BLOGGING FOR DEVS (#29)

The secret to writing interesting headlines (without using clickbait).

Is your headline too clickbait-y?

There may be no larger group on the internet more concerned with having their writing come across as clickbait than developers.

After all, what stokes the ire of the tech mob more than a slight, technical inaccuracy in an article?

That's right, clickbait.

(And having to scroll really far down the page to reach the recipe on a food blog *shakes fist at sky*)

Jokes aside, headlines are super important.

8 in 10 internet readers only read a headline, and only 2 in 10 will read the rest. No click = no reader = no one visiting your blog 😅

So this week I'm sharing the simple secret for writing interesting headlines without using clickbait.

Plus, a few of my favorite headline formulas + examples of them in action.

Your headline is a promise

The secret to writing great headlines without clickbait is to treat your headline like a promise.

If you deliver on the promise, it's not clickbait. Simple as.

But if I click through on your article and I'm immediately disappointed? NOT the emotion you want people to associate with you or your writing.

From another angle, think about the implied "promise" behind a headline that's kinda boring and vanilla: a bland blog post also awaits.

So how can we make our headlines set a high bar of the rest of the article? Here are a few of my favorite techniques and formulas.

Headline tips, tricks, and promises

Tip 1. Address your reader's fears or objections right in the headline. Sometimes people won't click through because they assume your post won't work for them. Address this concern straight in your headline:

• "I would need a lot of money and a team to create professional-looking YouTube videos"
  • How to film a high-quality YouTube video without a production team
• "All the resources about web development are too advanced for me"
  • Learn web development as an absolute beginner
• "The only way to get people to read my blog is having a lot of Twitter followers"
  • Learn to grow your develop blog without an existing audience (See what I did there?)

The promise? Whatever's been holding you back until now can be overcome, here's how.

Tip 2. Asking good questions. Invite the reader to go on a journey with you to answer an important question.

• Are Your Anchor Links Accessible?
  • "I think so, but let me double-check to be sure"
• Is Snapchat going to die?
  • "I've been thinking about investing in Snapchat, let me read this first to see if it's worth it"

The promise? By the end of the post, you will be able to answer the question in the title for yourself.

Tip 3. Put a fresh spin on an old formula. List posts ("9 Ways to X") and How-to's ("How to X") are blogging staples that can become boring. But you can still use these formulas in surprising ways.

• How Netflix Became a $100 Billion Company in 20 Years
  • Most articles talk about reaching money, fast. A title like this turns that trope on its head.
• 7 Absolute Truths I Unlearned as a Junior Developer
  • My most popular post, read over 170,000 times, is indeed...a listicle. But instead of "7 Things I learned" it's "7 Absolute Truths", which invites you to imagine it will be at least somewhat controversial 😜

The promise? This post is different than all the other ones in this style that disappointed you in the past.

P.S. Headlines aren't just for blog posts

Crafting great headlines is an art that extends to a ton of platforms:

Email subject lines, YouTube titles, the h1 on your product's website, even the first sentence of a tweet.

For instance, on Twitter: You can put your first sentence of the tweet on its own line, and let that draw people into your article, thread, or story.

Here's an example that worked recently for me:

Nearly 1,000 people read my article by clicking on this tweet.

Although the headline of the post itself is pretty informational, the first line of the tweet tells people why they should read income reports. Then, the post delivers on the promise with precise figures and interesting details.

Side note: Writing this tweet probably took me at least 30-45 minutes and a dozen drafts. Copywriting that looks effortless is usually what takes the most work!

Wrapping up: Three questions to ask yourself about your next headline

Next time you're writing a title or headline, ask yourself:

1. Would I personally find this headline interesting enough to click on?
2. Does my blog post deliver on the promise of the headline?
3. Does this headline attract the kind of readers I want in my audience?

To conclude, I'll leave you with a writing hack the pros use all the time:

You can always update titles of your old articles to make them better and try sharing them again. It's a faster way to iterate and learn than writing a new post every single time.

Hopefully your mind's now churning with headline ideas 💡 Give it a try this week and let me know how it goes!

Thanks so much for reading. Til next time,

@monicalent

P.S. Thanks again to Fathom Analytics for sponsoring this edition! If you decide to give them a try, let them know Blogging for Devs sent you 📈

P.P.S. Next week I'm going to be talking about a topic I love to nerd out about: analytics. What are some of your biggest questions when it comes to which analytics actually matter for your blog? Hit reply and let me know!

Did you like this week's edition?
Click here to share the newsletter on Twitter 🐦

Or, share a link (https://bloggingfordevs.com) with your colleagues in Slack. Both make a huge difference for me! Thanks 💛