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Everyone is familiar with the saying “You can’t judge a book by its cover”. Well, that expression is fading with the decline of books and the rise of blogs. Nielsen/Mckinsey company reported an increase from 36 million blogs in 2006 to over 181 million blogs by the beginning of 2012. Forbes also reports that, with today’s technology, the average person is bombarded with almost 30,000 messages today. So, if you are a blogger looking to catch the attention of readers you might want to get familiar with a new expression: “You always judge an article by its headline.”
You could have the best article in the world, but if you do not have a good headline it is not going to reach its full potential. The main reasons a headline is so important is that it:
An effective headline will be able to grab the reader’s attention and lure them into reading the article. A good headline may even be able to generate social sharing with little to no reading of the actual content.
Let’s take a look at a list of good headlines and what makes them effective.
1. T-Mobile CEO: Porn Could Kill Shared Data Plans
2. “Vimensio Gives 3D the Bird”
3. “Alien Life May Exist on Exoplanet Moons”
4. “10 Things You Can Learn From the Apple Store”
5. “Suicide of a hacker”
6. “How You Can Learn a Language in only 10 Days”
7. “Welcome to the New Civil War”
8. “Can a website help you beat jet lag?”
9. “7 Practices That Make You Look Like a Rookie Blogger”
10. “Why Facebook is Making Life Hard”
11. “Do media vultures perpetuate mass shootings?”
12. “How to Publish a Book”
13. “7 free Apps That Can Make Planning Your Next Vacation Easy”
14. “Fushigi Ball Poised to be Bigger than Snuggies, XBox”
15. “Top U.S. Cities for Bedbug Infestations”
16. “Watch Obama’s Inauguration on Your Phone With New App”
17. “Can Twitter Predict the Future? Pentagon says Maybe”
18. “Top 10 Wal-Mart Pictures of the Week”
19. “How Everyday Tools Can Help You Lose Weight”
20. “Republicans turned off by size of Obama’s Package”
21. “Statistics show that teen pregnancy drops off significantly after age 25”
22. Love-rat Dad of Nine Children to Eight Women Who Headbutted ex-girlfriend in Row Over Cheese Toastie Jailed for Just 20 Days
23. “Homicide Victims Rarely Talk to Police”
24. “The Princess Bride’s Cary Elwes Sued for Credit Card Debt”
25. “Woman Stabbed by Central Park”
26. Al Roker Didn’t Poop Here; Top Washington DC Tourist Attractions Where He Hasn’t Crapped His Pants”
27. “Cloak and Shag Her”
28. “Two Golfers in One Threesome Ace Same Hole”
29. “With a Why No Closer, 2 Boys, 6, and 2 Burials”
30. “How to Find Porn on the Internet”
31. “Overweight Teens Typically Eat”
32. “Monkeys Hate Flying Squirrels, Report Monkey-annoyances Experts”
33. “Teen Orgy Teacher Given Hard Time”
34. “Dennis Rodman to Pen Children’s Book”
Headlines are an integral part of an article. It is the first thing readers see and will either compel them to click through or move on. There are effective ways to market your article and several examples of good headlines are listed above. However, as also listed, there are many ways to kill your article before the first word is ever read. Yes, some of the headlines are funny, but that is simply face value and will not intrigue the reader to indulge in your content, unless you know how to utilize the different social platforms where humor converts well.
What are the worst or best headlines you’ve read lately?
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