by Skellie
Image by 4_EveR_YounG.
Headlines can make or break a story. With thousands of different articles vying for our attention, web users can afford to be picky.
In an ideal world we’d give articles a fighting chance to prove their worth, but in truth, unless we have pre-existing faith in the author, we often make the decision to read or ignore before our eyes have reached the end of the headline.
Web writers have only recently, it seems, started to realize the crucial importance of the headline. The ascendancy of the headline has been one aspect of Web 2.0 culture which hasn’t received the attention it deserves.
This post is a tour of the key web headline formulas being used today. Some will inspire you, others will make you cringe. All of them are sourced from real examples.
1. The destined for Digg
More than half of Americans – 56 per cent – say they’re not proud of the country [Source]
2. Because headlines and context don’t mix
‘Microsoft sucks’, says top blogger [Source]
3. Is that a threat?
Warning: People are Ignoring Advertising. But They do Read News. [Source]
4. The love it or hate it number + text combo
3 Painful Ways You Lose Money Every Month [Source]
5. Bait for the curious
What’s the scariest fish in the Amazon? Hint: It’s not the Piranha. It’s far, far worse. [Source]
6. The delayed number + text combo
Grip Your Readers With These 7 Knock-out Opening Sentences [Source]
7. The only slightly less loathed/loved ‘written’ number
Five Tips for Stealthy Facebooking [Source]
8. The not so secret anymore
Five Secret Strategies to Add $1 Million in Revenue [Source]
9. The number + assertion of superiority
Top 10 Wi-Fi Boosts, Tweaks and Apps [Source]
10. The savvy linkbaiter
45 Excellent Blog Designs [Source]
11. The resource list you’ll bookmark and never look at again
40+ Free Fonts for Professional Design [Source]
12. The hook, colon, describe
Quitting the Day Job: Finding the Guts to Pursue Your Dreams [Source]
13. The sensational claim only a member of the blogerati could make
The Web 2.0 World is Skunk-Drunk on its Own Kool-Aid [Source]
14. The splogger’s magnum opus
Welcome to the World of the Slim People [Source]
15. The subjective masquerading as objective
TIME: The Best Photos of 2005 [Source]
16. The wild promise
How to Amaze Your Friends and Family With Your Eerily Accurate Psychic Readings [Source]
17. The search-term as headline
How to Hack an iPod [Source]
18. The keyword stuffer
Monetize Your Blog With These Ways to Make Money Online Monetize Your Blog [Source withheld]
19. The troubling question
Are You Prepared for a Blogging Emergency? [Source]
20. The amateur philosopher
Two Phrases That Destroyed American Culture [Source]
21. The harsh call
Most People Are Depressed For a Very Good Reason [Source]
22. Google + intrigue = traffic
Dr. Google Sends Pain Relief [Source]
23. The mysterious premise
5 HTML Elements You Probably Never Use (But Perhaps Should) [Source]
24. The self-improver
How to Become a Vegetarian, the Easy Way [Source]
25. The appeal to our fear of failure
Do You Make These Mistakes When You Write? [Source]
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49 Comments, Comment or Ping
Andy Beal
Wow, two entries on your list. Thanks for the credit.
Nov 13th, 2007
Patrick
Very insightful list, Skellie! I’m going to try some of these headline ideas myself. Thanks for the post.
Nov 13th, 2007
Bente Lilja Bye
Tell me, is monetize, blog, online, money the only keywords there is?
I’ve noticed that sites like John Chow’s and Shoemoney have a high density of those words. Now I see you call one headline a keywork stuffer (without revealing the source) I start to wonder if I’ve understood correctly the concept of keywords on the web. I thought it should be a connection between what you say you are going to write about and what you actually do write about in the main text body.?
Anyways, I agree that finding a good headline is crucial in order to get your readers attention. You have only a very short fraction of seconds opportunity to catch the browsers interest. It’s a tough competition out there…
Nov 13th, 2007
Yuri
Luckily, there are many more tips and formulas to use when using titles, such as call to action or double benefit-driven, for example.
Nov 13th, 2007
Grace Smith
Amazing list, very humerous as well reading through some of these! I think anyone who reads copyblogger knows the importance of a carefully crafted headline, i must say i am a sucker for 10 and 11!
I am slowly becoming addicted to your blog skellie!
Nov 13th, 2007
pete
FWIW, #7 is at least stylistically correct. According to the generally followed AP Stylebook, numbers below 10 are to be written as words. Hey, that gives me an idea for a blog post! The 10 Most Violated AP Style Rules!
Nov 13th, 2007
SB
You would think a poet, schooled in brevity, would be good at this.
But I’m not.
Nov 13th, 2007
Evan Hadkins
Thanks Skellie.
Up to now I’ve concentrated on good content.
I’m just getting round to thinking about headlines, which are very important.
This gives me a great place to start from. Many thanks.
Nov 13th, 2007
skellie
@ Andy Beal: I liked them :).
@ Patrick: Neat — you’re already a bit of a headline talent so I look forward to seeing what you come up with :).
@ Bente: Keyword-stuffing is when content and its headline is filled with keywords so that the content ranks highly in search results for that term. Good keyword use is as you’ve described, but keyword stuffing goes too far (as you can see)!
