Someone recently posed a question on how to come up with good headlines for blog posts, articles.
I’ll share a few tricks I use to get the creative juices flowing in a moment, but first what makes a great headline…?
Your headline really serves two purposes.
Firstly - and MOST importantly – your headline must Grab the Reader’s Attention – or as John Carlton my copywriting mentor more colorfully puts it, your headline should “grab ‘em by the eyeballs and suck ‘em into the page”!
Secondly - by including your main keywords, your headline helps your page rank in the search engines for the keywords you are targeting.
(So… if you arrived on this page hoping to find pictures of naked people, then I’m sorry, but you’re going to be disappointed!) 
If you’re stuck for a good heading, here are three easy cures.
1) Go to YouTube and browse the titles of most viewed or most popular videos in HowTo & Style section
If you’re writing a “how to” or review style article, some of these can almost certainly be adapted to your needs, e.g.
How to (Not)… – for an article about the wrong way / right way to do something
Quick & Easy… – quick tips style article (like this one)
Blue Widgets Product Review – a product review article (inventive huh!)
Your Blue Widget / Fun with Blue Widgets – Other useful product, service or informational style articles
2) Go to Ezine Articles and browse the titles of most viewed articles in any category
These are often great headline starters and easy to adapt to suit any topic:
Top 10 Ways To…
7 Biggest Myths About…
Can you Really …?
3) This is my favorite – go to magazines.com and check out the titles on the magazine covers of typical newstand magazines like Cosmopolitan.
The folks who write these headlines write for a living. And they are competing for your attention in a very crowded space.
They really do write headlines that demand your attention – they “grab you by the eyeballs”.
Here are some from the current issue:
“5 Words That Get the Truth Out of Guys”
If you’re writing for the investment market might become:
“5 Words That Get the Truth Out of Your Financial Adviser”
“Lose Weight While You Eat”
If you’re writing for the “make money online” crowd becomes the classic:
“Make Money While You Sleep!”
“50 Sex Tricks – Trust Us: You’ll Be The First Girl Naughty Enough to Try #43 on Him”
If you’re writing for a technical crowd might become:
“50 Testing Tricks – Trust Us: You’ll Be The First Coder In Your Team to Try #43 on Your Code”
This great article I found on CopyBlogger explains the Cosmopolitan headline method in more detail and with more examples.
If you’re interested in improving your copywriting skills then you need to check out John Carlton’s stuff here.
John Carlton’s Simple Writing System
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Cheeky headline that drew me into this post for some reason….
Like you say, even if it’s not your market checking out what the pro’s write gives great insight into what works. Cosmo don’t write those headlines just to fill out the space….
Keep up the good work Steve…