Some new bloggers and content creators resist using formulas for headlines and titles. They seem to find formulas an insult to their creative ability. And guess what? Their creative headlines are usually never good because writing really good headlines is more about conveying a benefit to your reader than it is being creative or worse, clever. Clever headlines are a waste. They don’t convey concrete information and are often vague. People like a good tease, and a properly written teaser headline is a viable option, but not at the expense of readers knowing what’s in it for them if they read it.

Bloggers and content creators, trust me. You need formulas for writing your headlines/titles. Here are four of my go-tos: 

1. The List Headline

The list/numbered headline is very popular and flexible. When a post and its title are based on a list, It’s called the Listicle. Listicles, as I discuss in this previous post, are a blogger’s best friend. Trust me. You will write listicles. You will write lots of list posts and the number makes it easy to write a good, specific headline. If you think lists are just click bait, you couldn’t be more wrong and you need to read my post on listicles. As you will discover once you know to look, even stalwarts like the New York Times and Washington Post used listicle headlines, even for news analysis articles. Here are a some real-life examples: 

4 Takeaways From the Bombshell Fox News Legal Filing (WaPo)

5 Ways to Save Money on Holiday Shopping This Season (Nerd Wallet)

10 Green Products for a More Eco-Friendly Home (Green Global Traveler)

9 Best Duvet Inserts for the Comfiest Bed Ever (Good Housekeeping)

5 Ways to Help Tweens and Teens Refresh Their
Friendships During a Pandemic (WaPo) 

The 50 Best TV Shows on Netflix Right Now (New York Times)

Should it be 9 Reasons or Nine Reasons? If you’re writing for a publication or website, follow their style guide, but for your own blog, use the numeral, 3, 5, 6, 9, 12, 15… in the headline as it’s more quickly recognizable, but both are correct. In AP style, which many bloggers follow, you should spell out 1-9 in the text when introducing your list: Here are my nine tips for shopping smart at the grocery store.

2. The Conversational/Informal Headline

You’ll notice a lot of website articles, blogs and more traditional magazine and news outlets like the New York Times, are headlining in an informal style now because they invite engagement. In stark contrast to the more serious news headlines, these headlines read more like a friend chatting casually to another friend, which can work especially well for a blog or social media post with a familiar audience. 

The New York Times’ headline above: “The 50 Best TV Shows on Netflix Right Now” could fit this formula with a tweak: Yes, these are the 50 Best… Here They Are: The 50 Best… 

Conversational headlines can be on the longer side, sometimes very long, which is fine every once in a while (like the headlines below). The Raise Your Hand if… is a good example of a trendy informal headline that is used quite a bit on social media. Here are some other examples:

We Tested 4 Popular Baked Ziti Recipes and It Was
Impossible to Pick a Winner (Kitchn)

Aaron Rodgers Is Going on a Darkness Retreat. So I Did, Too. (WaPo)

These People Really Did Not Want to Give Up Their Hot Yoga (NY Times)

17 Showstopping Holiday Recipes Our Food Staff
Can’t Wait to Make (NY Times)

We Put 31 of the Best Pillows to the Test &
These 11 Were the Most Comfortable (BH&G)

3. The Question/Question & Answer Headline

Another popular go-to is the question headline. Headline writers have figured out that in this age of instant gratification, readers have a hard time resisting a headline that keeps them guessing: 

Can You Lose 5 Pounds in a Week or Is That a Lie? (Cosmopolitan) 

Is Gen Z Bringing Flip Phones Back? (Mashable)

The Oscars Is a Show Fighting for its Life, but Should We Even Care? (CBC)

Are Dogs Really a Restaurant Health Risk? (Healthline)

It’s easy to see why these seem like a good idea. They set up a need-to-know situation, and then you have to click through for the answer. However, beware the headline that is obviously just not true. For example:

Could This Pill Be the Secret to Lasting Happiness?  (Um, no.)

Has Amazon Finally Met Its Match? (Not likely.) 

Is College Debt Now a Thing of the Past? (We wish, but no such luck.) 

The secret to a good question headline

So if you’re going to pose a question in your post title, make sure the reader can’t easily dismiss it with a NO or PROBABLY NOT and move on. You want to craft a question that induces a more in-depth answer than yes or no: 

Are you a Leader or a Manager? (Forbes)

Which Is the Best Blogging Platform to Make Money? (Digital Empires)

How Do You Know You Love Someone? (Seventeen)

Do You Enjoy Taking Your Dog Everywhere?
Some People Mind That (Phila Inquirer)

Sometimes Ask and Answer

Another good strategy for a question headline is to provide the answer too. Here are a few examples:  

Low on Energy? You’re Missing These Key Nutrients (Clean Eating Magazine)

Stuck in a Rut? Your Step-by-Step Guide to Breaking Free (Life Hack)

4. Teaser Headline

The tease headline tells you just enough to make you curious, and then forces you to click through to find out what the heck they’re talking about. Dirty trick? No, it’s not a trick if you deliver good information. Effective? Of course!  Take these, for example:

This Stroke Treatment Will Save Millions of Lives. Eventually. (NYT Magazine)

Here’s Why You’re Broke (Forbes)

STDs Rates Are Surging. Here’s Why (NPR)

Donald Trump Isn’t the Only One to Blame for the
Capitol Riot. I’d Know. (NY Times)

Eric André And Emily Ratajkowski Give Us Nude Valentine
and It’s Better Than Candy (Huff Post)

Tease but don’t overdo it!

