By
eHow Careers & Work Editor
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Step1
Use buzz words. These are words that everyone is familiar with. Put words that are in sync with the culture involved, and allow the buzz words to stand out. Place a buzz word at the beginning or end when you write an article headline.
Step2
Use the best superlatives. Superlatives are a measure of the best or greatest degree of something. Use words like most, worst, and hottest to catch the readers eye when you write an article headline. Magazines sell the best and worst lists of each year because that is what readers want.
Step3
Keep it short. Titles that are too long become confusing and complicated. Make them short and to the point. With this in mind, understand that in as few words as possible you must be able to get the idea of the article across effectively. To help with containing the title to minimal words, write out the thesis of the article and try to take out all unnecessary words. This can get you on the right track.
Step4
Use lists and numbers. People read the articles about the ten best ways to fight fat, and the five best money saving tips. Headlines that are indicating an easy to read article that will give the reader workable facts to implement are inviting and sell.
Step5
Be clever, but not too clever. You want to use idioms and catchy phrasings in your headlines, but keep in mind that you must be accurately stating what the article contains. You can't write a headline that talks about a man with two heads if your article actually talks about growing heads of lettuce. Use phrases that are kitschy or play on words to popular songs or phrases.
Comments
chava812 said
on 3/17/2008 Nice summary! Insights into what the readers will like the most (and why) are good for writers to know. Reading the target publication is a good way to find out how they prefer titles as well (and of course should already have been done prior to writing an article targeted for their readers). Like these articles of yours!