First of all, I hate clickbait. It’s simply wrong. This is why I wrote a normal, yet inciting title for this post. I will give you clear instructions on how I write my titles, my good ones, but there’s no clickbait in here.
If it were for clickbait, my title would look like this:
“This is the absolute best title you can ever write!”
“How to write your 1000000 dollars title every time”
“Mindblowing title technique that will make you rich”
The best title you can write is the one that tells the complete truth about your story or book but gives nothing away about the main idea or plot of your writing. It’s a mixture of honesty, suspense and attraction.
“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”
“The Great Gatsby”
“The Lord of the Rings”
What these titles have in common is greatness. But what makes them great? It’s the simple, yet smart honesty about what the overall book is about while leaving the reader wondering about it all by using the words Secrets, Great and Lord. What is the secret of the Chamber of Secrets? Why is Gatsby great? What makes the Lord of the Rings a lord of the rings?
The Internet Title
Then there’s the internet title. The clickbait is, once again, completely wrong. What makes a great title on the internet has to do not just with good honesty and a bit of mystery, but also with looks. People tend to click on articles that have short, conclusive titles.
Look at my title here: it checks all the boxes, it’s short, but not the shortest, it’s honest because the article is really about how to write good titles and it’s not clickbait because I’ve never promised you a lesson on how to write legendary, incredible, unbelievable or rich-making titles. Just good titles.
Websters hate long titles with many details in them. They simply don’t click on them. If you need some help with your writing, regardless of the domain you’re in, shoot me an email!
So whenever your time to write the best title of your life comes, remember these rules and try to do your best. Nobody has a secret formula for amazing titles writing. It’s a trial and error thing. And yes, the readers will criticize the living crap out of you…
Article first published on Medium.