Then there’s the teaser headline that became a cliché – the What’s Next/You Won’t Believe. Like: This Stick of Butter Is Left Out at Room Temperature; You Won’t Believe What Happens Next! 

What happens next, of course, is your readers move on to another article or another site because they’re over this one. Don’t overdo the tease and always deliver good information.

How to use punctuation in titles/headlines

You’ve already seen the question mark in headlines. Though you don’t need periods in headlines or titles, the fact that a well-place period, em dash (the long one, not the hyphen), colon, or a pair of single quotes, can also make your headline clearer and cleaner and add style and voice.

You Quit. I Quit. We All Quit. And It’s Not a Coincidence. (NY Times)

Punctuation, like the commas below, can even let you say more in a small space. For example:

After a Simulated Game, Aaron Judge Plays in a Real One (NY Times)

China to Send Unmanned Probes to Mars, Jupiter by 2030 (The Jakarta Post)

(No need for an “and” between Mars and Jupiter, because a comma is used.)

You also don’t have to have a period when a comma is used, but note how these periods create emphasis:

No, You Shouldn’t Take Your Dog to Restaurants. Ever.

Trade War Escalates. Stock Markets Shrug. Here’s Why. (Seattle Times)

You can use an em dash the same way. An em dash is the really long dash that’s used for emphasis to visually separate a clause from a sentence, like this:

He Wanted his Job Back — But Not This Way

The Five Superfoods You’re Not Eating — and Why

The em dash adds a little zip and drama to the line; it forces the reader to slow down and “hear it,” rather than simply seeing it as lifeless words on a page. The colon also saves you space by letting you cut out a word or two or allows you to simplify and create emphasis around your key idea. For example:

What you Need to Know About Identity Theft Before it Happens to You

vs.

Identity Theft: How to Protect Yourself Before it Happens

Case of Tire Slasher: Deal Is Near

When using quotation marks in a headline, the Associated Press and some other common styles recommend single quotes instead of double. Why? Newspapers prefer them because it saves space and looks a little neater in the large type sizes in which headlines typically run:

NFC East’s rise from ‘NFC Least’ turns divisional playoffs
into a rivalry showcase (LA Times)

What Does It Mean When A Politician Takes ‘Full Responsibility’? (NPR)

Or, to set titles apart from regular text or titles of TV shows or movies, like this:

Tom Cruise’s ‘Top Gun: Maverick’: Everything to Know (US Magazine)

10 Shows Like ‘Game of Thrones’ to Watch Next (Metacritic)

But use full quotation marks when you’re quoting someone directly in a headline:

“I’m sorry,” says Anthony Weiner

Experiment with titles: one title 4 ways

Do experiment with punctuation and the of the strategies discussed here. There are always several ways to title your blog post or article.

Start noticing headlines in newspapers and blog post titles. You will get a lot of inspiration for using numbers, questions and punctuation. You will see strategies combined. I always take my students through an exercise of taking one blog post and writing the title using each of the four strategies above. Here’s an example from a real-class exercise:

Here are four versions of one blog post title one student wrote using my go-to strategies:

#1 The List: 3 Sure-Fire Ways to Win Free Concert Tickets

#2 The Informal/Conversation: Yes, I Really Do Win Free Concert Tickets—A Lot

#3 The Question: Do you Want to Learn How to Win Free Concert Tickets?

#4 The Tease: I Won Tickets to Four Concerts Last Year—Here’s my Secret

How to capitalize titles

For Bloggers who follow AP style, the rule is to always capitalize the first word and the last word. Always capitalize the verb, even if it’s short, like are/am/is. After that, you’re basically capping any word over three letters and not capping any under four unless it’s the verb. Here’s a handy headline tool that takes the guesswork out of caps.

The best headline-writing resource I have ever found

Register on My.Copyblogger.com now to get instant access to their free ebook How to Write Magnetic Headlines. It’s free and truly my go-to resource. The strategies in this guide are essential for writing benefit-driven headlines/titles for your posts and other feature content, like press releases, website articles and white papers/special reports. It’s worth coughing up your email, and in my experience, they don’t spam.

Let me know what you think of the guide. and send me your most successful headlines and post titles. I want to include them in a post.

Onwards!