by Ana Hoffman 118 comments

Blog Post Titles: How to Write Winners Even if You Suck at It



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how to write great post titlesBlog post titles.

There are so many posts that teach how to write’em.

Great solid advice.

I know the ins and outs of how to write a winner by now.

How come I still suck at it?

No, really.

Do I think it’s impossible to get better at writing great blog titles?

Of course, not.

Anything is possible with practice.

However we all need inspiration every once in a while – some of us more often than others.

If you like what you see so far and think your followers will benefit from this post as well, just click the button below to tweet it:

Blog Titles for the Rest of Us

So in this post, I decided to show you where to find inspiration for a great title when you’ve got nothing in that pretty head of yours.

Empty post titles

(source)

Click here to read the rest of the post…

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{ 118 comments }

Adeline Yuboco September 18, 2012 at 8:42 pm

Thanks so much for sharing about LinkBaitGenerator and TwitterFeed, Ana! I’ve been struggling for some time now to come up with a really good title for my blog posts and from how you explained here about these tools, these may be things I just need.

Ana Hoffman September 19, 2012 at 4:18 pm

You are so very welcome, Adeline; writing great headlines comes with practice and this great tools can definitely move us in the right direction.

Corky Swanson August 9, 2012 at 10:27 pm

Just FYI Ana, clicking on your link to pagerank.com gets a 404 message, and pasting the URL manually gets this message, “PostRank services have been sunset as of May 1, 2012. We invite you to access the new social reports within Google Analytics.” That’s what I get for reading your article a year late.

Ana Hoffman August 10, 2012 at 7:14 am

Thanks for letting me know, Corky.

I knew that the service was taken down, but forgot to edit the post.

James Website Design Guy April 20, 2012 at 12:36 am

There is a quote from famous ad man David Ogilvy that goes “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy…”. This applies equally to web as it did to print. Blog headlines, page titles, website H1′s need to be written, measured and tested in the same way that a print headline would be.

Ana Hoffman April 24, 2012 at 7:39 pm

And since that’s what most of us do on a regular basis, we know just now true that statement is, James.

Thanks for coming by.

Simon April 13, 2012 at 10:08 am

I love this blog :) .

This might sound a little market:y, but doing “IF…THEN” is a great way to “make” anyone open anything. I think everyone, at least in western society, is fed up with marketing, so any claims – made in the headline – have to be paired with a hint of proof for that claim.

Ana Hoffman April 16, 2012 at 4:36 pm

Good point, Simon.

Vonita Brown January 4, 2012 at 12:56 pm

Hello Ana, I love you blog and the writing tips. I am brand new to blogging and suffering terrible with writer’s block (go figure). your writing is helpful and insightful and practical.

Ana Hoffman January 6, 2012 at 11:24 am

Welcome, Vonita!

You know I used to have problems with writing blocks all the time when I first started, but then excellence comes with practice! Now I can spit out a blog post almost on demand. lol

Wonu December 12, 2011 at 6:18 am

Hello Ana,

Coming up with catchy titles is something I always struggle with as well because I write the news section for our website. Unfortunately I am one of those people that constantly need inspiration, I will definitely start using Postrank.com now.

Ana Hoffman December 12, 2011 at 11:53 am

I am right there with you, Wonu.

Dr Cynthia Pauley October 26, 2011 at 5:29 pm

Ana,

Again many thanks. I just set up my blogs on Twitterfeed thanks to you. I am truely amazed at all the good information that you have on your blog. I can’t believe you just started this about a year ago considering how many followers that you have. I hope as your following grows you will be able to give the same “personal” touch to all posts and especially the questions.

Ana Hoffman October 27, 2011 at 10:59 am

Thank you, Cynthia – I sure hope so too!

Dan the Web Designer September 11, 2011 at 8:13 pm

Great tips, link bait generator looks interesting I put in ‘web design’ and it said ’7 bizarre ways web design can kill you suddenly’ I guess I’d get a good click through rate but not sure about my bounce rate!

Dr Cynthia Pauley October 26, 2011 at 5:38 pm

Your 3 SEO ideas are good. I went to a seminar recently and based on some info there, I have started to use some long tail phrases for my cosmetic dentistry blog. At first I was skeptical, but your article reinforces that I should do more of it. The seminar speaker indicated that 5 to 7 words phrases were actually better than 2 to 3 word phrases. I am not sure that I totally buy into that yet, but the longer phrases do extend and cover more territory.

Jean September 10, 2011 at 5:03 pm

Part of my problem is that sometimes I lack the confidence on the final decision of the title. I tend to doubt myself if what I’ve written is the right approach to something. I guess with more experience it will allow me to gain more confidence, I guess part of the lack of confidence is that I tend to over analyze and look too much into the tiny details.

-Jean

Ana Hoffman September 11, 2011 at 3:09 am

Yes, that’s often a problem for many people. Just be bold – it’s your blog and you can say whatever you want.

Mavis Nong | Online Business Success September 8, 2011 at 6:20 am

Solid advice and great resources you’re sharing here, Ana.

