The 5 Elements My Top 5 Viral Headlines Have in Common

That have helped them rack up around 250,000 views

Around a year ago, I had reached out to Matt Lillywhite and vented my frustration.

I had a 90% + curation rate. I was constantly getting published in top publications. Editors loved my work. My article formatting was top-notch.

But none of my articles had even come close to going viral. He had only one thing to say, “It’s definitely the headlines then.”

Disappointed by the cliche answer, I continued as usual. A month later, an article I expected to lie in obscurity blew up. I experimented with the headline template until another went viral.

One, two, four, eight more. Mother virality soon became a regular visitor.

I had understood the game — my average monthly views zoomed into the 100,000+ range.

Matt had been right.

A brilliant article with a weak headline is like a royal chamber with a dirty, dented door.

Turned off by the door, most aren’t even going to enter the room — missing the ethereal beauty of the room.

To help you craft gorgeous doors, I want to share the top 5 elements of my best headlines.

A Look at The Stats

If you don’t care about the exact stats and only want the breakdown, skip ahead to the next section.

In terms of total views and reading time, these are my top 5 articles:

• The Most Effective Weight Loss Method I See Almost No One Using.
• The 3 One-Minute Daily Habits That’ve Actually Saved Me Thousands of Hours.
• One Of The Most Underrated Exercises I See No One Doing.
• If I Could Read Only 7 Books for The Rest of My Life, I’d Read These.
• An 80-Year Harvard Study Reveals the Secret to Long-Term Happiness.

As you can see above, they have combinedly amassed 242,000+ views.

I’ve blurred out the earnings for personal reasons, but you can easily get an idea based on what other writers have revealed.

As to the reading time, they have racked up 2500+ member hours.

For those curious about how the views graphs look, here you go.

Some of these built-up and died down rapidly, while others built up slowly and had small spikes with time.

The beauty of viral articles is they continue to earn money long after they are published.

Let’s Talk About the 5 Elements They Share

You might have already spotted some patterns. But pulling the elements of my other semi-viral headlines, the pattern burns down to 5 simple things.

If you nail these, it’s almost a guarantee that your target audience will click on the article.

Once there, it’s the job of your writing to get them to press down the clap button and share it everywhere.

1. Reveal the Outcome but Conceal the Means

Be it thousands of hours saved per week, the secret to long-term happiness, or the most effective weight-loss method, clarify the outcome.

But hide the means. What is the method? What could be the secret? What in the world are those one-minute daily habits?

Let the readers find out. Most writers do the opposite — they reveal the means without talking about the outcome.

“What I Learned on My Trip to Bali” or “My Experience with Daily Cold Showers”. Why would the readers care?

Instead, ones like “3 Weird Life Lessons My Bali Trip Taught Me” and “The Secret To Insane Self-Discipline And Focus” tell the readers what to expect but withhold the “how” part.

2. Exclusivity And A Curiosity Gap

Building on the previous point, withholding information alone won’t work. In the sea of life lessons or productivity articles, how will your articles shine through?

Here’s where a curiosity gap comes in — be it an 80-year Harvard study, an underrated rarely used exercise, only 7 books for an entire lifetime, or an obscure insanely effective weight-loss method.

With phrases such as “Actually”, “I See No One Using”, “Very Few”, “Reveals The Secret”, “Only”, exclusivity is created.

The reader feels like you’re letting them in on a secret — and we Homo Sapiens love secrets.

3. The Right Promise Balance

The headline is your promise to the reader.

Underpromising will reduce the clickability of your article but leave the readers gushing over the article. Over-promising will get you a lot of clicks, but most will leave disappointed.

The key is in striking the perfect balance — but phrase the promise in the most favorable way possible.

“The Component that Comprises up To 50% of Your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE)!” is true but not exciting. How can I make it more tempting and exclusive?

• Since it comprises up to 50% of the TDEE, it’s hands-down “The Most Effective Weight-Loss Method.”
• Since many don’t know of it, I can append “I See Almost No One Using” in good conscience.

Similarly, “3 Daily Habits That Have Boosted My Productivity” is boring and sounds cliche. But when they have helped me actually save thousands of hours and each of them takes under a minute?

The headline becomes an entirely new beast.

4. Simple, Not Fancy or “Creative”

Is there a single word in any of the 5 titles that you’d have to pull out a dictionary for?

Or take another pass and spend 5 seconds to digest the “clever” meaning of the headline?

The second someone skims your headline, they should understand it. In our 9-second attention span world, nobody has the time or energy to “decipher” your clever headline.

Simple + Easy to Read + Clear Communication = King.

5. As Short as Possible and As Long as Necessary

None of the 5 headlines can be made any shorter without reducing some of their power. But none of them are longer than needed either.

Putting a character limit on a headline is poor advice — based on the context, a headline might need to be lengthy. I’ve had articles with 3-line headlines blow up as well.

Heedless of the length, write a draft headline that captures the outcome, generates curiosity, has exclusivity, and is simple to read.

Then chop it down.

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