Adventures in Lifestyle Design from a Path Less Traveled
Do Your Article Headlines Suck?
One thing I like to do is pay attention to what other marketers are doing and learn as much as I can from what I see. Sometimes I’ll browse around websites, article directories, and magazines at the bookstore just to see what people are doing when it comes to copy writing. I see a lot of Affilorama members will have the titles of their articles simply be their keyword and nothing more.
I used to do this myself.
However, this really isn’t the best way to get people to click on your article (the same goes for your affiliate links too).
For example, if your keyword is “lose weight fast” (and yes, I’ve actually been dumb enough to pick this for a keyword in the past), you don’t want to call your article Lose Weight Fast. That’s boring and doesn’t inspire anyone to click on it, especially in the jaded weight loss niche.
Here are a couple article title tricks I like to use:
3 Tips to Lose Weight Fast – This works because it gives people a simple number that is easily digestible for them. Surly you can remember 3 tips, right?
3 Easy Tips to Lose Weight Fast – Making the tips “easy” or “simple” or “fool-proof” is even more appealing!
3 Tips to Lose Weight Fast (One May Shock You) – This is a personal favorite of mine (and a bit of an inside joke as well). People online are generally bored and offering them some kind of excitement will grab their attention.
3 Mistakes You Could Be Making to Lose Weight Fast – People don’t like to make mistakes or look stupid. A title like this implicitly asks the question–Are you making any of them?
3 Dangerous Mistakes You Could Be Making to Lose Weight – This is that sense of excitement and thrill again added to the mix.
Who Else Wants to Discover How to Lose Weight Fast? – This is effective because it make the viewer feel as if they aren’t alone in their pursuit. It makes them think that other people are out there struggling with the same things that they are. Also I use the word “discover” instead of “learn” because I’ve heard that people like to discover more than they like to learn.
Lose Weight Fast (Without All the Nonsense) – This implies that you’re not like all the other mediocre articles out there that give the same tired advice. This implies that you’re going to give people the straight answer without the runaround.
Other things to keep in mind…
If you really want to connect with your niche, make sure that you take the time to figure out what their main pain and pleasure points are. That is to say: What is their biggest goal they want to achieve and with is the biggest thing they want to avoid.
People often get this wrong. For example, with weight loss, people aren’t trying to lose weight fast, drop 10 pounds, find the best diet.
Their pain point is that they feel ashamed of their body and they don’t feel good about how they look. They don’t feel comfortable wearing a bathing suit, or in some cases, buying clothes at the store in the XXL section. Basically, they just feel embarrassed and they just want to feel like a normal person again.
The pleasure point is logically then to feel confident about how they look. You can take that a step further and say that they want to feel attractive and catch the eye of the opposite sex next time they’re at the beach or out having fun. They want people to notice how good they look.
If you take the time to really understand how your niche thinks, you’ll find it much easier to craft headlines or calls to action that really resonate with them.
It took me a long time to get this, but when I did, I started to see more traffic even without improved SERP’s. I’m guessing it’s because people where just overlooking my articles before, but now they were getting noticed because they didn’t just say something lame like “Lose Weight Fast.” And I’m not talking about a slight increase in traffic here, it was pretty big.
This is was a pretty big turning point for me. Sometimes gurus out there will tell you to start with a niche that you are personally passionate about. The main reason for this, I believe, is because you will already know what the people in that niche truly desire or want to avoid. I’ve been stick-thin my whole life, so I spent a lot of time not understanding the weight loss niche at all. If it had been something I was personally interested in, I would have instinctively known that the real motivators for people that want to lose weight.
So if you haven’t already done so, take a moment to look at the titles you’re using in your articles and your calls to action.
Additional Resources: Affilorama Free Video Lesson on Headlines
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You hit it right on the head there Clayton. this is a real winner. Your headlines will get people to your site.
You will also find that you spend less time link building. Part of that is because other people will bookmark your pages, share them on facebook, and getting into the minds of your readers.
I agree with what you said about knowing your niche. it is probably the first thing people miss. I have made the same mistake myself. If you are not personally involved, get to know people who are, and find out the motivations to do things.
Booyah. You nailed it. I’ve found the ones that work great for me are the ones with the numbers at the very beginning. Doing all this is really helpful especially when using ezinearticles.com.
Great stuff!
Thanks guys. I didn’t learn this until a few months ago and I feel kind of embarrassed that it took this long…
I guess it’s just part of the learning curve. I’ve been reading the book Outliers lately and it talks about achieving mastery after you do something consistently for 10,000 hours. I guess this is just part of racking up those hours. Maybe I’ll be a “master” in 2 or 3 more years :)
Hey Clayton, great post and so true. I started really crafting my headlines recently, and I’ve actually been having a lot of fun with it. I catch myself wanting to read the content on my own sites sometimes because the headline is good… Ha, must be working! I’m falling for my own tricks :-) great to see you posting some ‘how to’ content, you’ve got a ton of experience and you ‘walk the walk’ – looking forward to
more posts like this
Hey Clayton,
Just want to check with you when you mentioned about the title. Is your title the same as your url links in wordpress? Does that means your title tag on the browser also the same as what you did with the changes?
