7 Quick-and-Easy Medium Title Templates to Get More Money

…even if you aren’t a copywriter

Your Medium stories live and die by their titles. If you don’t have a successful title, all the writing in the world won’t save it.

Think about this:

You spend four hours writing researching your best story yet. The piece is edited to perfect — a journalistic work of art.

***you’ll want to bookmark this story for later***

You’re tired.

It’s late.

You want the damn thing off your desk, so you can move on to the next story.

You bang-away at a basic title that explains the story. Looks OK to you. You hit ‘publish’ and finally go to bed.

The next morning you’re excited to check your stats and see the new viral story that generated thousands of readers. You open your phone. Your dreams are dashed instantly.

You got 30 views and 10 reads — earning all of 48 cents. You just earned yourself ten cents per hour of work.

I cannot stress how important your story titles are.

Titles make-or-break your writing income on Medium. If your reader doesn’t click, you don’t get paid. Doesn’t matter how much writing talent you poured into your work.

This is the power of copywriting.

But not every writer cares, nor wants to study it deep-enough. What’s she supposed to do?

I’ve got some templates for you.

There are thousands of title templates out there, but these are based on successful copywriting principles of the last 50 years.

I borrowed these from Jim Edward’s book called Copywriting Secrets. It’s a quick read and a great tool if you want a fast entry-level jump into copywriting.

Jim didn’t invent these. They’re as old as advertising itself. But they make a great jump-start for your stories.

Keep reading for the 7 templates.

7 Medium title templates

These templates work. I just used one of the templates to title this story. Originally meant for sales letters and ads, these formulas are a great way to grab your reader’s attention and encourage her to open your stories.

1. (number) Quick and Easy Ways to Get (something)… Even if (something)
2. Here’s the Perfect Solution If You Want (something)… Even if (something)
3. How to (something)In as Little as (amount of time)… Even if you (something you don’t know how to do)
4. How Every (type of person) Can (something they want)
5. Warning: Here’s What Every (type of person) Needs to Know About (something)
6. Here’s What Happened When…
7. How to Get (something)

These formulas are timeless and attack our inner-desire to want to know more about the story inside.

Yes, developing your own title may produce better results, but these templates are a great place to start and have almost-universal applications, especially if you don’t want to spend the time going elbows-deep in a copywriting education.

If you’re stuck for a clever title that converts scrollers into readers, try these templates before you attempt to get clever.

Clever titles usually bomb.

I’ve written plenty of them.

Be straightforward. Pose a question in the reader’s mind that can only be answered by opening the story. Use a title that targets the niche you wish to serve.

Universal titles bring a universal audience.

We don’t write for everyone. Only our tribe.

Once they open your story don’t let them go

Getting new readers is hard. Once you get them you don’t want to let them go. It’s much easier to convince a current reader to read more stories.

How do we keep our reader’s coming back?

Even in the slew of ever-increasing Medium stories?

We build and email list. Instead of saying ‘thanks for reading’ and hope the person returns the next time you write a story — you keep in touch with email.

Not only can you promote your stories with email, but you can also sell your writing and courses — automatically. No more typing for dollars.

Sure, you still have to market your writing, but it’s much easier to contact your loyal fans instead of trying to convert new, cold readers every time you write something new.

By the way… I made something you might like.

I developed a free, 7-day, email masterclass called the Tribe 1K. Inside I show you how to get your first 1,000 (or your next 1,000) readers without spending money on ads.

Maybe you’ll enjoy it too. I’ve had some great feedback thus far.

Tap the link.

We’re waiting for you.

Enroll in my Email Masterclass. Get Your First 1,000 Subscribers

August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. As a self-appointed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indies how to make work that sells and how to sell more of that work once it’s created. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing, August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.