How to Ultimate Your Headlines
And make your subtitles badass at the same time
Forget about headline analyzers like CapitalizeMyTitle or ShareThrough. Everybody’s using them, but very few understand how.
I don’t.
That’s why I steal my headlines from top writers.
Here are the two examples you need to agree with me.
Example 1: I stole a headline from Katie Jgln and got more than 10k claps on the corresponding article
Katie is “opinionated, unapologetic, and like writing content that angers people who are mentally stuck in the Middle Ages.”
She’s hilarious and makes you think. She’s also a gifted writer.
See this headline: How Men’s ‘Weaponized Incompetence’ Is Screwing Over Women
Makes you want to click. Right?
3,500 claps from 289 people would agree with you. That’s why I stole it.
Katie’s headline put Men and Women in a conflict very effectively. It was exactly what I needed for my article about “one-clappers” because many writers on Medium get upset at the idea someone is clapping only once for their articles. (I don’t. Any clap is a good clap in my book.)
That’s a nice conflict to play with. Here’s the headline I used: How One-Clappers Are Screwing Over Writers
It got more than 10k claps by 446 people and made me $100 (which is most likely less than what Katie made with her articles because of reasons I discussed here.)
Fun fact, I used the headline again: How Non-paying Members Are Screwing Over Writers
Non-paying members are another pain point for many writers on the platform. It was another conflict that needed a good frame to attract readers. So why not reuse what worked before?
It was less successful (5k claps from 167 people, $35), but I was still happy because these numbers are quite an achievement (for me).
Example 2: I stole this article’s headline from one of David B. Clear’s tweets.
Is it a good headline?
Well, you clicked on it! :D
Recap — 3 simple steps to ultimate your headlines
- Pick a top writer.
- Browse their titles till something clicks.
- Adapt to your specific content.
Best of luck!
Thanks to David for the idea for this article and to Katie for the headline! Check out David’s tips on writing here:
And this is one of Katie’s most popular articles. I didn’t find a way to steal the headline yet. But with 30,000+ claps from 5,000+ people, we all should!
Smillew is a Medium writer who writes mainly about social justice, his Medium newsletter, and his Medium referral link. No need to follow him; he’ll show up in your feed.
