Sometimes ago, the money blogger…..Enstine Muki, wrote a blog post that give evidence to some proven fact about crafting attention grabbing headline – the kind of great articles headlines that never can be ignored by readers – in that post also, there was a revelation which pointed out that most of us bloggers don’t practice what we preach on blog commenting best practices.
Actually, that post wasn’t about articles headline or blog commenting best practices, but in the end those two topics were what I could take along with me from reading the post.
In our search for website traffic, most of us bloggers are after some magic formula that will skyrocket our blog traffic level to the roof top in seconds, that’s good!
But, is just an illusion….there is no magic wand to growing website traffic and what you’ll always find is the constant law of success – no short cut to true and lasting glory – You have to learn the ropes and walk the walk.
What I want to share with you here today is nothing new or a special kind of theory,… or in some ways different from what you’ve heard before, far from that! I want to direct your observation to something you have overlooked when trying to increase your targeted quality website traffic.
Go back to that post written by Enstine and think about what drove you here to read it.? Is it the love for the author? Is the blog your favorite on the topic of make money blogging? Is it the awesome community? Or the post headline?
Based on my observation, and following what most commenters said in the comment box…..the headline was the sole reason that drove scores of visits down the blog post and generates 83 valuable comments.
Below are some of the responses from readers to that post:
Next time you’re searching for a formula that will eventually increase the level of your blog engagements and dramatically skyrocket your targeted traffic…..start by crafting a headline that truly summarized what the post is all about and will arouse the curiosity in your potential audience.
If these two elements and or any of the other elements – Benefits, Awareness, Interest, Attention – are present in your post headline, your chances of getting more eyeballs to read your post has being increase by 500% and even more than that. Don’t doubt this fact, I have seen it work times and times again.
Know this first, In case you don’t know….only two out of every ten that sees your post will read it. The rest 8 will glance through the headline and walk away. So, your post headline is your starting point towards driving quality targeted website traffic.
Now, the BIG question is…..how do I write great articles headlines that drive targeted traffic and build engagement on my blog?
Great articles headlines – Be Specific.
First, I would advice you never hit the publish button until you figure out who you are writing that post for. If you fail to identify that one reader that is waiting somewhere to read your post, then you’re screwed.
Don’t write your post aiming to target two set of audience, you’re not going to hit anything if you’re trying to hit at everybody.
Am not writing this post for someone who wants to know how to blog, neither am I writing it for someone who want to know how to drive traffic. The fact that I speak about website traffic in this post doesn’t mean am specifically talking about how to drive website traffic.
I write this post for that reader who wants to “know more” about how to “write articles headline” that grab attention, so he could use that as a “tool” to further increase the level of targeted traffic and engagement on his blog.
This reader has already known the importance of writing magnetic headlines to the success of content marketing, but searching for how to do it better. That is the only one reader am looking for to read this post. The reason for the title “Be specific and arouse Curiosity” – the work of a great article headline”.
If I had wanted to write for a reader who is just curios at increasing his blog traffic, I would have come up with an article headline with something like this, “10 Strategies to drive website traffic“….then in the body post, I will include headline as one of the 10 strategies and explain why headline could solve his problem.
In the original title above I did something if you take note of it, the beginning of the title says, “be specific and arouse curiosity”. Those five words have summarized every lessons I wanted to pass on to the reader of this post.
The reader already knows that to craft out compelling headline that grab attention, one of the things he need to convey to his audience is clarity in his headline message and also play on one of the emotions or desire of his prospect.
Take for instance if I want to “sell” to you a product and you saw a headline like this, “Download the FREE WordPress plugin that turn your blog to traffic monster“.
There are problems with headline like this one; first you’ve target the wrong audience by using the word “FREE” when in reality it is a paid product. This alone will increase your bounce rate, and fill your email list with garbage; because on getting to the sales page and your visitors now see some signs of $$$ – they turned off.
You’re not attracting paying customers, someone who will and ready to bring out his credit card to make purchase. The word FREE in the headline has change the game. But the words “turn your blog to traffic monster” will play on your fear or desire to skyrocket your blog traffic level.
Many marketers do this to lure people rushing to their squeeze page, but the truth is you’re doing yourself more harm than good.
What you’ll get are thousands of newbie marketers looking for freebies to download.
Identify your potential audience is the beginning of successful content marketing; know what they want and how to communicate to them – both in their language and tones.
Arousing curiosity in your audience.
Sometimes ago, over at my blog, I wrote a post titled, “How to write An Article That Get Read – The Art and Science”. Whao!
Shamusdeen! do you mean there is an art and scientific fact to writing an article that guarantee it will get read no matter what? Exactly what I want you to think, and I know you too must be thinking same at the moment.
To some extent you may call that deceit if I didn’t deliver what the art and scientific facts are in the post. Remember what I want in the headline was to arouse or trigger your subconscious mind and start thinking what could be the scientific fact that guarantee my articles will get read?
Thereby leading you to click-through reading the post.
This is where you must make sure you deliver on your promise; and in all honesty, your opening paragraph must not ramble around but nail the reader down.
In my case I deliver because the fact that you stop by to read the post as already justify the effectiveness or authenticity of the headline message.
Mastering the ability to write great content is an art, because it involved being creative in the process of doing it and a science because it involve lots of testing, trials, errors, learning, constant practices, facts, improvement, and predictions.
The first paragraph of the post settled the argument between is there any scientific facts or not.
I read a guest post on shoutmeloud that read “Why your blog is going to fail in 2014 and again in 2015”. The author of this post won’t like to submit another post to that blog again. With all due respect to the author of the post, (he is a very creative writer and I respect his creativity a lot) but the information contain in the body of the post does not in any way justify the headline a bit.
I read it.
Take a look at these headlines, “How to make $23,567 on the internet in 30 days” and “How I make $23,567 in online affiliate marketing in 30 days“. If you chose to write the latter, then you must certainly know what you’re taking about and definitely have achieved that result otherwise, be ready for the unwelcome feedback from readers.
Note what make the difference in the two headlines, the word “to” and “I” makes the first BIG difference then the words “affiliate marketing” makes the latter more direct and specific to a certain group of audience.
While the earning figure – $23,567 – is purposely placed there to arouse your curiosity; it is meant to play on your fear of not want to be poor. The desire to make money online in large quantity.
Whenever you’re writing a headline that start with “How I” make sure you have proves, data, figures, statics and can present a case study to back it up. Such a headline is more of testimony to having done and achieve something. There must be real prove that you actually do it.
Thank you for reading up to this stage; now is time to put me to test. How specific I’m on this topic, and did the title in any way move you to read this post?