@ SB: You’ve got company, there. I still find headlines one of the hardest things about blogging.
@ Evan: Hopefully the list will give you a few different strategies you can apply :).
Nov 13th, 2007
Lexi
skellie, how do you find such attractive images to go with your articles?
lexi
Nov 13th, 2007
Valeria Maltoni
And of course your love it or hate it number + text combo in the headline here. Heads up, “think different” tag coming your way tomorrow, which will be perfect for the way you… think
Nov 13th, 2007
skellie
@ Lexi: I’m going to be writing on that in a couple of days. Stay tuned!
@ Valeria: Love them, hate them… they work ;).
Nov 13th, 2007
Joel
I have gone back and changed headlines of some of my older articles just to make them more descriptive and to give them a better chance at being looked at.
I just did a quick scan through my ten most popular articles, and noticed that I have modified headlines on five of them. Thanks for the reminder, motivation, and laughs.
Nov 13th, 2007
Collis
Love it! Dugg! and Reddited!
Nov 13th, 2007
Luxx
How about this
26. Shocking numbers :
$1000,000 = $100,000 in iPhones* !
source : http://www.americanidolpixelmania.com/signup.php
good luck
Nov 13th, 2007
laowaitattler
And after you get sucked in by the headlines and read the content, you quickly realize that you read the same article somewhere else before but without the catchy headline the first time around.
These headline writers tend to copy content from others. The only thing they are good at is copying what someone has done before. They are hardly ever original content writers.
Even the headline formats are just following an already existing formula.
When I see headline like these examples, I never go on to the read the website.
Nov 13th, 2007
Mohsin
Love the list! I have used many of these on my blog.
Nov 13th, 2007
Ivy
I love offbeat headlines - is there a formula for that?
I recently saw a controversial headline in Digg that said: “How to spend 661 million dollars” as a protest against the Iraq war. It started an entire forum of discussion in the comment board…
Nov 14th, 2007
Simon
Wonderful, I laughed heartily. There are way too many generic headlines on blogs. Hopefully many of these formulaic ones will stop working now that they’ve been totally done to death.
I especially like:
“11. The resource list you’ll bookmark and never look at again”.
I have a ton of those.
Another good Stumble.
Nov 14th, 2007
Matt
Loved the Keyword Stuffer. I probably don’t write headlines as well as I should - I think I’m going to start trying to do a little better on them.
Nov 14th, 2007
DrSteve
You have again provided an accurate description of the state of things. Do you think, though, that the very fact that we can identify a few types of headlines might mean that they’re about to become passe? Not quite yet, but when everyone catches on to what works now bloggers will have to find new ways.
I’ve been experimenting with a new blog where the headline IS the content! Just an aphorism and a picture. It takes just a moment to read/feel and absorb - and then off one goes clicking away (which how people travel around the internet anyway). It’ll be interesting to see what people think.
Nov 14th, 2007
Mark Dykeman
Interesting post. It emphasizes how we’re all fighting for attention share…
Nov 14th, 2007
skellie
@ Joel: Improving past lacklustre headlines is a good tip. Does the post permalink stay the same?
@ Collis: Cheers!
@ Luxx: Fantastic — we have a bonus tip, #26. That one is absolutely a Web 2.0 favorite.
@ Laowaitattler: That’s true in some cases, but I not all those headlines are bad examples (and some of them have been used by my favorite bloggers). But you raise a good point — some people are turned off by formulaic headlines.
@ Mohsin: You’ve got a head start, then :).
@ Ivy: I think that might fall under the ‘curiosity’ formula.
@ Simon: I do wonder if the number headline will ever disappear. It works at the moment, but it’s possible that these things only work for so long!
@ Matt: We’ve all run into a keyword stuffer or two ;).
@ DrSteve: I think it’s entirely possible. Things like this go in phases, and there’ll come a time, I think, when the numbered headline in particular loses its sheen. But I suspect we’ll mine it for all it’s worth before that happens ;).
@ Mark: Absolutely — too much stuff, not enough attention… You’ve just given me an idea for a post. Thank you!
Nov 14th, 2007
Rob Wagoner
Fantastic,
Functional and humorous too!
Nov 15th, 2007
Emmanuel Kennick
What a captivating picture!I try to copy from you.
Nov 16th, 2007
Megan
And these are considered to be a good thing?? {{cringe}} Smells like empty content to me.
Don’t forget:
Matters of life or death
(XX _____ you can’t live without)
The “I know something you don’t know”
(see no. 23)
Capitallizing on human laziness
(see no. 24, also the “without lifting a finger” line)
Nov 22nd, 2007
Sly from Slyvisions.com
This post itself is an example! Anyway, thanks for the compilation! Now I’ll have some reference to my future articles.
Jan 6th, 2008
INKODE
And look at that - you even acknowledge your readers. Mark of a pro
Jan 27th, 2008
Troy
All I can say is wow. I’ve read so many posts on writing killer headlines, but I’ve learned more from all these examples than from any of them. Very nice compilation!
Feb 16th, 2008
Cindy King
very good, makes me want to work on better titles
Mar 26th, 2008
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