Log into twitter and you’ll find tons of tweets. Even thousands, depending on the number of people you are following. Of course, it is humanly impossible to read every tweet. There are conversational tweets, noise tweets and links. We just skim through all the tweets. If the headline or the title seems interesting, we go ahead and click on the link and read the post.
Now, if your headline/title is not interesting enough, people wouldn’t click on it no matter how interesting and well written your actual post is. When people read your headline, you can expect two kinds of responses:
– Oh wow, sounds interesting. I want to know more.
OR
– Ah, boring.
If the first response is what you want from a reader, catchy headlines are a must! Not too long, not too short. SEO experts say that not more than 7-8 words and not less than 4 words should be used. Google shows up to 69 characters for blog headline length.
Let’s take an example:
“Twitter Abbreviations: Do You Know Them All?”
OR
“Twitter Abbreviations – ReTweet (RT), Direct Message (DM), TT (Trending Topics) and more!”
Obviously, the second one is too long. The first title makes you curious. “Do I know all the abbreviations? Let me check this post out.” That’s the difference.
But make sure not to mislead the reader just to grab attention. I read one post which had a completely different headline and when I saw the post, the first line actually said, “Sorry for the unrelated title, just wanted to catch your attention, but hey – I was successful, right?” No, no, no.
What you should do is – give the potential reader an idea of what the post is about and how it will help them, through the headline. Basically, pull the reader towards your post.
And for me, list posts always work. List posts make it easier for the reader to read and understand the points instead of just writing in paragraphs.
So, here are 20 title ideas which always compel me to click on the post link. Let’s take a list of 8 things as an example.
1. 8 Unique Ways To______.
2. 8 Sure-Fire Ways To _______.
3. 8 Quick Tips To ________.
4. 8 Things You Might Not Know About ______.
5. 8 Must Have Traits Of A _______.
6. Why I Chose To ______.
7. 8 Useful Tools For ______.
8. 8 Reasons Why _______ Is Like _______.
9. 8 Little-Known Secrets/Shocking Facts About _______. *OR* 8 Secrets About ________ Revealed.
10. How I Do _______ Differently.
11. Top 8 Benefits Of ______.
12. 8 Things I Learned From ________. *OR* 8 Things You Can Learn From _______.
13. Ask A Question: Can You Imagine Life Without _______?
14. Add an Exclamation: Mom, Somebody Stole My Tweets!
15. The 8 Types Of _______.
16. How I Went From ______ To ______In ______ Days/Months/Years.
17. A To Z Of _______.
18. How To Easily Reach ________.
19. How Not To Be A ________.
20. 8 Myths About ________.
I like to write apt titles after I finish writing the post, but I do keep a working title in mind before writing the article as well.
Hope you found these ideas useful and interesting! If you feel that I have missed out some important points, please do let me know through the comments! 🙂
Thanks Nicky for sharing! There are some GREAT examples I’m definitely going to use.
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Thank you Michael! Happy blogging! 😀
Nice list of titles Nicky. Most of the times I experiment with ‘How to…’ or ‘5 Tips/Methods/Ways’.
One more imp. pt to add is that, as far as this ‘catchy’ thing goes, it’s necessary to be honest to our visitors. I’ve seen many blogs wherein the authors just put up headlines which don’t resonate with the content in it.
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Hi Mani,
Like I mentioned in the post, some people mislead the visitor with an unrelated headline – which is wrong (as you said, being honest is important). Thanks for your comment!
Thanks for this nice list Nicky. I added some to my title template list.
Valerie Deveza recently posted..Little Known Ways To Secure Your WordPress Blog
thanks
Wow, super awesome tips;) headlines are extremely important, just like first impression and GIRL! you got mine;) will be sure to use some of the tips.
Btw, I just liked you on FB;). Come say hi on my blog sometimes;)
Tram Tran@ start young recently posted..Nuffnang Blog Awards, Here I Come
Hi there! thanks, glad you found this post interesting! Thanks for the like too! I’ll be sure to check out your blog 🙂
Pretty good list, I would also add two points: Consider using hot button words of your target audience. That being said know your audience is a must. Finally doing plays on words or phrases that people know is another good example.
