{"id":364,"date":"2008-10-08T09:45:23","date_gmt":"2008-10-08T08:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/?p=364"},"modified":"2008-10-05T13:28:57","modified_gmt":"2008-10-05T12:28:57","slug":"how-to-write-awesome-headlines-so-people-read-your-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/how-to-write-awesome-headlines-so-people-read-your-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write awesome headlines (so people read your stuff)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Whitwell knows a lot about headlines, since he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Assistant Editor, online, for The Times. This are notes from his talk at Social Media Camp &#8217;08.<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged\">\n<figure style=\"width: 202px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Image:Leo-frank-police-have-the-strangler-headline.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"A newspaper headline trumpeting Frank's guilt.\" src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/thumb\/6\/67\/Leo-frank-police-have-the-strangler-headline.jpg\/202px-Leo-frank-police-have-the-strangler-headline.jpg\" alt=\"A newspaper headline trumpeting Frank's guilt.\" width=\"202\" height=\"104\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image via Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re using Gmail, you should start thinking about SEO-ing your subjects, so you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll actually find something in 10-years time.<\/li>\n<li>For first hundred years of newspapers, they were really rubbish at selling stories<\/li>\n<li>1967: Headlines finally get clever<\/li>\n<li>Internet: suddenly headlines start to go different<\/li>\n<li>Times internet: lots of data points to figure out what works<\/li>\n<li>The clearest example of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good headlines\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the Drudge Report<\/li>\n<li>The difference of headlines is not 5% but 5x or even 20x<\/li>\n<li>What makes people click? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s working out what the story is, what <em>your<\/em> reader will respond to, and how to squeeze all the goodness into 68 characters<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Rules of thumb:<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged\">\n<figure style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/95775164@N00\/365722153\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Old headline\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/159\/365722153_9e16f37ced_m.jpg\" alt=\"Old headline\" width=\"240\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by joe_reach via Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Be specific<\/li>\n<li>The the whole story in the <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Headline\" rel=\"wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Headline\">headline<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t try to be clever<\/li>\n<li>Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t try to be funny<\/li>\n<li>Play to your niche. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t over simplify or patronize in the headline<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Quick wins:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lists = force you to do research and explain your points properly<\/li>\n<li>Quotes = Often the most interesting bit in the story<\/li>\n<li>Numbers = Often the most interesting bit in the story<\/li>\n<li>Names = Most likely who the story is about<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153being boring\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<li>Write the headline first. Really. Always.<\/li>\n<li>Great story which you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t explain in the headline = crap story<\/li>\n<li>Spend a lot of time on headline. Remember: 20x the traffic.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Questions:<\/p>\n<div class=\"zemanta-img zemanta-action-dragged\">\n<figure style=\"width: 180px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/37996580417@N01\/8131537\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Funny Ham &amp; I headline: YOBS PICTURED ROBBING 104-YEAR-OLD\" src=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/7\/8131537_5c045787e0_m.jpg\" alt=\"Funny Ham &amp; I headline: YOBS PICTURED ROBBING 104-YEAR-OLD\" width=\"180\" height=\"240\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by gruntzooki via Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you do split tests? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite tricky in practice, so only in limited amount.<\/li>\n<li>Do you seed your stories on <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Digg\" rel=\"homepage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.digg.com\/\">Digg<\/a>? Not really.<\/li>\n<li>How much traffic do you get from Digg? Big Digg &#8211; over 100k visits. <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Fark.com\" rel=\"homepage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.fark.com\/\">Fark<\/a> sends you about 30k.<\/li>\n<li>How much traffic you get from <a class=\"zem_slink\" title=\"Drudge Report\" rel=\"homepage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.drudgereport.com\/\">Drudge report<\/a>? It will send you about 50k visits.<\/li>\n<li>Do you automatically promote stories? No, not yet. We look at it manually and go to news desk as we see stories get picked up.<\/li>\n<li>Is there a difference between headline that you want someone to read vs. to respond to? We&#8217;re focusing for the purpose for this talk on how to get people to click.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h6 class=\"zemanta-related-title\" style=\"font-size: 1em;\">Related articles by Zemanta<\/h6>\n<ul class=\"zemanta-article-ul\">\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.socialmediacamp.co.uk\/2008\/10\/how-to-write-awesome-headlines-so-people-read-your-stuff-by-tom-whitwell-times-online\/\">How to write awesome Headlines (So People read your Stuff) by Tom Whitwell [Times Online]<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/valleywag.com\/349185\/slobbering-pup-uncovers-diggs-true-purpose\">Slobbering pup uncovers Digg&#8217;s true purpose [Social News]<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www10.nytimes.com\/2008\/06\/16\/business\/media\/16ap.html?_r=5&amp;partner=rssnyt&amp;emc=rss&amp;oref=slogin&amp;oref=slogin&amp;oref=slogin&amp;oref=slogin\">The Associated Press to Set Guidelines for Using Its Articles<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Zemified by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/reblog.zemanta.com\/zemified\/6f2f2366-6f03-4d28-b7ff-e348aaeb27f2\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/reblog_e.png?x-id=6f2f2366-6f03-4d28-b7ff-e348aaeb27f2\" alt=\"Reblog this post [with Zemanta]\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Whitwell knows a lot about headlines, since he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Assistant Editor, online, for The Times. This are notes from his talk at Social Media Camp &#8217;08. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re using Gmail, you should start thinking about SEO-ing your subjects, so you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll actually find something in 10-years time. For first hundred years of newspapers, they were really [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[466,465,468,26,463,464,467],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conferences","tag-digg","tag-drudge-report","tag-headline","tag-london","tag-smclondon08","tag-times","tag-tom-whitwell"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions\/378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jurecuhalev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}