Cheers
Javier
Clayton,
If you were to start IM today, would you do the 30 day challenge, or just go ahead and buy AffiloBlueprint and use that guide?
I just moved to Israel from the US, am getting married in a month, and am really looking to earn money to start a family. I loved your blog and its honesty (it convinced me that IM is a viable alternative for me), and would love to hear your thoughts.
Hope Thailand is great. My brother lives in Bangkok, so let me know if you need some recommendations.
Thanks,
Joe
@Devin, Yeah, writing these kinds of marketing things is really fun for me. Makes me wish I took a marketing course or two in college! I’d like to write more posts like this, but I guess I need to come up with more ideas first…
@Javier, for the purposes of this post, I’m just talking about the title of the article. I just type the title at the top of WordPress and then copy and paste it into the All in One SEO pack at the bottom of the page. As long as visitors to your site or people browsing through search engine results can see your title, then you’ll be good. Hope this helps.
@Joseph, Personally, I did not seem much success from the 30 Day Challenge. It did teach me a lot about how IM works though, which made things like AffiloBlueprint much easier to understand. AffiloBlueprint is fairly straightforward though, so you can just start with it if you want to. Plus, I know they recently changed the 30 Day Challenge, and I don’t know if it’s better or worse…
Congratulations on your marriage! I think you could make enough money with IM to support a family, but life might be pretty tough for the first year or so while you’re learning the ropes… especially if you don’t already have a job supplying you with income.
@Clayton, check with you. Do you add new content to your site every month in order to show google that you are a consistent website with fresh content? When you are doing link-building, do you focus on the same keyword or a variety to choose from for a single page?
Cheers
Javier
Thanks for your response Clayton. I actually founded and currently run a successful NYC based business from Israel, named Sunshine Suites (sunshineny.com). I hired a business coach to teach me how make it so I can be anywhere in the world and still run my business.
Its just that since the recession, we’ve had a hard time (getting better now thank Gd), and getting married and talking kids has really changed my perspective – I want to be sure I have more than one source of income. I’m willing to put in the first year of hard work with little to no results in order to build a safety net!
Thanks again bro, and have a terrific time in Thailand.
Great post Clayton! :)
I find that a lot of people who follow “guru” courses when it comes to article marketing often get simple concept wrong and consequently, you find a lot of internet marketers writing strictly to get their main keyword in the title of their article (even if it doesn’t make sense) and then they fail to even answer the topic/question posed in their article.
I’ve found that some of my strongest articles that have the highest CTR are not keyword laden, but are written for the reader and therefore they make great link bait. =)
@Javier, I don’t really add regular content to my sites to be honest with you. For my current sites I did the original 30 articles and then in May or June I added another 25 articles. Then I think I tinkered around with opt-in forms and improved my article titles a bit, but that’s really all I’ve done on my sites. Most of the work is off-site.
For link building I usually just do one keyword per page. But I also vary the anchor text when I’m building links too. I don’t intentionally try to rank for these other keywords, and I don’t even check to see if I do, so I’m not sure how effective it is. But I only intend to rank for one keyword / page. Google will sometimes rank you for multiple keywords though :)
@Joseph, That’s really cool! There was a place like that just down the street from where I lived in Seattle. I really thought it would have been cool to rent an office space to work. But, money’s always tight it seems for me :)
@Yolanda, Yeah, it all comes down to writing for people not machines. I’ve never actually take the time to “study” article marketing from a guru, so I’m probably not very knowledgeable of all the tricks out there. As far as I’m concerned all you need to do is write an article and submit it. Maybe I’m missing something though…
Clayton,
Can I purchase AffiloBlueprint through your website and give you the affiliate commission. Seems only fair since you inspired me! And I’d love keyword help if you are still offering it…
Joe
@Joseph, Thanks for the offer. I am planning on officially promoting affiloblueprint as an affiliate in the future when I get back from Thailand. Money is tight right now though, so I’m not going to turn down someone asking for my affiliate link :) I’m crazy-busy these days getting ready for my trip, so I don’t have time to do the keyword research for you, but I’ll send you and exact step-by-step process I use to do it myself in the e-mail address you used when you posted this comment.
Anyway, here’s my link. If you decide use it, that would be awesome, but if not, no worries :)
http://www.affilorama.com/affiloblueprint?aff=caterao
If you get it, feel free to ask me any questions you’ve got. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to get online in Thailand, but I’ll try to check e-mail and blog comments every so often.
Just bought it! Wish me good luck!
I seriously think you should consider putting the affiloblueprint link somewhere near where it shows how much money you made before you leave from thailand – I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised! I know I would have bought it way sooner if I didn’t have to ask you for the link :)
I mentioned before my brother has lived in Bangkok for the past 3 years. He’s coming to Israel for my wedding soon, but if you need recommendations he can definitely provide you with some.
Joe
@Joseph, Thanks a lot! Good luck with everything and feel free to ask me any questions if they come up.
I don’t know… I guess part of me is still of the belief that know one would buy an IM product through someone’s affiliate link without offering a bonus. I’m going to be writing some e-books over the next few months to give out as bonuses (I learned my lesson, offering your own labor is way too time-consuming).
“Surly you can remember 3 tips..”
I think you mean, “Surely”. :)
@Dave, I think you’re right.
Did I mention I suck at spelling? :)