Writing an article that people cannot resist reading is all about the creating the right title. If you create the right title for an article it will suck people in like flies to honey. They simply won’t be able to resist the urge to find out this priceless nugget of information. So, how do you do that? You’ll have to read this entire article to find out.
The best way to grab people’s attention like that is to make some kind of outrageous claim that speaks to a person’s own self interest, like greed for example. Here is what I mean: If you write an article about how to become as rich as Donald Trump in less than six months, you are going to create a lot of curiosity. People will be incredibly skeptical at your article’s claim that you are offering some kind of information that could allow them to become “The Donald” in that short of time frame. Not only is the idea of becoming anywhere near as successful as Donald Trump pretty much absurd, but so is the suggestion that it could be done in under six months. Anyone who is interested in getting rich, which is pretty much everybody, is going to be at least a little curios.
Keep in mind that by using a title like that it is going to be very hard to deliver on that promise. However, so long as you are actually providing really useful information to people that can be tied into the title somehow, the majority of them won’t mind that you used this tactic. Some of them might. Those people who do mind will not buy whatever it is you are selling. Still, the vast majority of readers will be willing to overlook the fact that you basically baited them, so long as your material is really good.
This already happens to us all of the time when we see the catchy slogan on the cover of some magazine while standing in the supermarket checkout aisle. Why
do you think that the tabloids sell so many copies? It isn’t because of their outstanding reporting. It is because they are marketing geniuses. They know what buttons to push to peak a person’s curiosity. Pushing those buttons sells newspapers. The major newspapers do the same thing. So do the major television networks. They sensationalize the otherwise boring news so that people like us actually want to watch it. The actual story is the same whether they use a catchy teaser or not.
Your subject matter might not provide you an easy opportunity to make a claim like the one I just used as an example. You might be writing about something less exciting. You should still look for a way to really enhance the best benefit of the material in your article. If your article is about your recipe for peach cobbler, you might use a title like “This Recipe Is Sure To Win Your Man’s Heart” or “My Peach Cobbler Works Better On Him Than Viagra.” Better yet you could build a story around your recipe article and title it “How six ripe peaches from the supermarket got me one of the wildest nights in bed EVER.” Who wouldn’t want to read about that?
Any time you can tie in sex along with whatever you are talking about, you will see an increase in traffic. I hate to admit it but some things are just completely irresistible. We are human after all. Posts and articles that talk about sex are irresistible to a lot of people, especially men. If you don’t believe me, try it with one of your own articles. You will see your traffic numbers are higher than average on that one. And, don’t forget to tell me about it so I can read it too.
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Kathy, I think you should start charging people to write titles for them! :) This was a really fun article and I will have to keep it mind next time I post.
Glad you liked it Sherryl. Thanks for the Tweet as well.
Haha, what a great article! I bet you are exactly right too – I saw that Sherry had tweeted this article, and I was like “what the…?” I just HAD to find out – curiosity got the best of me! :-) thanks for a good laugh! :-)
See, I told you it works.
Very, very true, Kathy. After all, it’s what’s kept Cosmo around for this long, and has kept Cosmo’s advertisers very happy!
The only downside I found with having the word sex in a title is all of the really gross SPAM comments that come as a result. lol It gets worse than usual.
Hope you’re having a great day! :)
Tia
I am hoping that Akismet does a good job on the porn comments.
I notice this kind of sensationalizing every time I look at the cover of Women’s Health. According to their magazine cover, it is super simple to have the perfect body, become irresistibly gorgeous as you age and live disease free forever if you just read one issue (whatever issue is out at that time). Cosmo does it, so does just about every magazine out there.
Getting people’s attention with a catchy headline is one thing. Then we have to write a really good article to keep them there. You are right. If you write a provocative headline it will usually bring you more readers. I just wonder if the content doesn’t match the post; if the bounce rate will go up.
Interesting article Kathy.
Patricia Perth Australa
I think you are right Patricia. You should make sure you are writing good content so as to not upset them. I wonder how many people really even care though. Those companies sure sell a lot of magazines. I have been a guilty subscriber to more than one of them even though I know that they do this.
It is important to keep your titles relevant to your posts. If you don’t your post will appear in the SERPs for irrelevant keywords. If your blog is ranking for irrelevant keywords, visitors clicking through expecting to find something specific will be disappointed when the post doesn’t reveal just what they were looking for.
Who cares about traffic if no one is sticking around to read those posts?
I explain it further in my post Using the right Keywords.
Rose,
I think you can use the words creatively to help gain the attention of people who would be in your target market. Depending on how it is done, you could actually get people to come in and stick around. I don’t suggest that you use the title to bait and switch topics on them. I am suggesting you use the title as a lead in to relevant content kind of like what I tried to do with this article.
If the title is completely irrelevant to the content, then yes people will be very disappointed.
