The Number One Reason You Don't Have More Blog Readers: 6 Ways to Fix A Boring Headline

I was wrapping up a blog critique for a bright, talented client last week and the question came up.

 "How can I be more creative with my titles?" she said.

 It is a question I am asked a lot. And it's a good one.

 You already know that when your blog post arrives in someone's email box or RSS feed reader—or when your customers hit that web page of sales copy—you have a split second to snatch them. They have very little patience and a tiny attention span.

 As a copywriter, I know this stuff. Bad headline? Kiss the reader good-bye.

 When I look back at pieces I've screwed up on, it was often the title, the headline, that was a stinker. And I've learned a lot over the years about what makes a headline work.

 6 ways to fix a boring blog post headline

 There are endless ways to make a headline appealing enough to pull your reader into your copy. Keeping her there is a different story. But that's the subject of another post.

 Good headlines work because they make people curious. I looked back at some of my recent blog posts that got unusually high reads. Here are some of the strategies that worked for me:

 

1. Make a unique comparison.

 Take a new concept and apply it to a problem your reader is trying to solve. We all want more comments on our blogs. The headline of my post was, What We Can Learn About Commenting on Blogs from a First Grader. I tackled this question: why don't we get more comments on our blogs?

But what does that have to do with a first grader? I made my reader curious.

The unique part was bringing my experience as a teacher of 7-year-olds and telling a story about the practice they needed when they first began writing. (At first, they didn't know what to say).Then I compared it to adult readers. Same problem. 

1. Make a promise to solve a problem.

If you listen to your customers and clients (or hang out online), you will learn what is driving them crazy. This is prime stuff for a blog post. My headline was, 5 Ways to Avoid Social Media Overload. A topic I was fairly sure people were having a problem with. I wrote about ways we can tame the social media beast so we are not spending every waking hour online. 

1. Make a controversial statement—and defend it.

I knew what I wanted to write about in this one: How biz owners with high-ticket items can remove customers' fears and earn their trust. Because hiring a consultant to design a website or write several sales pages can be scary. What if I spend all this money and it doesn’t work out?

My headline for this post was, Why I Like to Sell Cheap Stuff. It was a way to catch attention. What? She sells Cheap Stuff? In my post, I defined cheap as "less expensive" and talked about the strategy of "try something small before you buy something big." A way to earn customer trust. 

1. Connect yourself to a big name.

It always works to have the name of someone semi-famous in your blog post title. Chris Brogan is probably the most well-known thought leader in the field of social media. This post was all about my taking him up on a challenge he made on his own blog.

My headline was Chris Brogan Told Me to Write This: Ten Guilty Pleasures. Because Chris is always asked how he comes up with so many blog post ideas, he decided to throw out 100 more, with an invitation to use any of the topics and write our own posts. The title caught the reader's eye because, well, who wouldn't want to see what Chris Brogan told me to write?

1. Make an outrageous (but true) statement.

 This idea came from a Google Alert that landed in my inbox. (You know, that cool tool that lets you track mentions of your name or business name?)  It was a funeral notice for Judy Dunn. Hey, that's me!

I got to thinking: It's probably good to be tracking what Judy Dunn is doing, especially since she died. My headline for this post was, Google Said I Died: Will That Be Bad for Business?

My goal was, first, to shake my reader up with a shocking headline, then to make her laugh, and finally to answer the question: How can I track and monitor my name-alikes online and be sure that people don't confuse them with me?

1. Take a stand on an issue.

With this headline type, you want to stir things up a little. Start a discussion.

Here was the issue I took on: There are the people who are completely sold on social media and then there are the people who think it's a flash in the pan—a bubble that's just about to burst.

My headline was, Why I Think The Social media Bashers Are Wrong. This kind of title pretty much guarantees that you will attract people on both sides of the issue: the readers who agree with you and the ones who don't.

There you go. 6 ways to fix a boring headline. Have you used other kinds of headlines to attract your readers? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.