Every good advertiser knows, headlines are the most important part of the article. Headlines are what decide if a post is looked at and read or if it is glossed over never to be seen again. Writing effective attention grabbing headlines is one of the most important skills that you can learn as a blogger or anyone trying to sell anything. Your headlines are going to be the first thing that potential readers and buyers are going to see when they come into contact with you blog.
Whether it’s from a link by another blogger, through search engine traffic, or something else it is the headline that makes the difference between someone reading and digging in or forgetting about the post completely. You see without a good headline good content doesn’t matter. Because it doesn’t matter how good your content is if no one is reading it. You could have the greatest content in the world but with poor headlines none of that potentially life changing information is ever going to get read. By writing poor headlines you do a disservice not just to yourself but to your readers as well.
Marks Of A Good Headline
There are many factors that go into writing good headlines. With a basic understanding of sales and human psychology you will be able to increase your readership by leaps and bounds. While good headlines are not all identical there are certain principles that apply to all effective headlines while also leaving room for your own creativity and personality to be injected into them.
Hallmark #1 – Title States Benefit
In the title of your post you should state the benefit to your reader. Again I’ll admit I don’t always do this and you don’t have to. However the more you do it the better off you will be. So for example if you were writing an article about how certain fats increase your testosterone and about the best foods to get those fats from you would be sure to include “increase testosterone” or something of that nature in the title of the post. Your headline is no place for being clever save that for you content. You headline should blatantly state what benefit the reader will get from reading your post. Tell the reader what want, need, or desire you are going to meet by them reading it.
Hallmark #2 – Uses Numbers/Lists Or How To
While this can’t be done for every article and nor should it be using numbers or lists is an effective way of getting people to click through on your headlines. I can’t explain why but when you have a title with 5 ways to do x better or 10 reasons that x sucks or something to that extent the click through rate is much higher compared to other options. Another title scheme that has a high click through rate is the “how to” scheme. People love reading how to and it offers an convenient way to explain to the potential reader what the article is about. For example in an article on how to take a girl how from a nightclub instead of coming up with some catchy or clever title that no one but your dedicated readers will read you could simply put “How to take a girl home from a bar” or something like that. What the article is about is clearly stated and it has “how to” in the title. So try to use both lists/numbers and “how to” in your article headlines for increased click through rates and thereby increased readership of your quality content.
Hallmark #3 – Hits Emotional Triggers
Emotions are the key to sales. Selling is done through emotions and later rationalized with logic. It works the same with whether you are selling someone a car or selling someone on the prospect of clicking on your article headline to read more about. If you can make someone feel a certain emotion you will increase the effectiveness of your article headlines. Always keep this in mind either have a benefit that will move people towards pleasure or away from pain. Or even better both. For example the headline “traits that wives love in their husband” isn’t very attention grabbing whereas “embody these traits or your wife will cheat on you” or something similar grabs a lot more attention and will have a much higher click through rate. Make sure your headlines inspire emotions that either move people away from pain or towards pleasure
Summary
An entire book could be written about headlines (and many have been) but what is lain out here is enough to get you started on your quest to produce a great blog that will one day make you rich. Remember to always explicitly state the benefit of your article in the head for that article. To use “how to” or lists and numbers as much as possible. And perhaps most important to inspire people’s emotions, either away from pain or towards pleasure. Do this and you will see your articles get a lot more hits and your blog’s growth take off.
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-Charles Sledge
