As much as Upworthy and Buzzfeed get grief over their titles, you can’t argue that their ‘curiosity gap’ titles work.
“I Thought It Was a Travesty, But Then I Saw This Illustration”
I’m kidding. Seriously though, those types of headlines are incredibly effective, but they’re not the be all that ends all. In fact, while they work really well in social stories, they can just as easily annoy people if you’re blogging about your business and related topics.
So what’s a run-of-the-mill blogger to do?
Develop a bank of catchy titles that you can draw on to ensure you have lots of ideas, and your titles aren’t an afterthought.
Listicles – articles based on a list of items or ideas – are hugely popular and make for great titles. In fact, an analysis recently showed that of 60,000 of the top articles on Buzzfeed, 26% are listicles. These posts are titled, “X Ways…” or “X Things…” or “X Reasons…”
You get the idea.
How-to articles are another perennial favorite – and while the titles here can be pretty self-explanatory, don’t be afraid to get creative with them.
Check out these 74 awesome, proven blog title templates from Twelveskip. Read them, print them off, make this the start of your blog title bible or repository of kick-ass titles just waiting to be built out.
Infographic via Twelveskip.