The first thing that people see of your latest post is its title. In fact, when you send out newsletters and do Twitter-promotions, it’s your title that first grabs their attention. It’s your title that people click, curious to read the rest of your post. Here are 12 ways to write snappy, great titles that are sure to grab attention.
1. Speak Directly To Your Audience
Speaking in a conversational, every day natural manner gets you results. For example, a title such as, “6 reasons why your SEO techniques are failing you and how to fix them” talks directly to the blogger. Use terms such as you, your fans, your techniques, your blog and so on to make it personal. Use the title to indicate both issues they face and the benefits your post offers.
2. Communicate Unusual Ideas
Unusual posts that offer a unique perspective are winners. Use your post to discuss unusual concepts and ideas on how to achieve the seemingly impossible using the unthinkable. You don’t have to promise the moon; all you have to do is titillate your reader’s curiosity by offering a unique way of doing something.
3. Appeal Directly To The Reader’s Wants
A post that starts with “Who Else Wants…” implies that whatever you’re selling is something everyone wants. What you are selling (in terms of concept) implies an existing desire, and therefore appeals directly to the reader’s ‘want’ psyche. A title that says, “Who else wants the best paying job on the net?” is bound to garner eyeballs. Think about it – who doesn’t want the best job on the net?
4. Share Insider Knowledge Cunningly
A post that begins with “The secret of ___” indicates that the blogger is sharing insider knowledge. This creates the supposition that the blogger is obviously a subject matter expert, who’s translating important knowledge for the reader’s benefit. This kind of title works, for example, “The secret of becoming a social media darling overnight”.
5. Show You Know A Method That Works
Whatever be your post’s content, when you start the title with “Here is a method ____”, people look for something that’s proven, something that’s worked already. For example, a title that says “Here is a method that has helped make ordinary men into millionaires” sounds intriguing. Again the appeal is of a known and tested method.
6. Indicate That You Know Lesser Known Ways To Do Something
When you start your title with “Little known ways to”, you’re indicating that you know a lesser known, but more interesting or effective way of doing something. The task to be accomplished might be something as common as earning greater traffic, but you’ll be presenting unique, lesser known ideas to achieve the same.
7. Offer An Authoritative Problem Solver
Identify a classic but routine problem that bothers many people. Then highlight a bunch of solutions to tackle the problem – in fact, to get rid of the problem once and for all. For example, if you want to talk about how to eradicate bugs in a free emailing system, your title can be, “Get rid of those free email bugs once and for all”.
8. Offer A Quick Fix
Everyone loves a quick and easy method to tackle painful issues. No one likes to go through multiple steps with many references to a tutorial. So a title that says, “Here’s a quick way to fix your financial woes”, or “Here’s a quick way to eradicate your dandruff problem” usually works. That’s because people are tempted by quick solutions.
9. Write Titles That Promise a Payoff
For example, “9 Essential WordPress Plugins Every Business Blog Should Have” is a title that promises a payoff to the reader who clicks the link. Your post’s title should quantify your post’s value, motivating readers to click the link in order to know more.
10. Let Them Have The Cake And Eat It Too
So we all want the impossible. Everyone wants to know what else they can have, do, quit, take, and see and so on. A title that indicates now you can have something always attracts eyeballs. How about “Now you can quit your day job in just ten days”? Just peachy.
11. Suggest The User To Emulate A Personality
Here’s using celebrity power to the utmost. Titles that throw in personality names and say “Do this like so and so” or “Blog forcefully like so and so” will attract attention. Examples are “Blog like Darren Rowse”, “Shop like Paris Hilton” and so on.
12. Tweak Your Titles
If you have a post title that says, “Things to do to succeed with your Facebook campaign”, try rewriting it as, “10 steps to the ultimate Facebook campaign!”. A slightly tweaked title with a little imagination works better on the reader psyche than the same old, same old. Vary your titles so that your blog holds more interest to readers.
A guest article is contributed by Dean from website optimization company Invesp.