Sometimes the title or headline for content that pops into my mind, just doesn’t work. It may not work for the people I want to attract to read my blog, it may not work for getting my post found online and it may not work for me.
In addition to the title dilemma, it can be the frustration what do I write about today?
Yikes. Either nothing comes up or too many ideas noodle around in my head.
Feeling compelled to systematize my blogging subjects (so many of my readers have blogged about how they do this and it inspired me) was my first step toward making the idea and title part of the process easier.
While the topic list is ever evolving, one of the top factors most things have to include for me is, it has to be fun. I’m too old to do anything which excludes having fun. Fun is one of my top five values.
Presuming you might have similar thoughts about blog post ideas or blog post titles, these tips might help you streamline crafting your blog title or even email subject.
You want to hear tip number one: find yourself and then use, a useful headline generator.
The benefit of using such a tool is the multipurpose they have: it can work for blog posts, headings in the blog post, email subjects, book titles, chapter titles – anything that is remotely close to a – title. They can even spark a subject idea in you.
Here are two I use:
https://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker/
This one suggests one title at a time, which stays visible until you spin the wheel to the right of the entered subject. Taking just enough time to think about – does it work for my audience, would it be more easily found, does it work for me, get ready to spin again. You’ll find a new title. Here are a few it generated for this post using the subject – blog titles:
• 9 Problems with Blog Titles – this is easy and could work with any number you might want at the beginning.
• How Blog Titles are Like a School Bully – this one is just plain silly. Although it might work with something like, How Blog Titles are Like a Magnet or some other word.
• What Jezebel Should Write about Blog Titles – nah, not for me. But you could creatively make it work with a few twists.
You get the idea about that little tool?
Here’s another title tool tip to consider:
This one is often overwhelming for me. It generates a list of dozens of titles all at once! As you can see from this screen shot, it starts with – lists, moves on to Best.
It goes further on giving – “How to” titles, Questions, Love, Sex, Celebrities, Secrets, Snark, Business, Motivation, Problem, and where a title didn’t fit it went into a category titled The Kitchen Sink.
• Fascinating Blog Title Tactics That Can Help Your Business Grow
• 7 Ways a Blog Title Will Help You Get More Business
Final step is to rate the title value:
One of my pet peeves about posts I am asked to read: they often have titles that suck. These are usually one-word titles that tell me nothing about why I want to read the post, what’s in it for me. Please. Help me want to read your post! If I come over to read it I might actually comment!
Originally the title I chose from one of the above tools for this post was, Too Busy? Try These 3 Tips To Streamline Crafting Your Blog Title.
But would it have any emotional value? Meaning, while it might be good for search engine optimization, would it appeal to people enough to want to even read it?
Test your title’s emotional appeal:
www.aminstitute.com/headline/index.htm
In this tool, as in the above tool, I have to give myself a time limit to be on it. Tweaking is never done, is it?
The original title mentioned above had a score of 41.67%. That’s just okay because while the English language supposed contains 20% emotional value words, my score was double that.
But, the appeal was mainly to our intellectual side. I wanted to reach either of the other two sides: empathetic or spiritual.
The changed title ranked higher at 44.4% and better than that, it ranks it as appealing to both the intellectual thinking and the spiritual feeling sides of us.
By the way, a perfect 100% score – supposedly it’s rare but possible if you aim for a five-word title!
Great list of tools Patricia! I have pinned it for future reference. I run hot and cold with blog titles. There are times when I feel like Captain Clever and then there are blogs that defy description for me. I always forget to try out tools when I’m running into a wall. I think I need a list of things to do when blogging. 🙂
Lists are good Debra. Mine is in my head at this point however when I first started I had a written list. It might even be a good idea to revisit the list to see if there is anything being done, just isn’t worth the time, effort or ROI. Thanks!
With a background in journalism headlines come easy to me. They have to make people curious and want to know more. If you imagine you are writing for a tabloid newspaper you come up with the best headlines. It’s not for nothing they have huge circulations. Emotions you easily involve by including the word you, For instance “do you know how to write a headline?”. Even if they don’t, the majority of people will say they do.
Sometimes I have the title, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I start with the title as the “topic” idea and sometimes I don’t. Whatever the situation, it’s good to know there are useful tools to make either better Catarina!
