14 secret tips on how you can write killer headlines

Ever notice how many articles these days have headlines such as “Six Ways to Make Vista and XP Work Your Way,” and “Ten Things Your Ticket Broker Won’t Tell You“? Headlines that promise any number of ways to do something are cliché but readers still find them irresistible, in part because they believe they’re about to get lots of useful info without having to work too hard at it.

If you have trouble figuring out what you want to say and how to say it, write the headline first. That’s your arrow head. The rest will naturally follow. I often tweak or even rewrite my heads once I get going. You never really know where the arrow is going to land until you let it fly.

1. If I write a “insert-number-here headline,” I like using an unexpected number of tips. Rather than write “10 ways to save money,” I prefer “11 ways to save money.” Ten tips seems formulaic but 11 seems as though I carefully thought out the list and included the most essential things the reader ought to know.

2. Talk about clichés…stay away from heads like: “Take a Stroll Down Computing Memory Lane.”

3. Use the active voice when you can. It’s not “The ball was caught by the dog.” It’s “The dog caught the ball.”

4. “Secret” headlines are popular with writers and readers. It’s a headline with the promise of teaching you something that everyone wants to know but is known by only a select few.  “The secret of outliving your wife” or “The secret of winning at playing online poker,” or something like that.

5. Bob Dylan: He’s got everything he needs, he’s an artist, he don’t look back is the head to a story about Dylan’s art exhibit, but you wouldn’t know that from reading the headline. It’s okay to be cute; it’s a sin to be obscure.

6. Write your heads from the perspective of the reader: Rather than write: “We offer discounts for blah, blah. Go with: “You pay less for blah, blah.“

7. Headlines that ask questions such as “Would you like to make $1 million in 2 weeks?” usually work for me but only when the answer is “Yes,” which is obviously a good thing. But headlines that ask questions like “What Steps Kill a Recipe For You?” bug me. I figure people who read my stuff are looking for answers, not more questions. That head came from a squib in LifeHacker about an article in The New York Times. The paper’s headline for that story was much more interesting and descriptive: “Recipe Deal Breakers: When Step 2 Is ‘Corral Pig’.”

8. Testimonial headlines appeal to me too but really good ones are sometimes hard to find. “I saved $80 from one tip in Money Guru Magazine, Famous Person says.”

9. I like alliteration in headlines. Alliteration always attracts attention.

10. Use the sentence case for your heads. Start with an initial capital and lower case everything that follows. I believe heads where nearly every word is capitalized is harder on the eyes. Not everyone agrees with me.

11. I dig descriptive headlines that actually say something about the content. “The Evolution of the Press Release” says nothing. You’re better off with: “Here’s how to write press releases that compel editors to call you.”

12. While you’re at it, use the imperative as in “Get rich in real estate!” rather than “There’s the possibility of getting rich in real estate!”

13. Headlines that begin with “How” are powerful. “How I saved $86.98 reading TutorialBlog.com” and “How would you like to save $45.00 on your next phone bill?” The most famous of these “How” headlines is “How to win friends and influence people,” written by Dale Carnegie, the great motivator.

14. I prefer using present tense. There’s a sense of immediacy that’s hard to ignore. It’s also a call to action. What really works for me is: “Get free money today!” Let me know if you ever see a headline like that — I can always use free money to pay off my bookie.

Some last thoughts…

Use your keywords in your headlines. Search engines assume keywords in headlines are more important.

The other day, I saw a billboard with the head: “A dry crack is a happy crack.” No lie. It was for a company that fixed concrete foundations for residences and businesses. I’m not sure what to think about that one.

Here are a couple of old-time famous headlines—one for piano lessons and the other for an automobile. “They Laughed When I Sat Down To Play The Piano. But when I started to play…” And the other: “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.”

Those headlines are legendary among copywriters because they hook the reader—hard. Writing compelling headlines can sometimes be tricky but they’re worth the effort. Good headlines not only pull in readers but also help grab attention when they show up in search engine results and RSS feeds.