I wrote one guest post and got 5,000 visitors and over 30 new paying customers from one link in the guest post.
Would you like to hear how I did it? The best part is the blog I guest posted on isn’t even a popular blog. More on that in a minute.
Not all blog posts headlines are created equal. In fact most of the headlines I see from guest posters are extremely boring.
I can literally look down a list of posts on a blog and tell you which ones have social shares and comments just based on the headline.
Here’s an example of a bad headline I saw this morning:
“Identity Theft Is No Small Problem For Your Business”
Let’s be honest. That headline is a snooze fest. There is nothing there that grabs my interest or makes me feel like I need to read more.
Here is how I would rewrite an engaging headline for the same article.
“Your Business Has Lost Thousands To Identity Theft And Here Is How You Can Stop It”
If you were a business owner, which headline would be more likely to grab your attention?
In my example:
I tell the reader their company lost thousands with out knowing it (attention grabber).
I also offer a solution to solve the problem (reason to click through).
The principles I am about to teach you works exactly the same with a blog post on your own blog as it does on a guest post.
The reason guest posts are typically better is because you are posting on a blog that has a big audience and so it is easier to get interaction.
There are 3 key traits I have found that make a guest post headline uncontrollably clickable (there could be more than 3).
If your headline contains one or more of these traits your chance for click through and readership increase dramatically.
Your article will stand out like a ripe orange sitting in a basket of green apples.
So what are the key traits?
1. Be Controversial
People love controversy. Whether they agree or disagree with what is being said, they want to chime in.
You want to get the attention of the rabid fans of the Lord of the Rings universe? Tell them you think The Hobbit movies are terrible. I promise you they will chime in.
Try to use controversy in your headlines. Even if you don’t mean it, you can explain your position in the post. You are just trying to get people to click through.
A good example I have seen of this is the headline:
“SEO Is Dead”
Such a simple 3 word headline, but if you do SEO you are going to want to know why someone is making such a claim.
2. Ask A Question
The way humans are wired, we have to
That is why asking a question works.
I know right now you’re asking “have to what? You didn’t complete your sentence Adam.”
I did that on purpose to prove a point. We need closure. If an idea is started, our brains need the conclusion of that idea.
If a question is asked, we need it answered.
Instead of a headline that says:
“How A Slow Website Costs You Money”
I would make the headline say:
“Is Your Slow Website Costing You Visitors? Here is what Google says…”
You ask the question and then you promise to have it answered if they read your post. Do you see how that invites engagement?
3. Use Pop Culture
For some reason, and maybe it has always been this way, but if you want to get peoples attention you are guaranteed to do it with pop culture.
The biggest evidence of this is the thousands of singers on youtube who are making a great living singing the songs of famous musicians.
They don’t have to be able to write their own stuff, they can simply cover someone else’s song and get millions of views and get paid.
The listening audience doesn’t even care that their version of the song is far inferior to the original because they have emotional ties to the song and so they will come and they will watch the video.
It’s unbelievable.
That same trend exists in guest blogging. Have you seen any blog posts recently that had a headline that included the words “Star Wars”?
That’s because Star Wars is hot right now and it grabs peoples attention. And in a world where the attention of your audience is at a premium, you use whatever works.
I have used this strategy successfully to create “viral” blog posts on more than one occasion.
For example, I was a big fan of the reality TV show American Ninja Warrior. There were some things about how the competition was run that I didn’t agree with and I knew I probably wasn’t the only one who felt that way.
So I decided to write a blog post entitled “How To Fix American Ninja Warrior – An Open Letter”. (This was not a guest post, it was a blog post on one of my own websites)
This headline contained 2 of the 3 traits.
First, I used controversy. I insinuated that the show was broken knowing that this would incite interaction with hardcore fans.
Second, I included the name of the show.
Third, I offered a solution to the problem I was claiming existed.
Once the post was live I posted it on Facebook and then promoted the post to fans of the show.
Immediately people started sharing and commenting on the post.
The coolest thing was people were sharing it with the athletes themselves that are the stars of the show and they started interacting as well.
You can see the post here.
The post has 71 comments on it. The next closest blog post on that website has about 10 comments.
What is funny about this post is it also now ranks on Google for hundreds of key phrases related to the show. Go ahead, search something like “do american ninja warriors get paid” or “how much do athletes on american ninja warrior make” and you will find Website Rocket right at the top.
How To Get A Famous Multi-Millionaire’s Attention
I have always been a huge fan of the TV show The Profit on CNBC. If you haven’t seen it and you have any entrepreneurial spirit in you it’s a must watch.
One day I decided to write a post for one of my blogs about how much I loved the show. At the time there were a lot of people professing their love of the show and I didn’t want to be just white noise.
So I decided to take a different angle and published the blog post entitled, “Why The TV Show The Profit Is The Worst Show On TV…“. (See the post here)
The post was a tongue in cheek complaint/praise of how motivational the show was but I knew hardcore fans wouldn’t be able to help themselves with that headline.
I spent $ 20 and promoted the post on Facebook to fans of the show.
A few hours later I checked Facebook only to see that I had exploded the internet.
The star of the show Marcus Lemonis saw the post and read it, then he reposted it on Facebook to his 200,000+ fans.
He sent so much traffic to the post that the site shut down for about an hour.
His Facebook post ended up with over 600 comments, over 4,500 likes and over 550 shares. The blog post ended up with over 50 comments on it and over a 3 day period over 50,000 visitors.
Added bonus: In the blog post itself I linked to Website Rocket and got thousands of visitors to click through the link and over 30 people signed up for a membership.
All because I wrote a super controversial headline about someone in pop culture (that matched my audience), two of the characteristics of an irresistible headline.
So before you write your next blog post or guest post look at the headline and ask yourself, how can I ask a question? How can I add controversy? How can I include pop culture? How can I mix in all 3?
Does Your Blog Have This Critical Key Trait? Donald Trump’s Blog Never Will…
(I literally came up with that in 5 seconds but now I want to know what IT is)
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