2 Juicy Headline Hacks That’ll Make You Better Than 95% of Writers
Tips and tricks from headline whizz Derek Hughes from Medium.
Snore.
Eh? What did you say?
Okay, when you write online, you can't see the scribbling, fidgeting and yawning, but what you can see is that your writing isn't getting the views, likes, shares and comments it deserves.
Sometimes you wonder.
Why aren't they clicking?
Is my content not engaging my readers?
No matter how valuable, incredible, or groundbreaking your newsletter or article is, you'll never be able to truly help people, make money or a difference in the world if you can't grab attention with a great headline first.
Your headline is the face of your content, and it is what makes it sell.
You have to make sure that people’s eyes don’t get bored.
Writing headlines and subject lines is hard.
80% of people NEVER read more than the headline.
Today's readers have the attention span of goldfish.
They're more distracted than ever before, and there's more and more content competing for their precious time and attention.
You may be wondering:
What does it take to write a subject line or headline that's impossible to ignore?
If you want to learn how to write juicy headlines that will make readers stop what they're doing immediately and give you their undivided attention…
… I got you covered.
Derek Hughes is a Headline Whizz
knows how to write catchy headlines.He’s a part-time Medium writer, newsletter writer and also part of my exclusive Online Writing School tribe.
He failed, he learned, he repeated, he bought courses, he learned from top authors, he failed, he wanted to see through this whole headline game, he won.
Through trial and error he went from zero to $800 on Medium within a year writing on Medium.
He got Boosted multiple times and built an audience of 5,500 people.
See this headline below?
It received more than 5k claps and 120 comments.
Do you also want people to like, comment and share your newsletter and article?
If you want your articles and emails to stand out from the sea of clickbait and juicy competition, you need to know the Rule of 10 and the 4Ps to grab your readers' attention right from the start.
The Rule of 10 - to Make Your Readers Click
From what I see when talking with my coachees, most writers spend 90% of their time on content and 10% (or less) on writing a headline.
Why not spend more time on your headline?
Based on the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, Derek explains:
“James Clear talks about Jerry Uelsmann, a professor at the University of Florida, who has this class of film photography students and he divides them into two and he wants them to take photographs. And to one class, he says to them, I want you to take the best photograph you can today. All right. Just one. And it's got to be the best that you can. And to the other group, he says, I want you to take a thousand photographs. That's your aim at the end of the day. All right. And so they go off and do it.
And if you think about the one who's got the job of creating the perfect photograph, actually, all they do is procrastinate all the time, you know, because the kind of thinking is that this is that what, what is a perfect photograph doesn't need to be this. And they spend all the day overthinking it, which stops them getting anything done. (…) And the ones with a thousand, their best photograph is better than the one with one, and that feeds into a psychology.”
This is where Derek’s Rule of 10 comes from.
You're not trying to write the perfect headline.
You make it a rule to say:
I can't publish a headline unless I've written 10 first.
You shouldn’t aim for perfection, better experiment and try different things and write down as many headlines as you need.
The Rule of 10 helps you to avoid overthinking and becoming paralyzed.
Pick the “best” headline and go with it.
The 4Ps - to Make Your Headline Irresistible
You want to be seen and read to win more subscribers/followers (and earn more money).
I totally get that!
Here’s what you can do to arouse curiosity with powerful and precise headlines while still not writing clickbait:
“The 4 P's are in your headline.
The first one is the problem. So what problem does the reader have that you're going to address?
The second is the person. So who is this for? And sometimes if you can name that in the headline, it's good. Sometimes being more specific about who it is can be a good idea.
So you name the problem. You name the person and the product is essentially the type of article that you've got, you know? So sometimes that's tips. Sometimes it's a life lesson. Sometimes it's a system. It's a blueprint. Sometimes that word will appear in the headline, but they should get a sense of what sort of thing you're offering.
And then the last one is the promise. You know, if I take your product, your five tips and I put them into practice, actually, what is it going to deliver me? What is it going tooffer me a promise. One of the easiest ways of upgrading your headlines is putting more of those P's explicitly in your title.”
1 Problem: Someone can't stop eating sugar.
2 Person: People who eat sweet things and they're kind of struggling with it.
3 Product: 3 tips.
4 Promise: Sugar lovers will stop eating sugar.
Need more tangible advice to learn to write juicy headlines?
You're in luck because that's exactly what awaits you inside our first LIVE session.
It’s time to level up your headline and subject line game to get more clicks, views, and conversions.
Let's write some juicy headlines together that will take scrollers' breath away.
LIVE: Headline/Subject Line Critique with Derek Hughes
When? Tuesday, 12th March 2024
Time? 2pm EST
How long? 30 minutes (I tend to overdeliver. I bet Derek too!)
Replay available? Yes, for premium paid subscribers!
What’s it about? Derek will put his spectacles 👓on and check your headlines/subject lines LIVE and tell…
What makes them great
What’s lacking
What could be done better
How to submit my publication/profile? Paid premium subscribers can submit their newsletters/Medium profiles in the comments or inside the Online Writing School.
Not a premium subscriber and schoolie yet, join now and take part tomorrow (and get the replay!)
I'll see you, friend!
Wait, please, could you do me a favor? 😘Re-stack and/or share this post, so more people can engage!😘 Thanks!
Happy Title Writing!
Kristina
Good advice. I've spent a lot more time on headlines over the last few years and I've seen a major surge in traffic as a result.
I need to work on my headline to draw more people to read my work