This is a very interesting and somewhat “naughty” article, though it does really work in attracting a lot of curious readers (me included!).. Of course, if you caught their attention, you have to maintain their curiosity by giving them information relevant to what you said. Otherwise, that would really cause some problems on your blog’s reputation. I agree with the tabloids, but to me, sometimes their headlines are a bit overboard.
The tabloids headlines are overboard. There is no doubt about that. But, those overboard headlines are what attracts the attention of readers. Isn’t that the goal of every headline and every title?
Hey there Kathy, that magic three letter word “sex” is always something that grabs peoples attention in one of two ways, the first is the reader is so intrigued by the use of it that they have to read it and the other is those that search for “sex” on the internet just to, well you know ;)
Hey Karen,
Yeah. That term is searched a lot. (lol)
Nice of you to stop by.
Kathy,
I couldn’t resist coming over and reading!
Patricia makes a good point – great titles must have great content.
Plus don’t write aheadline that has nothing to do with the content but I do like the ‘sex’ angle. I shall try it and let you know.
Andrew
Andrew,
I agree completely on your points. I would not want to see someone write a headline about one thing and then not talk at all about anything relevant. That would be really bad.
Success of article depends on two things mainly. Title of the post and first paragraph of the article. I strongly believe that titles work like appetizer. They increase curiosity of reader to read the whole article. After crafting a good title, like Patricia said, content of article comes in action and first paragraph plays important role. One can easily guess about rest of article.
I will vote you 10 out of 10 for title and content of article. Good work Kathy.
Thanks for your opinioni Imran.
Writing for a magazine is different than writing for the web. Patricia is right. If you use sex words in your title to draw in an audience you are going to have a hire bounce rate.
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Of course I had to read the article once I saw the title; I am sure you’ll be able to create a nice amount of traffic with this one, Kathy!
One more thing that works great for attracting male readership is mentioning sports. I don’t have a great example in mind, but it works like a charm.
Pleasure as always, Kathy.
Ana Hoffmna
http://www.TrafficGenerationCafe.com
Chalk up one more visit due to the title.
It makes sense that sports works too.
Your headline totally sucked me in – it’s the only reason I clicked on it (great article, by the way!)
Further proof that it works – I clicked on Emily’s link, which took me to a site that mainly does reviews of technical products. What did I click on there? An article about Caroline’s Breasts! And I’m a happily married straight woman!
And yet one more. A new person by the looks of it.
Kathy,
An excellent article. The fact I read is top to bottom is because of the title, so when I realized the title worked as the article suggested it would I had to learn more. Now I have to get back to my own blogging to put your advice to good use.
Thanks for the feedback Len. You don’t have to necessarily use the word sex either. You just need to use something that will grab their attention and create interest in what lies beyond the title.
I think the larger takeaway point is the power of writing a good title. Using sex or something else that will make people look twice is just one way of doing this, saying something controversial or funny will also do the trick.
Could not agree more Rev. The power is in the title. Well written titles are exceptionally powerful.
OK, I have to admit – you title pulled me into reading :-)
Excellent bait! Not to mention that article is well worth the reading but your title rocked!
Thanks Alex. I was hoping people would like the actual article content as much as the title itself.
Well, they would :-) first you get their curiosity by the VERY catchy Title but once you do…
I had to read it for one simple reason – if someone can create a great title, I have to read what else they have to say. I think its human nature on which all copywriters are counting.
Cheers!
Bravo Kathy. You got my boyfriend’s attention on Facebook LOL. You are definitely on to something here. Now to carry out your great suggestions…………. :)
If you are creative you can use this to your advantage around home too. Leave little notes for your boyfriend titled “How doing the dishes can get you more sex” (lol)
When Julie tweeted it, I was hooked. Your title definitely did the trick.
Your content, of course, was good too, and points to a great way to get readers close enough to “set the hook”. Not sure how to work it into my SEO blog, yet, but I’ll give it some thought.
Maybe something like, “Sleep Your Way to the Top of Google’s Listings” ;)
You need to work it in with some other form of promotion so that people actually see the title. I visited a bunch of blogs that use the Commentluv plugin. That way the readers of those posts that I commented on would read the title and be hooked. Obviously it works well with Twitter too.
Great titles sell. Headlines have been selling products for quite some time now as they are the first A in A.I.D.A. and grab the buyer’s ‘attention’ in the same way a good blog post headline encourages your reader to visit your site and to take the time to read your article.
This post certainly supports the fact that sex sells and is why many advertising campaigns that put an emphasis on this (when not overdone) have a great return… I blame all those fickle men out there. lol.
Like you said though, what ever you use as your headline you *MUST* deliver on your promise or cleverly write your way out of having to do so. :)
Thanks for grabbing my attention and pulling me from my travels around the blogosphere.
Karl
Hey Karl,
Good to see you here. You are right. It is the first A in AIDA. Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. If you are going to randomly throw titles out into the world where they are mixed in with a bunch of other ones, then you have got to do something to draw attention to yours. You have to get their attention before you can sell them. That is of course unless you are already targeting and getting traffic that would already be interested in what you are selling.