WEBVTT 00:00.150 --> 00:06.840 Spending time thinking about how to write a proper headline that will get people to actually open up 00:07.410 --> 00:11.520 your article or your page is really important. 00:11.520 --> 00:18.420 So here are some basic tips to remember whenever you write a headline make it unique make it specific 00:18.990 --> 00:20.380 make it useful. 00:20.550 --> 00:25.400 Create a sense of urgency and keep it as short as possible. 00:25.410 --> 00:31.080 It's hard to have all of these in one heading but let's look at some examples so you know what we're 00:31.080 --> 00:32.350 talking about. 00:32.400 --> 00:35.440 I'm a huge personal finance nerd. 00:35.580 --> 00:37.850 I love reading articles about personal finance. 00:37.860 --> 00:39.300 I just can't get enough of it. 00:39.390 --> 00:43.330 And I follow this blog called Rock Star finance it's an aggregate blog. 00:43.410 --> 00:49.530 It picks the best articles every day and shares them on one page then it keeps sort of a list of the 00:49.530 --> 00:51.830 latest and greatest articles. 00:52.230 --> 00:56.420 When going through their list I see lots of articles that are not unique. 00:56.430 --> 01:01.320 Lots of articles that seem the same as things I've read before. 01:01.440 --> 01:04.340 Some aren't specific So this is kind of exempt. 01:04.350 --> 01:06.420 An example of what not to do. 01:06.420 --> 01:12.150 For example this title right here if you can afford a vacation you can't afford to invest. 01:12.210 --> 01:18.390 It's obvious and I'm not really going to get anything more out of reading this article it doesn't add 01:18.390 --> 01:24.790 anything it doesn't build any curiosity this one right here is short sweet do you need that. 01:24.790 --> 01:26.130 It builds curiosity. 01:26.140 --> 01:29.950 It's not specific and it's not really helpful or beneficial. 01:29.950 --> 01:31.210 I don't really know what it's about. 01:31.210 --> 01:34.300 So it's not using all the tips but I'm intrigued. 01:34.300 --> 01:36.700 Should you pay off your mortgage early. 01:36.730 --> 01:41.990 This is a question that's popular among personal finance aficionados. 01:42.010 --> 01:45.460 It does build a lot of curiosity but it's not that unique. 01:45.460 --> 01:47.730 This has been rehashed over and over. 01:47.830 --> 01:50.330 So let's look at a few that I thought did really well. 01:50.620 --> 01:56.260 Here's an article that uses a headline that is very unique more than books nine unusual things you can 01:56.260 --> 01:58.740 borrow from the Liab public libraries. 01:58.780 --> 02:01.750 First using lists is a popular technique. 02:01.810 --> 02:03.190 It's still popular. 02:03.190 --> 02:10.540 People have been using so the tip nine tips seven things kind of list articles for a while people still 02:10.540 --> 02:14.980 are clicking on these types of articles a lot and this is something that is unique. 02:14.980 --> 02:19.360 It's not something that I've thought about before is not something that I've seen online before and 02:19.360 --> 02:24.170 after being online for many years there's not that many things that are unique anymore. 02:24.220 --> 02:28.600 So having this sort of unique this in the headline helps. 02:28.990 --> 02:32.280 Let's look at another example about being specific. 02:32.320 --> 02:37.200 How much would you have if you saved one dollar a day for your entire life. 02:37.210 --> 02:43.750 That headline is builds my curiosity and it's very specific and it's unique so it's hitting a lot of 02:43.750 --> 02:49.990 those tips that I mention and keep in mind these tips are great for writing articles and blogs but also 02:49.990 --> 02:54.200 for headlines for your copy even if you're sending out emails. 02:54.250 --> 02:56.030 They all kind of work the same. 02:56.260 --> 02:59.380 Here's a headline that is just completely useful. 02:59.380 --> 03:03.310 How to get started with live streaming video production. 03:03.310 --> 03:05.700 This is from Pat Flynn smart passive income. 03:05.710 --> 03:11.590 He spoke with Caleb logic's on who I've actually partnered with and it is actually a headline for a 03:11.590 --> 03:15.630 video blog article but it's just completely useful. 03:15.640 --> 03:19.440 Anyone that's wanting to get started with live streaming video. 03:19.540 --> 03:21.910 This is an article that calls out to them. 03:21.910 --> 03:28.490 Next let's look at an article that builds a sense of urgency for best ways to invest in your 20s. 03:28.690 --> 03:35.470 So this isn't your typical headline that's for things that you need to know right now or you're going 03:35.470 --> 03:37.090 to lose out. 03:37.120 --> 03:38.840 It's more subtle than that. 03:39.010 --> 03:44.860 But this article is geared to people in 20s and it does build that sense of urgency for someone in their 03:44.860 --> 03:46.460 20s who wants to invest. 03:46.570 --> 03:50.200 Investing in itself is kind of urgent. 03:50.350 --> 03:52.990 If you're not investing now then you're wasting time. 03:52.990 --> 03:57.650 So that's why this works really well for this title but it's pretty simple. 03:57.670 --> 04:04.180 For best ways to invest in your 20s it builds that sense of urgency for at least for people interested 04:04.210 --> 04:08.070 in personal finance and that's who their target audiences so it works. 04:08.290 --> 04:15.020 Lastly let's look at Reddit to sort of explore this idea of shorter titles being better read. 04:15.030 --> 04:17.770 Is the self-claimed home page over the Internet. 04:17.770 --> 04:26.260 It basically is a feed of all of the popular posts from today articles videos photos anything that's 04:26.320 --> 04:27.960 sort of timely and relevant. 04:28.210 --> 04:33.410 So if I'm on this page my eyes are automatically drawn to the shorter titles. 04:33.420 --> 04:40.750 Cannonball don't leave me scrawled on set and only Landshark Ivanka Trump quoting Einstein. 04:40.750 --> 04:44.260 These longer ones my eyes just glaze over them. 04:44.350 --> 04:49.900 Not that there are bad headlines but when you're looking online when you're searching on Google when 04:49.900 --> 04:56.670 you're on any sort of search engine people's eyes will be drawn to these shorter headlines. 04:56.890 --> 05:02.380 So again it's kind of this hard balance between all of these tips that I'm talking about. 05:02.530 --> 05:07.990 But when you're searching online just pay attention to the length of the headlines that you actually 05:07.990 --> 05:11.620 click on or at least initially are drawn to. 05:11.740 --> 05:18.370 I'll bet that most of them are shorter than these really long ones so keep all these tips in mind as 05:18.370 --> 05:21.320 you write your copy and articles.