Hi Patricia; I guess I need to get a more methodical approach to picking my blog titles. I generally just go with what sounds good to me. And this seems to work with people who know me but not so well with the search engines. I noticed two things about your post. ONe you don’t just want your titles to appeal to the search engines but you want them to grab the interest of real live users. 🙂 And second when testing your title you went for a balance of intellectual and emotional appeal. I know you have read most of my posts because you have been a loyal reader and welcome commenter. so how badly have I been doing at this? Your opinion is trusted and appreciated. Thanks again and take care, Max
Max if you feel you could make things better, give one of the tools a try. Then measure your results from that point on in terms of your new visitors, where they came from, etc. That’s so encouraging you welcome me as a commenter! Yea! The thing is Max, we know each other BEYOND our blog posts and that relationship cannot be replaced with a blogpost title tool! YOU are the best.
Hi Patricia; That was pretty much my point. We know each other well and enjoy supporting each other. You are a real special lady. But I do wonder if my posts would get more traffic from the people who don’t already know me by coming up with better headlines. So, I will be using the tools, but I will also continue to get to know other bloggers and build good relationships. Thanks for supporting me. It means a lot. Take care, Max
Patricia- Thanks for the tools I am going to have to check them out. I don’t really give the title too much thought. I come up with the title after I have written the blog so that the title relates back to what I wrote about. Never thought or realized that their were tools out there for clever titles. As they say you learn something new everything.
Yes Arleen, I go both ways with titles – sometimes getting one if I need an idea about what to write about, sometimes to tweak the title I had in mind so that it stand a better chance of being found!
These are great lists Patricia! It never dawned on me to find a list to suggest title. I generally write the content first, and the tile will pop into my head from somewhere in the content. But I will try these… I get blocked very often:)
Jacqueline really? YOU get blocked? It’s not imaginable for me! LOL. Glad you might want to try one or the other.
Hahaha! I mean writer’s block! Yikes! All the time………………
I had not heard of these resources before. I have bookmarked for later. Thanks Patricia!
Hope you find them helpful Cheryl!
I tried the first tool and randomly choose as a subject, how to choose a niche. I noticed that one piece of advice offered by the site was to not pluralize the subject but it came back with “How to Choose Your Niches.” Tool 2 gave me “How To Something Your How To Choose A Niche.” my favorite so far. Tool 3 decided that my title was spiritual. I never seem to have much luck with automated tools like this!
Beth, if who you want to reach resonates with their description, it sounds like it might be good:
Their definition of spiritual: Words which have the strongest potential for influence and often appeal to people at a very deep emotional level.
I never knew there were such tools out there to help with post titles. I have had times when the title comes immediately and then other times when it takes a while; maybe after the 3rd edit. Eventually it comes though and is like a breath of fresh air. The same feeling you get when you form a really great sentence. Just makes the whole day a little nicer.
There are likely way more tools for post titles than any one person can know about. Maybe if you give these a try you’ll be finding that fresh air, all the sooner! Thanks Tim.
Patricia – thanks for these tips. This is one area that I really need to improve on so totally appreciate this post.
Lenie
Happy it is helpful for you Lenie. I know there are so many areas like this which I find myself, striving to improve.
Patricia, you write the best blogs out there. I always find them enjoyable to read, and filled with great information
William, I’m glad you find them both informative and enjoyable. If you do try out any of these particular title tools, come back. Let us know what you used them for and how they worked.
These are fantastic tools pat. Thank you so much. The title is SO important and finding the right one is essential. I’ve used the Aminstitute one, and I think it really works. Bookmarking other two suggestions & this page right now.:-)
Love that AMInstitute one too! I’ve tested it and I find it DOES work. If you try the others, let us know AK.
I come from journalism, so I’m used to writing headlines and titles, but writing objective headlines for a newspaper is different than writing emotional titles for a blog. I often start with a working title, then finalize it after I finish writing the blog post. The third tool you listed from the Advanced Marketing Institute is one I use for every title. I like to write them, then run them through that tool and tweak until I get a high emotional value.
Awesome Jennifer. Your testimony for the AMI tool, being that you come to blogging from journalism is a valuable endoresment of it.
Thanks for this post Pat. It is every writer’s challenge to come up with the right title as this can make or break an article. I do struggle a lot sometimes and change title a number of times, so I toy around with a title until I get it right. I will try the tools you have given the next time I have a challenge.
Welli, I need every tool I can get! Hope you try the ones here and find them to be valuable.
Hi Patricia,
I agree, you need to create the curiosity in the title of the post for people to want to read further.
