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15 Remarkable Resources to Create Killer Headlines
written by Hans
July 28th, 2008Welcome to Catchtheposts! I hope that the content of this blog will be helpful to you. Don't hesitate to use the contact form to send me your comments, feedback, suggested topics or questions. Thanks for visiting!
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Photo by christopher.woo
Headlines are everywhere in our life; in the newspapers, on the front page of magazines, on websites, on blogs, on social media sites, and so on. In fact, headlines help us getting a really good idea about the content of articles. Thus, headlines are critical because they will determine if an article is read or not!
For example, social media sites are handling and broadcasting tons of content each days. The only way for anyone to discriminate about all those stories is to look at the headlines. In fact, there is a natural selection - just like Darwin would say - that is done. The best headlines will be read and the weaker ones will just dies silently! If we apply Pareto, 20% of the stories - with the best headlines - will be read by 80% of the site users.
This is only a simple example to illustrate how crucial the headlines are. In order to help you improving your headlines, I made a list of 15 excellent resources related to headlines creation. Hope this will be useful for you.
Here it is:
1. The Sexy Art of Writing Headlines that Kill - freelanceswitch.com
2. Writing Effective, Attention-Getting Headlines and Titles on Your Blog - lorelle.wordpress.com
3. How to Write Magnetic Headlines - copyblogger.com
4. How To Write Great Headlines - modernlifeisrubbish.co.uk
5. How To Write Eye-Popping Headlines While Exhausted - instigatorblog.com
6. Five Tips for Writing Effective Web Headlines - google.com
7. 25 Headline Formulas That Have Plagued and Blessed Web 2.0 - skelliewag.org
8. 54 Proven Headlines Templates That Sell - seoblackhat.com
9. Headline writing: How to write web headlines that catch search engine spiders - newmediabytes.com
10. Writing Headlines for Regular Readers, Search Engines, and Social Media - copyblogger.com
11. 7 Easy Ways to Create Eye catching Titles - netwriting.co.uk
12. Mistakes to Avoid When Writing Headlines - world-copywriting-institute.typepad.com
13. How To Write Web Headlines That Beg To Be Read - lockergnome.com
14. Five Keys to Writing Killer Web Page Headlines - wordsmithbob.com
15. The Best Headlines Are Not Just Written For Google or Digg - instigatorblog.com
With peoples attention spans getting shorter and shorter, writing persuasive and enticing headlines becomes paramount, great list.
I am a copywriter and know the importance of a headline. In the profession we say that 80% of people decide to read or not read based on the headline. All too often people just plug in the quick headline that pops int heir mind. A good headline should have a keyword that is a feature discussed in your article, followed by a benefit for the reader.
5 tips…
54 proven…
Seven easy…
these are all the features. The benefit is what follows, such as eye popping… and killer…
Numbered headlines are great just for this fact, then give a feature and nearly always a benefit.
A good headline is something that takes time. A pro that is writing for the consumer market will write 100 to 300 headlines before deciding on the best. Very often it is headline first, then content. For a blog post I feel that most people will know what they want to write about, so do that first. Once you are done work on that headline, and take the time to get one that really draws the person in to the article.
Hans, this is a great list to use.
I think your photo in the post is the perfect illustration of why a good headline is so important. The man bending down to read has obviously seen something that ‘caught his eye’ and it’s something we’re all familiar with.
I don’t know if they do it in other countries, but in the UK the late night news programs quite often have a segment where they read out a few headlines from the next day’s papers. By that time of night they’ve already been printed.
What’s most interesting is that it isn’t always the main headline that gets read out. Sometimes the smaller story headlines catch the eye of the reviewer.
I’ve been experimenting with headlines myself recently on my blog. I have a stats tracking package so I can see which posts are being read, which are being bookmarked and so on. There’s a very clear preference - at least from my readers - of simple, bold and direct headlines.
Thanks for this list… I am stubborn so I like to write whatever post I want…. but I have noticed when I have tried to include keywords and make it nice for humans and search engines, i’ve seen the maximum benefit… I just need more learning about it, so this is a great resource…. thanks again!
Wow, wow, there are a lot of useful information. Link Building Bible I think it always need to include keywords in all posts!
Oi, A Brevity Carnival…
Welcome to the last August 14, 2008 edition of A Brevity Carnival ever.
the first group
Hans presents 15 Remarkable Resources to Create Killer Headlines posted at Catch The Posts
Sara Ost presents A Control Freak s Guide to Good Living posted at …
Included in my blog carnival at: http://richardmclaughlin.biz/oi-a-brevity-carnival/
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