One Step Headlines

Include a picture. A big picture.

Nothing scares people more than a huge chunk of straight text with no pictures. It reminds them of a high school history book and they’ll click away faster than you can say “Revolutionary War.” But if that text is accompanied by, or better yet broken up by, a photo, then people are much more likely to stick around and read.

Make sure the photo is relevant to your content, but also has an element that catches people’s attention. Its best if it creates some sort of immediate emotion, whether is surprise, happiness, outrage or that high pitched “awww” girls make when they see a picture of a baby squeezing a puppy. Also, make sure the picture decently sized so people can see it. A tiny thumbnail won’t have much of an impact.

Craft a better headline.

Writing a good headline is just as important as writing a good blog post, maybe even more so. If people don’t like your headline, they won’t bother to read the article. So take some time to brainstorm multiple ideas and get the feedback of your coworkers. I could, and will, write an entire blog post on this, but here are some quick tips to get you started:

1. Always include a verb in your headline.
2. Making your headline into a question is almost always a good idea (just don’t make them all questions)
3. Be aware of the length of your headline. There are no hard set rules on how long a headline should be, but the general rule is that it should be as short as possible. Make every word count and delete and superfluous ones.
4. Read this great article by CopyBlogger “How To Write Headlines That Work” for more tips.

Answer a question.

People read blogs that are beneficial to them. Its fine to share a personal story, opinion or thought, and its okay to promote your business, but these should all be secondary to the primary goal of helping your readers out. The best blog content ideas will come from the questions, problems and needs that your customers have.

For example, I had a client email me a few weeks ago asking how he could get more people to read his blog. I sent an email and thought to myself “I bet there are several other people out there with this same question.” Voila! A blog post was born.

Think back to frequently asked questions from your clients, common problems or common needs. Remember how you answered those questions, solved those problem and met those needs, and then blog about it. Your readers will appreciate that you are providing information that is helpful and relevant and they’ll keep coming back for more.

Bonus Tip- Make sure your blog has social share buttons

People should be able to share your post on Facebook, Twitter, Google +,  Tumblr, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, etc. They should also be able to email and print it. Having these buttons readily available on every post encourages people to share articles that they like with their friends, therefore increasing your readership.