81 Comments

It's a good tip, I'm going to pay more attention :)

Expand full comment

Love these, thx!

Expand full comment

Resonated with a lot of this, am guilty of just wanting too get the story out there rather than crafting an even better headline. Excited to give the rule of 10's a go!

Expand full comment

Tomorrow you'll learn more in the video!

Expand full comment

Hi Andrew, here's the interview: https://youtu.be/tQruafjpntQ?feature=shared

Expand full comment

This is hella good! :) im fired up to write now:)

Expand full comment

Tomorrow you'll learn more in the video!

Expand full comment

I need to work on my headline to draw more people to read my work

Expand full comment

100% Tomorrow you'll learn more when I publish my interview with Derek! We also had a live sessiion a few days ago.

Expand full comment

Reflecting on your terrific idea to generate at least ten titles, I should add that one of the ways I use ChatGPT every day is to generate post or article titles/headlines. I'll put the whole article in the prompt -- or just summarize it -- and ask for 15-20 titles. Invariably, I'll re-combine two or three of them into something I like best.

Expand full comment

Smart! Will add this to discuss it

Expand full comment

Kristina, is there an invite link for this call?

Expand full comment

Hi Chris, sure. It's inside our school. You log in and then you can click on the event and join our LIVE. Does this help?

Expand full comment

The invite button to the school in the email is not live, I couldn't click on it. Would you be able to resend it please?

Expand full comment

Resent it. Hopefully you'll see it now. :) If not, please send me another email adress via email. This often helps. See you later

Expand full comment

Ok, I'm in, but I had to do a work around by loging in to Circle (I noticed it in the email). Thanks.

Expand full comment

Hi Chris, glad it worked for you. Could you attend? I didn't see the chat when I shared the screen... Not ideal. Hopefully you enjoyed the session. I'll send the replay later

Expand full comment

Yes I did attend. I saw you had a bit of technical problem :) It's fine, the first time is always like that.

Expand full comment

Looking forward to this a lot!

I’d love to know how to formulate op-ed rant headlines. Thanks Kristina. ⭕️

Expand full comment

I admire you for speaking up and talking about parenting/being a parent the way you do

Expand full comment

I appreciate that Kristina. *basks for a moment in your words*

Expand full comment

Very helpful, thank you.

Expand full comment

Glad you found it valuable. There will also be a video interview I'll share this week with further insights tips and tricks from Derek.

Expand full comment

You picked the best of the headline options. Starting with juicy headline hacks was far more enticing than the other options. If you had a mediocre headline for an article about how to write headlines, it would be awful for credibility.

Expand full comment

Hi Michael, here's the interview: https://youtu.be/tQruafjpntQ?feature=shared

Expand full comment

Thanks. Watching it now.

Expand full comment

HI Michael, just sent you a DM :)

Expand full comment

Thanks!

I added "juicy" at the last minute before publishing. I'm glad a lot of people clicked on it. It's not easy to write a headline about good headlines when your headline doesn't do well ^^ but I know from Derek that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It's just part of the game. We have to move on.

It's also hard on YouTube because it's a whole different game. I might do a "how to" for people looking for a specific topic, or a fancier title, a quote for example, that's more for discoverability. Every platform is different, but I think there are some examples that work on every platform. I also like to take things from YouTube and try them out on Medium.

Expand full comment

Here's my medium publication: https://medium.com/@heartspoken. I will have to catch the replay but if Derek has time to critique some of my headlines, I'd be so grateful.

Expand full comment

Yeah, Elizabeth! It's on the list. Thanks for submitting

Expand full comment

Done!

Expand full comment

Such practical, effective, and easy-to-implement tips. You're terrific. Thanks, Kristina.

Expand full comment

Oh, Elizabeth. Don't make me blush. You don't wanna know HOW I wrote this newsletter yesterday. Except my baby all family members are sick and I had about two hours to set up the event and write this newsletter ^^ Better done than perfect, the same for our first LIVE. Will share the replay after the event.

Expand full comment

"Better done than perfect" is my mantra too! Don't let yourself get run down, my friend. We all need you and we'd rather have less from you than to have you get sick. Say, "Yes, mother."

