The Importance Of A Compelling Article Title
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The window to your article is the title and unless you can create enough urgency in the reader to want to read your piece, then you will be battling to get them to take the ultimate action of heading down to your resource box and clicking through to your site or offer.
An exercise you can do is to go to Ezine Articles and spend some time there looking at a variety of content and paying particular attention to the titles. Monitor your impulse and make a note of the titles which create the urgency in you to want to continue reading the article. Make a list of the titles and put them in a swipe file.
Then when you are stuck for ideas for a title refer to this list. There is a simple formula to creating a strong title and it goes something like this:
- 1. create curiosity
- 2. mention a benefit
- 3. create excitement
- 4. suggest improvement
Is all this possible in one title? Yes. Here’s a couple of examples:
- “10 Ways To Get Your Ex Back With Dignity”
- “5 Surefire Ways To Lower Your Golf Handicap Fast”
If someone was searching either topic they would surely be tempted to read on. However, if the titles were simply:
- “Guide To Getting Your Ex Back”
- “Lower Your Golf Handicap”
Then ask yourself which of the two you would be more tempted to read. Definitely the first list. Why? Because they offer something unique and fast rather than general and simple.
People want fast solutions in today’s society. It’s the main reason people go online. They are looking for a solution to a problem or issue in their lives and article titles that incorporate the right triggers will get much more response than plain titles.
That’s not to say the second list of titles won’t do the job but it’s competitive online and you need to gain an edge from the very start. The idea is to stand out from everyone else and believe it or not, more than 95% of people writing online fail to stand out.
Practice this and get good at it and make sure you keep that swipe file up-to-date. Always look for titles that stand out and trigger your curiosity and then adapt them when appropriate. But make sure your content is up to scratch and matches what your title is suggesting.
So whats your thoughts?
tr td a:link, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:visited, table#itemcontentlist tr td a:active { color:#000099; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:none; } img {border:none;} John Cow dot ComThe Importance Of A Compelling Article TitlePosted: 22 Dec 2008 05:56 AM CST The window to your article is the title and unless you can create enough urgency in the reader to want to read your piece, then you will be battling to get them to take the ultimate action of heading down to your resource box and cli
I recently wrote a review on a movie trailer for Vicky Christina Barcelona starring Scarlett Johanson and Penelope Cruz.
I titled it: Lesbian Action That Your Wife Will Want To Watch (http://www.dudeworldorder.com/2008/12/lesbian-action-that-your-wife-will-want-to-watch/)
I saw no increase whatsoever!!!!
Maybe I should have made it a bit more pornographic. You know what they say, “Chicks get clicks”…..
Thanks for the title creating technique…Even ur title makes me to read ur posts…..
Well headlines are everything. I have written two articles about blog headlines.
Nice post.
I believe DoshDosh made a similar post and it has worked well for me!
A blog title is the whole reason why someone would click on a post to begin with, lol.
Something like “I Love John Cow” would do worse than something like “F**k U John Cow”. Sorry for the example
-Mike
hey John,
Good post but here’s my problem. I think adding “5 sure ways to” makes the title more enticing, but it also moves the keywords “improve your golf game” further over on the title, which isn’t as good for seo. So do you go for the seo, or making the title more clickable?
~ Steve, aka the trade show guru
Personally, I don’t feel like it makes a HUGE difference. The search engines are much smarter now a days and shifting the keyphrase down a few words won’t kill your rankings. Plus, you try to rank to get traffic. A compelling titled result in position 2 may get more clicks than a boring one in position 1.
I have also found that using image characters to dramatically increase click-throughs.???????•???
?10 Ways To Get Your Ex Back With Dignity?
?5 Surefire Ways To Lower Your Golf Handicap Fast?
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Occasionally I buy a copy of The Enquirer and pay particular attention to the headlines on the cover. ‘Dark secrets’ seems to come up once in awhile, and who doesn’t want to learn the dark secrets? The tabloids are experts at writing intriguing and compelling titles that get you to turn the page and find out.
Good point Steve…How about doing this?
Improve Your Golf Game? Check these 5 Sure Ways
Fran
I wonder if people will ever get tired of such titles? You’d think now that more and more people are using this technique, readers would catch on.