Thank you for sharing the generator links. I love learning and look forward to what I can find out.
All the best for a great week!
Bill
For me, the AMI does the best at tweaking any title for curiosity. If you test them out, any of them, I hope you’ll let us know how they work for you William.
I tried some of these headline generators a while back and they are fun to play around with. My titles are usually the name of a recipe or wine, so I don’t have too much of a problem. When I write my short stories I might try one of these out and see what I come up with.
Susan for certain they might not fit every topic, but definitely short stories. Hope they work well for you.
I’ve gone to using one hashtag per title since my posts get sent out via the plugin Revive Old Post on a regular basis. I also try to look at what keywords will get the most traffic. I try to steer clear of clever titles that don’t hint at the post’s content. If I do a creative nonfiction piece, at least the hashtag helps clarify the focus of the posts. I often change the titles in the Triberr stream that I share to make them more informative.
Oh yeah, the #hashtags Jeri. You could always use the word you want to hashtag to tweak any title.
These are some very useful tips. I am always thinking about how to better present blogs through the title and honestly, I don’t really have a process. I try to think of something clever that will describe the entire work in just a few words. It’s hard but something I really don’t think shortening in time would help. Though a “Headline Generator” seems very cool and might warrant a try. We’ll see how that goes.
Thanks for sharing.
Sometimes a process works for me, sometimes it doesn’t. The thing for me is to continue to tweak things until the results get easier. If you use any of the tools, do come back Carl and tell us a little about your experience.
Titling a blog post is one of the hardest parts of the whole process for me! These are some great resources, which I will have to check out. But the thing I liked most about this piece is this quote: “I’m too old to do anything which excludes having fun. Fun is one of my top five values.” I love it and I’m adopting it!
Well it IS the truth – about not doing something unless it is fun. It’s in the hobbies I undertake, the work I do, just life. About 3 years ago I tweaked out my top values on a coaching program and I let those values, drive everything I do. Thanks Meredith.
Hi Pat: Interesting post! I’ve never heard of any of these titling tools. I use the SEO plug-in to help me choose blog post titles. Usually. I want to use something that’s more on the artistic side, but it usually guides me to be plain and simple, as that’s what will rate higher in the search engines.
You might find one of these tools to do both for you Doreen: get an artistic title with being able to rate higher in search engines.
Pat — I hadn’t heard of the first tool and had a little fun playing around with it. I’ve used the second (not lately) and years ago when I first starting blogging there was another tool just like Tweak Your Biz Title Generator that I used all the time. I was compiled and operated by one woman. It’s no longer around. I found that often the crazy titles it generated would give me ideas for posts which I think was it’s greatest benefit. So I’m glad to know there is another tool like it. Thanks.
Good stuff, Patricia! I use Headline Hacks by Jon Morrow. I have it bookmarked and it never fails me. But, I am liking two of the ones you mention and will have to check them out. The key is to have a grabbing headline that is not too cheesy and it should be simple. Love this. Thanks for sharing with us.
Is that a book Laurie? I have not heard of Headline Hacks before so a quick search found a book. Thanks and you are so right – it has to balance between grabbing and simple.
Generally, when I create a blog title, I try to summarize what the post is about and hook the reader at the same time.
Jon Morrow has a free blog post title template that anyone can have. Did you know about that?
Lorraine, just before your comment, Laurie mentioned Jon Morrow. Is that his ebook you are referring to? That’s the only thing I could find. Thanks!
Yes, you can get it at boostblogtraffic DOT com/headline-hacks/
It’s pretty popular. I’m surprised you’ve not heard of it! *all the cool bloggers have* LOL(Oh, and now that you’ve heard of it, you’re a cool blogger, too.) ;)P.S. Sorry. I’m in a mood. No sleep
Thanks for the url Lorraine – and the cool blogger title too!
I’ve also bookmarked those tools now, thanks Patricia!
I know I should spend more time on the headlines. It wouldn’t be too hard to make them more intriguing, since I have some tricks in my sleeve. But I blame time limitations and keep taking the shortest path there, the most obvious.
Eve, I totally understand time limitations! Hoping the tools will be a time saver for you.
Thanks for the great tool list that you provided. Headlines and titles are so important and can make people want to read what you have written or just complelty skip over it. I know I am hit or miss with titles so I really appreciate this writup. Thanks for sharing
Jay, delighted you found the tool list helpful.