The Writing Mistake That Is Never Too Late To Correct
What was I thinking?
No brainer, it’s the Headline
The last time I had “viral” content was in July 2021. Since then, I have barely made $100 a month. I made over $250 on a “how to lose weight” article.
If writing is a hobby, as it was initially, I wouldn’t mind, but to be writing for almost two years, it has to stop being a hobby and become a way to make a decent living.
And I have tried everything, from writing every day to trying different genres. I even published my nude photo here.
But if I didn’t read Hogan Torah’s — The Reason Why You Haven’t Hit a Viral Story Yet today, I wouldn’t have my AHA moment.
Because I don’t know when I stopped caring about my headlines, but it just happened.
I stopped using a headline analyzer.
Your stories are low effort and half-assed — Hogan Torah
While I take pride in all the stories I have published, I know I can still improve as a writer.
I still labor each day, and there were days when I would work long hours, which I had to stop doing as it was making me sick; constant headaches and neck pain hounded me, all because I wanted to stay on my laptop writing stories.
The result was to cut corners. I stopped paying attention to my headlines when I wrote about What You Need to Know About the Most Engaging Headlines on Facebook in 2021.
I don’t edit my stories as fiercely as before when I even coined the phrase,
Write without fear, and then edit it without mercy.
I lost the fire in my belly as a writer.
My Titles suck
Mea culpa. There is no other way than to say it. As soon I finished reading Hogan’s article, I checked my old stories, and even the ones chosen for further distribution were hardly getting views, all because the title sucks.
Nobody is reading my stories because nobody is clicking my headlines. And it was easy to blame anything else but myself, including the algorithm, competition, and popularity.
But the buck stops here, and if I want to have viral stories, I need to change, full stop.
What I learned from Hogan Torah is how to use a headline analyzer properly.
The next story I read from Hogan is about headlines and photos — Combo Your Headline With The Right Picture to Earn Commas, I added the link at the end of this article.
I used this headline analyzer tool and other tools before to get the headline that converts, but I was misusing it. So I thought it was good to go as long as I got a decent number.
Until I tried what Hogan said about which of the numbers I had to get right, it wasn’t the Headline Quality Score but the Engagement Score.
None of it made sense to me as I was trying to remember the times I was using this tool. I always thought I had to get high scores on the three metrics.
The Sharethrough Headline Analyzer
The Headline Quality Score is based on a multivariate linguistic algorithm built on the principles of Behavior Model theory and Sharethrough’s neuroscience and advertising research. The algorithm takes into account more than 300 unique variables, including EEG data and Natural Language Processing, enabling your native ads to capture attention, increase engagement and deliver a stronger impression.
Putting it to the test
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. — Unknown
I wrote a new article, a short-form, to test Hogan’s advice about getting a high Engagement Score is what it takes to have a headline that converts.
I wouldn’t publish a title that gets under a 65 engagement. 70 is good enough to stop there. 80 is going to do well. above a 90 you may go viral. Remember the shorter the title the better. — Hogan Torah
The story already has more than 300 views and 232 reads. Even Google loves the article that most reads are coming from Google itself.
Hogan Torah it works!
I know I still have a lot to learn in crafting titles that get attention, but it is a start.
How to Write Headlines
The following are tips from Neil Patel. He said,
To start focusing on using headlines to get people to read the first sentence.
The four Us are:
- make the headline unique
- be ultra-specific
- convey a sense of urgency
- provide something useful
Headlines that sell
To make money as a writer, people should read your articles. It is that simple.
For people to read, a writer must catch their attention. And in 2022, we all know the attention span has shrunk even further.
Our competition is not limited to other blog posts but also videos, podcasts, and social media.
If what we are serving doesn’t pique their interests, our stories will be relegated to the black hole or the dust bin.
On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar. -David Ogilvy
The time we spend storytelling should be 20%, and 80% should be spent on writing our headlines.
Final Word
It is never too late. We learn as we go. The only way to be a better writer is by writing, and to write headlines that sell, we need to keep practicing writing better headlines.
Will they help my stories become viral?
None of us can say 100% how to go viral, but if we don’t try something new, we will repeatedly make the same mistakes.
Special thanks to Hogan.
