Don’t you hate those annoying article titles that always start with a number?
I bet you do!… but guess what, they work extremely well and grab our interests — thus making us click even when we don’t want to!
To prove my point… you are here reading this very article!
Ever since sites like Buzzfeed and Upworthy started posting a million articles with numbers in the titles and we continually see them getting thousands upon thousands of shares on Facebook, people started to catch on — these crazy number posts are actually getting a lot of attention.
And there’s been no stopping it ever since…
Even Entrepreneur.com is hooked and these crazy numbered post titles are they are the most shared articles on their site on any given day.
One of the reasons why numbered posts work so well is because they can be applied to nearly any niche topic you can possibly think of.
From a writing standpoint, it’s also easier to come up with content creation ideas when you have a set amount of points you want to cover within one blog post.
For example, back in October I wrote an article for SearchEngineJournal that was titled “7 Proven Methods to Explode Your Social Shares“. Not only was it a great post with real life and working examples, but it was also the 3rd most shared article on their site for the whole month, with over 3,660+ social shares.
Not bad for a site that produces hundreds of articles per month and is ranked in the top 2,000 sites online.
Crazy Post Titles and Numbers Work… and they are everywhere!
As mentioned, it’s not just in the online marketing and business world that is saturated with crazy post titles, they are pretty much everywhere.
You’ve likely seen these widget blocks at the bottom of many sites and they are a great inspiration for new post ideas and coming up with creative titles.
The next time you come across these ads/links, be sure to click on them and see how they span into a whole world of content sites that focus all of their efforts on amazing headlines and ad copy — all focused on getting that initial click and keeping people on their site.
Even more post title tips and tricks…
Crazy post titles and numbers are great… but they can get old after a while. Hubspot has a post on 11 different ways you can start refocusing and split testing the variations in your titles to see which perform best and get the higher click through rates. You can see one of their examples below.
Fun vs. Serious Tone
Variation A: 160 MORE Free Stock Photos You Seriously Need to Download Now
Variation B: 75 Free Stock Photos for You to Use (and Tips for Customizing Them in PowerPoint)The Winner: Variation A (.11% vs. .05% CTR, statistically significant)
Takeaway: Don’t take yourself too seriously. Your post titles will be more enticing with a fun, light tone than a bland, serious one.
Which of the two would you have clicked on?
Be sure to check out their full article on each of their methods and how you can start testing this on your own site?
How to Create Killer Blog Post Titles for Your Site
With well over 100 million blogs on the internet today, you are fighting a never ending war that seems like it just keeps getting harder and harder to win. One of your weapons in this war is your creativity and ability to create content of value that others can share for you as well.
It all starts with your title and coming up with something creative to grab their attention.
So after writing hundreds, if not thousands of articles and post titles already… are you simply burnt out?
Kudos to TwelveSkip for creating the snazzy 74 blog templates infographic below. This simple, yet effective chart makes it allot easier for you to come up with a whole new selection of titles by simply plugging in high target keywords based on your niche.
Try it out and let the power of viral marketing do it’s work for you!
The post 74 Blogging Titles that Get People to Click! #3 Works Best! appeared first on Zac Johnson.