John White, MBA

6 years ago · 2 min. reading time · ~100 ·

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What the Editors at Inc. Magazine Taught Me About Writing Catchy Blog Headlines

What the Editors at Inc. Magazine Taught Me About Writing Catchy Blog Headlines

426d2afa.jpgImage: Wordstream

This month marks one year since I started writing for Inc. Magazine. During that time I've published 88 blogs. One thing I've learned about writing is the more you do it the better you get at it. It also helps to have some great coaching along the way.

I've been fortunate to work with two fantastic editors at Inc. who have helped me improve as a writer. While they've helped me develop in many areas, I'd like to share with you the one way they've helped me the most, and that is writing better headlines and titles. 

The title is absolutely critical to the success of the piece. While I knew this before I started at Inc., they reinforced just how important it is to have an effective title and gave me some can't miss strategies. Here they are in no particular order.

Write at least five of them

Think of writing blog titles like playing darts. You need to throw a lot of darts before hitting the bullseye. Write at least five potential titles and chose the best one.

Use this free tool to help you analyze

If you're like me, you might have a hard time choosing which potential title to go with. The editors at Inc. shared this amazing free tool that I use to write the titles for each and every post I write. It provides an analysis of the overall structure, grammar, and readability of your headline and assigns a score to each potential title. 

The name of the tool is called Co-Schedule. It's free to use and I've found it to be quite handy in helping me determine which title to pick.

Use large numbers in the title when appropriate

Large numbers tend to catch people's attention. They can boost your headline if used in the right context. Here is an example:
Original: How This City in Bolivia Improved Their Drinking Water
Improved: How This City in Bolivia Improved Drinking Water for 1.5-Million People

Appeal to people's emotions

It's easier said than done but If you can appeal to a reader's emotions in the title, you will have hooked them. Here's a handy list of power words that can be used in your title to help you write headlines with emotional appeal.

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Use call to actions and strong adjectives to get people to click 

Writing bland titles hurts your readership. To get people clicking, try using a call to action. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Original: How to Become a Better Writer
Improved: Try These Strategies From The World's Top Bloggers to Improve Your Writing

Always avoid click-bait

You want to sensationalize your titles, make the post sound grand and full of value. However, never use a click-bait title. Your title should be a roadmap for what the reader can expect in the post. If your title does not deliver what it says it's going to it turns readers off and if they feel like they got tricked into reading something they won't ever read anything of yours again.

It's a science

Writing headlines that will drive clicks and shares is a science and it takes time to get it right. You invest a lot in writing the piece and sourcing the ideal images, so don't settle for a less than perfect title. 




  

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#Wordstream #- Schedule #Catchy Blog Headlines #City #Editors
Comments

Bill Stankiewicz

6 years ago #14

Great info here

Paul Walters

6 years ago #13

Thanks for the tips

🐝 Fatima G. Williams

6 years ago #12

This is pretty awesome of you to share these tips with us. You've helped me improve my writing in many many ways ! Thank you John White, MBA

Lisa Gallagher

6 years ago #11

Shared & shared :))

Lisa Gallagher

6 years ago #10

Great article John White, MBA and this will be extremely helpful. I've already bookmarked it! 88 blogs, Congrats!! Thanks so much for the great tips.

David B. Grinberg

6 years ago #9

Thanks for this awesome advice, John, and many congrats on your one-year anniversary as a columnist for Inc. I'm not sure how you squeeze everything into your work day and also balance family life, but it's certainly admirable and impressive. Actually, that might be a good topic for a future blog. I'm sure you would have a enticing headline. Keep buzzing!

Matt Sweetwood

6 years ago #8

Great piece John White, MBA. I'm bookmarking this for my own reference. Buzz On!

Virag🐝 G.

6 years ago #7

Yes, my favorite headline analyzer ;-). Great article, John White, MBA and you are doing some amazing work!

John White, MBA

6 years ago #6

cc: Javier \ud83d\udc1d beBee

Bill Stankiewicz

6 years ago #5

COOL Application here & great tips from John White, my Social Media Black Belt Master!

Milos Djukic

6 years ago #4

#2
Thanks a lot John White, MBA!

Joyce 🐝 Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee

6 years ago #3

Good info

John White, MBA

6 years ago #2

CC: Milos Djukic

Ian Weinberg

6 years ago #1

Great value. Thanks for sharing John White, MBA

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