Strong, powerful headlines grab peopleâ€™s attention much more effectively and dramatically than passive ones. Make a bold statement about your topic that is sure to get their attention like â€™14 Ways to Increase Your Blog Trafficâ€™ or â€™5 Vital Reasons to Use List Posts.â€™

Use dynamic words. There are certain words that quite simply sound more exciting than others. Try to make use of words like awesome, killer, amazing, heart-pounding, thrilling, sure-fire, etc. Select exciting words that that you could use to review your favorite action movie. Hereâ€™s a few examples: Notice the word â€˜Sure-fireâ€™ in 5 Sure-Fire Strategies For Better Blogging or the word â€˜Crucialâ€™ in 5 Crucial Tips For WordPress Users.

Get personal. Personal stories are much more meaningful than articles that appear as if they were written by a computer. Try some article titles like these: â€˜Why I Donâ€™t Use NoFollow on my Linksâ€™ or â€˜How I Made $10,000 From Google Last Month.â€™

Be short. Enough said. Really though. I preview all of my articles using the WordPress preview button in the editor. If the title pushes onto a second line on the post page then I shorten it until it only uses one line. Find a rule like that that works for you on your blog and stick with it.

Be direct. If your headline isnâ€™t a clear representation of what the article is about then the reader will likely not take the time to actually read your post. They will more likely feel like you tricked them and they will just leave your site and not return.

Ask a question. I see a lot of intriguing post titles that come in the form of provocative questions. Let me share a few examples with you: â€˜Would you like to quit your job and make money online?â€™ or â€˜How would you like more traffic to your website?â€™

Be commanding. Tell your readers to do something amazing. Throw out an order that is extreme and your readers will follow. Hereâ€™s some examples: â€˜Get More Traffic to your Websiteâ€™ or maybe something like â€˜Create Awesome Content and Keep Your Readers!â€

Be creative. This one is really the key to the whole list. Your only limitation in creating effective headlines for your blog articles is your own imagination. If you can create ways to break the mold on your post titles then you will be able to draw in users like never before.

Use lists. Every day that I visit delicious.com nearly half of their bookmarks that made it to the front page are some form or another of a list. List posts are extremely attractive to a lot of readers. Check out these examples: â€™5 Things You Need to Know About Trackbacksâ€™ or â€™11 Beautiful Free WordPress Themes.â€™ These also make excellent link bait for others bloggers to link to and tweet about.

Use Keywords. I listed this one last because I view it as the least important. Using strong keywords in your title can help your listings on Google but using them in the wrong way can take away from their effectiveness to human readers. Strike up a good balance here and youâ€™ll be setup for success.

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Here are some more articles to check out on this:
The Sexy Art of Writing Headlines that Kill
Learn How To Instantly Create Powerful Headlines!
How To Write Headlines That Kill - PuttingBlogsFirst
How to write blog headlines that make people click

Omen · Nov 16, 2010

true i struugled with mine and still dont like it but i couldnt think of anything else

SRW · Jan 18, 2011

Some more info on this topic for bloggers to check out:

Writing Headlines That Get Results | Copyblogger

Writing Headlines That Get Results

Itâ€™s no surprise to discover that one of the most popular posts Iâ€™ve written for Copyblogger was How to Write Headlines That Work. Every copywriter and every journalist knows the importance of a powerful headline, and that awareness has spilled into the business blogosphere, where everyone is a bit of a copywriter and a bit of a journalist.

Despite that, many still underestimate just how important headlines are. So here are some anecdotes, facts, and guidelines that can help you write even better headlines (and also let you know how much you should focus on them).

The 50/50 Rule of Headlines

According to some of the best copywriters of all time, you should spend half of the entire time it takes to write a piece of persuasive content on the headline. So if you have a blog post that is really important to you or your business, one that you really want people to read, you should downright obsess over your post title.

Advertising legend David Ogilvy knew the power of headlines, and how the headline literally determined whether the advertisement would get read. He rewrote this famous headline for an automobile advertisement 104 times:
â€œAt 60 miles an hour, the only thing you hear in the new Rolls Royce is the ticking of the dashboard clock â€¦â€

Master copywriter Gene Schwartz often spent an entire week on the first 50 words of a sales piece â€” the headline and the opening paragraph. Those 50 words are the most important part of any persuasive writing, and writing them well takes time.

Even for the masters.

The 80/20 Rule of Headlines

Here are some interesting statistics.

On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of the headline, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece.

The better the headline, the better your odds of beating the averages and getting what youâ€™ve written read by a larger percentage of people.

Writing a great headline doesnâ€™t guarantee the success of your writing. The benefit conveyed in the headline still needs to be properly satisfied in the body copy, either with your content or your offer.

But great body content with a bad or even marginal headline is doomed to go largely unread.

How to Write a Great Headline

Last time, we looked at the different categories of headlines that work. This time, weâ€™ll look at analytical techniques for producing great headlines.
The copywriting trainers at American Writers & Artists teach The Four Uâ€™s approach to writing headlines:

Headlines, subheads and bullets should:

Be USEFUL to the reader,

Provide him with a sense of URGENCY,

Convey the idea that the main benefit is somehow UNIQUE; and

Do all of the above in an ULTRA-SPECIFIC way.

In a recent issue of the Early to Rise ezine, superstar copywriter Clayton Makepeace says to ask yourself six questions before you start to write your headline:

Does your headline offer the reader a reward for reading?

What specifics could you add to make your headline more intriguing and believable?

Does your headline trigger a strong, actionable emotion the reader already has about the subject at hand?

Does your headline present a proposition that will instantly get your prospect nodding his or her head?

Could your headline benefit from the inclusion of a proposed transaction?

Could you add an element of intrigue to drive the prospect into your opening copy?

Makepeaceâ€™s six questions combined with the basic structure of The Four Uâ€™s provide an excellent framework for writing spectacular headlines. And youâ€™ll note that just about any headline that satisfies the framework will fall into one of the eight categories you learned last time.

It takes work and focus, but the effort will make you a more popular blogger and a more profitable businessperson.
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CaptainStubing · Jan 18, 2011

i think i speak for everyone in saying that we've been asking for our blog entries to be edited.

Why don't you just edit the articles to what they should be? I wouldn't care if you changed the headline or some of the text of one of my blogs and I don't think anyone else would either as long as the main point of the blog entry remains in place.

Omen · Jan 18, 2011

Thanks foe the insight and info

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The Art Of A Good Article Headline

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Omen Speeling Be Champions Staff Member

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CaptainStubing Gave her a Dirty Sanchez

Omen Speeling Be Champions Staff Member

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The Art Of A Good Article Headline

SRW Ex-World's Worst Site Admin

Omen Speeling Be Champions Staff Member

SRW Ex-World's Worst Site Admin

CaptainStubing Gave her a Dirty Sanchez

Omen Speeling Be Champions Staff Member

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