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Hi Ross,
Great additions! I agree, doing plays on words and using hot keywords are great ways to write titles! Thanks for your comment. 🙂
Love the article. Big help
Thank you Vic! Hope you keep stopping by for more posts 🙂
Hi Nicky…I love the post you have here and it interests me a lot to read it…Thank you!!
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thanks for your comment Fria!
Great article Nicky! I’ll use these tips when writing blog posts
Great to be of some help, Martha! 🙂
Hey Nicki! – Pretty solid list of interesting formats on Blog Posts — but I don’t think this is a good long-term approach for titling blog posts actually. I always wondered what would happen if EVERY blogger used the above mentioned formats to write blog titles. Seth godin for example has his own format – I think that’s probably the only long term approach.
Thanks!
-Dilanka 🙂
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Dilanka,
I completely agree with you on that point. If every blogger used these, it would become monotonous and hence these titles wouldn’t stand out. But I’m sure bloggers can take some hints from these titles and give it their own little spin so that it becomes catchy, know what I’m sayin’? 🙂 Thanks for your great comment!
Thank you for letting us know about this Nicky…I am really glad I have found this post…
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Thank you Cindy, glad you liked this post 🙂
Interesting tips!
You didn’t mention puns or numbered facts? Do you think it can be boring too?
Nice to read you!
Hi Florian! Yeah I missed out that point, I think puns can make for great titles! Thanks for your great addition! 🙂
Quick answer !
I just said that because it’s a really hot point for presentation, to catch people attention with your first words!
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And that is very true! It does catch people’s attention~
Excellent post, Nicky. I just started blogging last week and I’m learning as I go. It has been an interesting week. Next, I need to work on PR for my book.
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Hi Randall!
Glad you found this post interesting 🙂 Hope you have a lot of fun blogging!
Hi Nicky…This is helpful and we all know that bloggers need this…
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Thank you Chessa! 🙂
This is very useful Nicky, thanks for posting this !
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Thank u Christina! 🙂
More bloggers should read your tips Nicky !!!
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Thanks for posting this NIcky :>
Keep posting those ideas..your blog is getting very popular.
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Nicky, I am really glad that you shared this post to us here…Very good!!
Thanks Nicky for the great post here..
Jeziel recently posted..Treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Nice… You could share few ideas about Descriptions as well.
Mahesh Mohan recently posted..How To Use Gmail SMTP Server Settings To Remove "On Behalf Of" When Using "Send Mail As" Feature
Thank you for these Ms. Nicky. I really need to work on kick ass titles and this will definitely get me started.
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Nicky , just love your post , but would better if your ideas cover more space instead of giving every title some quantitative number like 8
That is JUST what I was looking for coz I was out of ideas for a nice title. lol. Thanks a bunch, Nicky! 🙂
Hey Nicky. above points are perfect for modern day blogging. Besides all the name has to be attractive to lead users to content.If you add seo to these then you’ll have a killer one.
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Thanks so much for these great ideas!
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Very useful tips on blog title, as I am working on new blog ,your tips paid me a great value .
many many thanks for nice post, As I am working on new blog your post get my attention to make a catchy title
Wonderful list.. In fact,I am using such eye catchy titles in my blog alternatively.
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Wow…some awesome idea. Thanks for sharing such idea to create catchy blog post title. Yes, this is the right thing to make a catchy title.
Great idea generators Nicky! I’ve also found a lot of luck with a headline tool http://contentfirst.marketing/headlinetool/ to give me a lot of ideas to work with. I’d recommend trying it out.
Great! 🙂
Good post. I learn something new and challenging on sites I
stumbleupon everyday. It will always be useful to read articles from other authors and practice a little something
from other websites.
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Thank you nicky for sharing this useful article your blog and you both are interesting and cute 🙂🙂🙂
Superb post! I knew there were reasons why I read specific articles online. As I read your post, I thought about my college papers & realized that the ones with “sexy” titles were usually well received by my professors.
Thank you so much Joquim! 🙂
An amazing post shared by you, Nicky! I definitely got to learn something unique by reading this post. Being a content writer I completely agree that writing catchy titles for any blog post is very necessary.
Thank you, Riya! I’m glad you found it useful 🙂
Quite an informative post, Nicky! This post is definitely going to help me draft creative and catchy blog titles for my upcoming blogs. Thank you so much for sharing these ideas with everyone.