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The Secret of How to Write Killer Headlines

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Many people don’t realize that catchy headlines can make their blog either successful or a complete flop. Users will click on your post only if they find it interesting. The real question is how can you create such catchy headlines? We have prepared this guide to help provide you some useful tips that you can immediately put to use:

Make use of your readers’ desire
You should know what your target reader audience is interested in. Create headlines that offer them what they want. Your readers may be looking for some tips or guidelines from an expert opinion, or maybe merely looking to be entertained. Whatever it may be it is best to have a clear focus of what you message you would like to convey to your audience and include this topic within your headline. You should take the time to discover what your target audience interests are and then provide them with the golden nuggets they are searching for. Let’s say your readers are looking for ways to make money online: a headline such as ‘5 Previously Untapped Ways to Make Money Online’ would likely appeal to your audience base.

Make your headlines add value
The headline should offer more value to the post. Notice how ‘5 lesser known ways to make money online’ includes the words ‘lesser known’. This builds the interest of the readers and they want to know more. This method will generally give you instant clicks since readers will feel that this blog will give them tips that they can’t find anywhere else.

Attempt the disqualifying feature
Add something that filters out readers from your post. Disqualifying factors like ‘not for everybody’ makes a person wonder what is in the post. For example, you can write ‘5 ways to make money online (only for serious users). This one little tactic generates more curiosity than simple headlines that do not disqualify people. Remember curiosity killed the cat and is also is a trait that we have humans possess also.

Add urgency
Have your headline include a sense of urgency – something that encourages people to take a quick action. Phrases like ‘now or never’ make people think that this is a limited time thing and inspires them to want to take a look to learn more before it is too late. That is why you can see many companies put up advertisements such as ‘price only good for the next 24 hours’ or other similar lines.

Use a call to action
Call to action phrases may be easily one of the best pieces of advice to improve your headline writing abilities and success rates. You might have previously heard of call to action phrases, but is this something you are utilizing today? Call to action phrases are often included in articles and blog posts, because they prompt the user to take an action (which is generally to click on a link). Call to action sentences can be like ‘learn more now’ or ‘take immediate action’. Many readers may skim through your headlines and then quickly forget about them and move onto the next subject within their head, but with a call to action, they will be more likely to click on your link, article or post to learn more.

Keywords
This simple suggestion is often overlooked simply because many don’t understand the value of inserting keywords into your headlines. Headlines or titles are one component that plays are large factor into the search engine ranking algorithms. If you don’t provide keywords into your headline you are missing out on an opportunity to have your article or blog post discovered by people searching online. Don’t forget the importance of knowing what your reader’s interests are, and including relevant keywords within your headlines. This will make your headlines more relevant to your target audience and in turn produce higher engagement rates. Don’t forget to insert keywords in the headline.

Other tips
• Use phrases like ‘What every serious developer should know’, ‘Here are some quick ways’ etc.
• Use lesser known tips and write headlines similar to ‘The secret to…’ This generates interest.
• You can write how-to type posts, or lists of useful items that would generate interest. This can help online users to find the things they are looking for.

And now one final tip- while your headline should be effective, also provide high quality original content to keep your reader engaged and interested in coming back to you again and again. If you constantly are providing only bait and switch headlines to rope your visitors into clicking to learn more and then do not follow up with additional relevant information you will quickly lose credibility and will not be able to grow a loyal following. Once you have your headline written, this will also make the rest of your article or blog post flow more smoothly.