I Tested the Headlines of the Top 20 Stories on Medium. 4 Passed.

What the headlines of popular Medium stories have in common

I just read another of those articles about headlines. I must be a glutton for punishment. They always say the same thing. Use a headline analyzer!!!

Ever wondered if headline analyzers really work?

Me, I hate them. They seem skewed to click-bait in my jaded eyes. But who knows, I’ve been wrong before. So I decided to do a test.

I went to the popular posts page and grabbed the first 20 stories. Which means they’re hot right now. Not last year. Today.

Stuck them puppies in the headline analyzer and know what? 4 passed.

The headline analyzer does this cool traffic lights thing…

If it’s red — stop. Don’t use that. It sucks. No one will click. If it’s yellow — caution. You want to fix it. Or they won’t click. If it’s green — go! That’s a great headline! (hahaha. so they say)

Now have a lookie at the results...

I’ll tell you the secret to cracking the headline code after you look at the results…bet you see the same thing I did!

3 of the “winning” headlines start with “how to”…

That’s dead obvious. And the last winning headline with the bright green go indicator… know why it scored 73? Because it used the word disaster. Apparently, disaster is a “power word”

The real secret of using a headline analyzer is to make sure your headline fails.

You think I jest? I do not.

Now look at the headlines that failed. All those red and yellow indicators that say it’s “not” a good headline — but yet, they’re the popular posts here. Huh?

But do you see what they have in common?

All the popular posts have headlines that are not a darn grab bag where you don’t know what’s inside. Every one of those popular stories — the headline leaves no guessing. None. Nada. You know exactly what the story is about before you even click.

None of that “one weird old trick” crap. None of that “you won’t believe what happened next” crap That garbage doesn’t work here.

Even the “how to” titles say exactly what you’re going to learn how to do. Despite leaning on the how to trope, they’re still specific as specific gets.

There are 200,000 writers on Medium. If you want people to click your story, you need to make darn sure they know exactly what your story is about if you want them to open it.

If that means you fail the headline analyzer, so be it. Failing the headline test didn’t seem to hurt the top stories any.

When push comes to shove — go for clarity.

For me, the greatest beauty always lies in the greatest clarity — Gotthold Ephraim Lessing