During all of my research I came to realize that the most successful headlines are the ones that:

1. promise a major benefit

Everyone is always looking for benefits. Whether they are material or intellectual, people want to better themselves and their existence. Writing a title that will let your readers know what kind of benefits they have if the read the article that is under it will give you good click results.

2. offer a solution to a problem

The Internet is like a all-in-one troubleshooting service where you can find solutions to almost every problem. People enjoy being independent, solving their own problems and not needing to pay anyone to do it for them. Some are just lazy and prefer to pay but a simple solution to a big problem is what people value the most.

Headlines that offer that solution are very interesting to a frustrated user that has spent hours trying to solve his problem. A lot of people would agree that problem solving websites tend to get the most traffic in the least period of time especially if they are free.

3. ask a question

Asking a simple question or your readers opinion can go a long way into building good a community around your blog or website. By allowing your blog to be a two-way communication conduit between yourself and individual users will help you build a stable following – even if they don’t subscribe to your mailing list or your RSS feed.

The kind of article titles will make your readers feel important and some might even take the next step by contributing with a guest post. A lot of good can come from discussions in comments and a lot of people draw inspiration from them.

4. quote a testimonial

There is nothing better to offer potential customer (or reader) than a quote from a previous satisfied customer. Although nobody can guarantee you that the testimonials that you read on thousands of sales sites are true, they still carry a lot of weight in the business world.

Be careful not to add any additional hype to your testimonial because although it can be a gold mine, untruthful and hard-to-believe testimonials can hurt your business and more importantly – your credibility.

5. call out a targeted crowd or profession

Starting a headline with a profession on which your customers or readers are based on will grab their attention because they will feel called out.

Headlines such a:

“Bloggers! Learn From Other People’s Copywriting Mistakes!”

“Freelancers! Check Out Our New Project Management System!”

“Single working moms! How To Find The Right Babysitter?”

let your readers know which user group you are basing your article on.

I like this one especially because it looks to me like it might improve the “Average Time Spent On Site”. It will clearly state that this article is mainly for bloggers (and anyone else who is interested of course) and if people are not interested in blogging, will not click.

6. announce some news

People using the Internet for a specific profession like blogging for example like to stay well informed. A lot of people have written popular posts based on some piece of news they have came across faster than other people and wrote about it.

A recent example would be the release of WordPress 2.9 “Carmen”. You saw hundreds of blogs writing about it, the news, features and fixes. But the ones that profited most are the ones that where first to publish their posts. This works in very much the same way in most professions that deal with any kind of information.

The great thing about writing a fresh piece of news is that most readers won’t bother to write about the news themselves but will rather just re-tweet your own post spread the news. This will help you get a lot of exposure, maybe even more than with a regular non-news post.

Conclusion

A combination of a few of these techniques will spark the flare of interest in your readers. Make sure you stay as original as you can and don’t make EVERY post a spotlight grabber as it will look cheap and kinda hyperactive.

I hope this article helps you attract many more clicks in your future copywriting endeavours. As always, I would love to read about your results in the comments. If anyone has any other good advice, feel free to share!

Related posts:

1. 6 Ways to Write Better Than Chuck Norris

No matter how much (or little) blogging you do, you should always be on the look-out for ways to improve your posts. Improving your posts means more visitors will actually read it instead of just skimming through your text. They might even subscribe to your feed as a result!

Here are 6 ways you will make even Chuck Norris scratch his head:

1. Learn to think like your reader

Whether you are writing a post on a blog or a landing page for your business website the single, most important thing you need to focus on is thinking like your reader.

Does your reader want to read more about you or about the product he is thinking of buying? Is he going to value hype or fact, theory or testimonials? Put yourself in his shoes and serve the right appetizer, main course and dessert.

2. Transform features into benefits

Readers visit your blog because they want to read something or download something that will benefit them. It can either be a piece of information or a freebie Photoshop brush, your visitors are looking for value.

The best way to show them that value is to saturate your posts with benefits. You don’t have to … but if you do write about a product or service, make sure you turn features into benefits.

I have found this to be especially useful for business websites promoting their products or for affiliate marketers.

If you are writing about a WordPress plug-in that will automatically delete spam comments – a feature for that would be “This plug-in will delete your spam comments automatically!” Try changing that into a benefit, like for example: “By deleting spam automatically, this plug-in will give you 30 extra minutes per day to work on your blog!”

You can do the same with any product, just focus on what the user gets from it and how it would change the way he or she lives/works/blogs/etc.

3. Poke readers in the eye with your headline

Use your imagination and try to combine unusual words that might make your post headline catchy but not obscure.

Here’s an example:

• Instead of “10 Mistakes That Bloggers Make” try using something like “10 Crimes Committed by Bloggers”

What is the main difference between the two blog titles? Which one would you be more likely to click?

Everyone knows that the first title is about mistakes that bloggers make. The mistakes could be while writing posts, making their blog templates, using copyrighted images.

The second one, on the other hand, can seem like a headline from a newspaper where someone got killed by an angry blogger right? People get excited, curious and really want to check it out. It’s as simple as that!

Another example you can learn from is the title I put together for this blog post. Chuck Norris has nothing to do with the world of blogging and copy-writing but he has become a synonym for being hardcore. It is that association that drove some people to this post.

You might even be one of those people that clicked the blog post link because you wanted to find out what Chuck has to do with writing copy. Turns out, nothing – but you learned something new didn’t you!?

NOTE: These headline tactics should never be used to mislead or trick your readers into visiting and seeing something TOTALLY unrelated! Overdoing it could be seriously counterproductive for your business or blog.

4. Make your text easy to scan

It is a busy world we live in and often people don’t have time to read through your entire blog post. Your job is to setup some sticky terrain for them to get “trapped” in and attract their interest.

Aside to writing eye-poking headlines, make sure your subheadings are also catchy. Pay special attention to the beginning of each of your paragraphs. Does the first sentence spark any interest in the reader? No? Think of what attracts your attention when scanning a blog.

A reader should be able to get the point (punchline) of your post by just reading your headings and subheadings.

Reveal just the right amount of information in your subheadings to interest your readers and they will stay!

5. Fragment your text

Reading text on the computer screen is half as fast than reading it from a piece of paper. How do you compensate for this? You split your post text into fragments with noticeable subheadings, then you split each fragment into 5-sentence paragraphs.

Splitting your text up into paragraphs and putting noticeable blank spaces between them will make your readers job easier.

Vary the length of your paragraphs and keep your sentences short! It makes it easier to read and navigate through the text.

Another thing to avoid is using justified text because nobody likes reading boxy chunks of text.

6. Keep your language simple

You want to provide useful information to your readers not stun them with your fabulous excessive knowledge of using superfluous verbs that will short circuit their neurons.

No!

The last thing you want to do is make your readers feel like they (or you) are from a different planet. In fact, you don’t want them to feel like that at all! Try to keep your blog posts formatted as a simple one-on-one conversation. One where you want to explain something to your friend and in which you are using the simplest examples and language.

Stick to the point and deliver your message!

If you can manage to follow these 6 simple steps, Chuck Norris won’t stand a chance – He might knock you out though…

Related posts:

1. 6 Most Successful Types Of Headlines