The Secrets of Writing Compelling Article Headlines

It reminds me of my earlier days in this blogging world when I was following some of the best bloggers such as Leslie Samuel. Sometimes I spent 2-3 hours only reading his blog. His blog has a huge collection of resources that’s why it  attracted me so much. But the most amazing part of all his articles was the headlines. He used to create some of the best and effective bog article headlines I have ever seen.

A visitor, at first, reads the headline of a blog article. The visitor does not know how informative, enjoyable or boring the article might be. What would keep the visitor interested to read a certain article?  

A persuading blog headline does the job. It creates curiosity, enthusiasm in a random visitor to read an article. To me, a good headline is a gatekeeper. The headline of an article will decide what an audience would do. Will he read the full post? Or make a haste look and go away for other ones.

This post elaborately discusses on how you can write great headlines for your article. My suggestion will be don’t just read this article, try to implement the tips on writing your own articles. No body taught me to create these types of headlines, creating  unique and effective headlines also depends on individual creativity. I will help you learn some of the best headline formats but you must put your own creativity with it. Then you will get a great result

Top 6 Headline Formats that You Can Use

I will show you some top headline formats ; I won’t go for details as you can easily understand the techniques of writing these formats. In my blog, you will find these types of headlines here and there. The headline formats are-

“How” Format

To me, it’s the best and most used format on the blog world. Millions of article headlines have been written on this format. The most common “How” format is” How to” when you want to teach something to your audience. But never overuse the headline format in your blog. Here are some good examples of “how” format “How To Create a Blog”

·         “How To Monetize Your Blog – A Step By Step Guide”

·         “How a Blogging Icon  Made My Life Changed”

·         “How You Can Make Your audience Fall in Love with You”

·         “How I Started My Blogging Journey”

The “Why” Headline

The second format that I prefer is “Why” format. The “why” format asks a question and the readers may be looking for the question’s answer. To know the proper answer of that question, a reader has to read the full article. It’s an awesome technique to make your audience read the full article

·          “Why You Struggle with Your Blog”

·         “Why Blogs Fail to be Noticed”

·         “Why I Succeeded In My Blogging Journey”

·         “Why Narrow Thinking Will Boost Up Your Traffic”

·         “Why  New Bloggers  Get it Difficult to Make Loyal Audiences”

 Open Loop Format

You don’t need to abide by any specific principal while creating headlines with this format. You can use it in a diverse way like these…

·         “Do You know This Secret Traffic Technique?”

·         “Are You Following This Powerful Principle?”

·         “Where Is Your Creative Soul Hiding?”

·         “What Makes You a Successful Blogger?”

·         “Are You Aware of These Mistakes?”

This format will ask you a question and will make you compelled to read the full articles.

I have used this headline for writing many articles in this blog.

Famous “Context Phrase: Headline” Format

The headline applies a simple principal, placing an opinion, someone’s name or just a phrase before a certain headline. You need to use a colon sign between these two things. Just look at these examples

·         “Leslie Samuel: How A Blogger Changed Others’ Life ”

·          “Email Marketing: Is it Still Valid?”

(Brackets) Headline Format

 This format comes up with a headline and some words in a bracket. The words in the brackets are explanatory ones that make the headline more effective and compelling. It’s very similar to context: phrase headline. Here are some examples

·         “What Successful Bloggers Implement (But You Never Do?)”

·         “Satisfy Your Audience’s Needs  (Or Give Up Like a Loser)”

·         “The Secret (And truth) of My Blogging Success ”

·         “How To be Creative (And That’s why Your Audiences Will Love You)”

The List Headline

It’s the strongest format ever. Mostly used on the internet for a long time. Usually used to explain a process of how to do a particular thing. Sometimes, it provides Hierarchy of different ways. Sometimes it provides some important tips with no hierarchy level. The format is very flexible, and depends on the writer how he/she can use it in different ways.

·          “10  Traffic Tips To Double Your Audience Number”

·         “My Top 10 Methods To Make Money Online”

·         “10 Blogging Tips To Build a Better Blog”

·         “7 Steps To Be a Successful Blogger ”

·         “5 Questions You Need to Answer Before Starting Your Own Blog”

Some Tips on Implementing These Headline Formats

1.        Try To Make the Headlines Short, don’t make it so long that the readers find it boring

2.        Always avoid passive tone when you create headlines. It does not sound good

3.        Don’t use a same headline format again and again, try different headline formats 

4.      Forget about keywords, just write according to your audience’s demand, you will find your keywords in the article automatically!

5.    First write a full article and then decide what should be the appropriate headline for that article.