Expand full comment

Yes, mother! ^^

Expand full comment

I don't even know how many times people have commented on some of my Medium pieces saying, "BEST headline ever!" 😁😁 Mine are usually funny but enticing. I feel like you always need to leave room for a bit of mystery in your headlines or else MAKE THEM LAUGH.

Expand full comment

That's the BEST compliment you can get, isn't it? Headline writers are the best paid writers. ou need to have super strong copywriting skills. I also ALWAYS think your headlines stand out from the crowd. What's your trick? :D

Expand full comment

Thanks Kristina. Honestly, I don't know what my trick is lol. Sometimes I search for funny memes and play off of them. Sometimes, inspiration just hits. And I always run them through Monster headline analyzer just to get ideas for different words.

Funny we are talking about this because just right now I got a comment from Jan Flynn on my current post that it was one of my best headlines EVER 😂

Expand full comment

I remember one from Jan: The pie is falling ^^ She's great.

I think if it's memorable that's huge

Expand full comment

Yours ARE great Kristi!

Expand full comment

Think so too! I always know this is "a Kristi". Same with your headlines, Danusi! This is "a Danusia".

Expand full comment

Will you join us later?

Expand full comment

I'm going to try to join. I'm usually busy at that time of day but I'll try.

Expand full comment

Did you participate`? I couldn't see the chat...

Expand full comment

Unfortunately, no. I was busy that day.

Expand full comment

I love the idea of writing 10 headlines before settling on one to use for publishing. I’m going to use it on the AI article I’m finalizing this week, and it’s going to go into my Definition of Done 👍🏼 I also like the 4P’s approach to what to include in a headline. Thanks for sharing this advice!

Expand full comment

There's more tot it, Karen and I'll share the interview with Derek within the next few days. We talked for more than an hour about great headlines so I bet you can learn some more things and get inspired. What's this AI article about you're writing?

Expand full comment

My Definition of Done page is now posted, for anyone interested, with a link to this post: https://karensmiley.substack.com/p/dod

Expand full comment

This is an unlisted post, am I right?

Expand full comment

It’s not linked to my menu bar, if that is what ‘unlisted’ means?

It’s published as a page available to ‘everyone’. I’m a relative newbie to Substack but I thought that would mean it was public to anyone on Substack? Maybe ‘everyone’ means free and paid subscribers only?

If it’s not visible to you, Kristina, I’ll try updating the settings to put it in my menu bar, and see if that affects it. Thanks for the heads up :)

Expand full comment

Hi Karen, I can see it now!

Expand full comment

It’s about the current state of ethics in the use of generative AI for music :) I have written out 9 possible headlines so far. Looking forward to hearing more from the interview with Derek!

Expand full comment

Hi Karen, here's the interview: https://youtu.be/tQruafjpntQ?feature=shared

Expand full comment

Thank you, Kristina!

Expand full comment

I’d add that you should think of the headline FIRST. Once you have a good headline, you can write the piece. I don’t always go that way — sometimes I keep messing with the right head for a piece — but crafting a good headline first is a trick that often works for me.

Expand full comment

This is a strategy for YouTube which I should follow... but often can't ^^

The best YouTubers say you need to have the headlkine and the thumbnail and THEN create the video. Same with writing.

Expand full comment

Hi Michelle, here's the interview: https://youtu.be/tQruafjpntQ?feature=shared

Expand full comment

I also use this strategy, it works well because you now have a formed structure of what you're writing.

Expand full comment

Oh and here's the interview: https://youtu.be/tQruafjpntQ?feature=shared

Expand full comment

Having a structure is so important. However, often inspiration strikes me and I just write as if no one's reading ^^

Expand full comment

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.

Expand full comment

Hi Walter, saw you email yesterday and will reply. Been pretty sick the last few days. Nice with your pub being featured! I'll promote this on Medium and share it with my followers.

Do you also write headlines for Google or just for Medium? Any headline tips you want to share? I'm curious.

Expand full comment

I use CoSchedule headline analyzer. It's just for Medium, but I think your good Medium headlines get picked up on the web too. I've been gathering up my own data for an article on this very topic :)

Expand full comment

CoSchedule, Sharethrough Headline Analyzer, Capitalize my Title are the ones I sometimes use. I need to put more effort into the SEO writing part ^^

Expand full comment