I love your blog titles – creativity at its best! I also get ideas for blog titles and subject lines from my inbox.

Thanks for your kind mention :)

Mavis

Ana Hoffman September 8, 2011 at 9:57 am

Thanks, Mavis. Always nice to see you here.

Maria Pavel September 6, 2011 at 11:03 pm

Having eye catchy blog title is the best way to attract visitors whether they already know the online game or not. There’s that high possibility of getting decent amount of visitors by just having the best blog title for you post.

Rick September 1, 2011 at 9:00 am

As someone who struggles with titles quite often to the point of overthinking and making it even worse, thanks for this post. I’m going to dig deep into PostRank and see what I can learn. And if Google bought them out, it’s definitely a worthwhile and valuable site.

Gabriel Thomas September 1, 2011 at 2:59 am

Ana,

Thank you for the awesome resources you have provided! I really had no idea you are allowed multiple Twitter accounts..that is priceless in itself. Thanks again..Gabriel

Natasha August 31, 2011 at 3:34 pm

Using the examples of others is always a great idea – not that I’m condoning plagiarism, but sometimes we need to draw inspiration from what’s worked for someone else… I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, right?

Ana Hoffman August 31, 2011 at 7:55 pm

Plagiarism vs inspiration – I’ll go for inspiration on this one, Natasha.

Brandon Bender August 31, 2011 at 9:41 am

Thanks for sharing that twitterfeed tool.
I am head first into social marketing, I’m interested in playing with it.

- Brandon Bender

Rachel August 30, 2011 at 7:04 pm

This is a great list of resources. I struggle with creating catchy blog titles. I am now off to implement some of the information you shared here. Thanks a bunch!

Wayne Lambert August 30, 2011 at 2:41 pm

Wow Ana, what a great resource you’ve uncovered. I’m going to have to give PostRank some further investigation.

Finding an appropriate article for my CommentLuv is easy in this case as I wrote a highly relevant article a little while ago. ;-)

Ana Hoffman August 31, 2011 at 6:28 am

LOL! Great minds think alike!

Noel Addison August 30, 2011 at 6:08 am

I am having a hard time writing a good blog title but like what you said anything is possible with practice.

Nicko August 29, 2011 at 9:02 pm

Thanks for the post. Working on getting better at titles.
Making Youtube videos with good titles is really important too =D

Melissa Wright August 29, 2011 at 6:53 pm

Wow, okay, these are great tips. Never knew about PostRank or using Twitterfeed. Thanks for helping me add some more tools to my toolbox!

Figuring out blog titles is probably the hardest part of the whole process, IMO.

Marcus Baker August 29, 2011 at 5:53 am

I have to admit it can me a lot longer to come up with the title than it does to write the entire post.

And then on some days it’s just all too much and you come up with something you know is not great but the washing cycle finished two days ago and you just can’t afford to mull over titles any more…. sigh!

Thanks for the resources, The only one I know well is Twitter Feed.

~Marcus

Ana Hoffman August 29, 2011 at 8:02 am

You’re quite right!

Rajka Milanovic Galbraith August 29, 2011 at 4:35 am

Love the tips Ana!

Do you prefer twitterfeed to Hootsuite?

I just wrote a reflection article on the toddler years so I enter this on linkbait. I thought I would share as they are a bit comical:

7 cynical ways politicians have exploited toddler years
or
5 ultra-secret government projects involving saying goodbye to the toddler years

Will have to try Post rank next!

Thanks,
Rajka

Ana Hoffman August 29, 2011 at 8:24 am

I actually use Twitterfeed for this specific function as described in the post, Rajka.

For anything else media-related, I use MarketMeSuite.

The titles are hysterical – will definitely draw attention.

Benjamin Hübner August 28, 2011 at 1:43 pm

Blog Titles (Page Titles) are very important to attract readers!

Here is a nice tool I´ve found a long time ago. It´s not to come up with good blog titles, but its great to analyze / compare them. I´m using it constantly to find the best title / headline after brainstorming. Its completely free and requires no opt in or something like that, it can be found at :

http://www.aminstitute.com/headline/

Feel free to add this to your bost if you like :)

By the way, the data from PostRank is also determined by your post content, not just you title….just something to keep in mind.

Ana Hoffman August 29, 2011 at 7:41 am

Thanks for stopping by, Benjamin.

Analyzing and comparing are two important aspects too, so thanks for sharing that link.

Robert August 26, 2011 at 6:46 pm

Ana,

I can’t thank you enough for these resources. I personally did not know about several of the services you mentioned. The Linkbait had me laughing out loud for real. I actually saved a couple and really think I will end up using them. Hope my readers have a sense of humor.

I appreciate you,
~Robert

Ana Hoffman August 27, 2011 at 10:26 am

You’re more than welcome, Robert and thanks for the kind words.

Linkbait is great fun!

Taylor Gilmore August 26, 2011 at 7:31 am

Thank you for this post Ana. The timing was perfect! I just now took a break from stressing over the title of the post I’m currently working on. On my way to PostRank. :-)

Ana Hoffman August 27, 2011 at 10:28 am

Good to hear, Taylor!

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