Blog Titling Tip – Don’t Spill the Beans

Crafting a good title everything.

A bad will title will turn people away from reading it and a good one will engage them right from the outset.

I don’t have to tell you that the more people read your articles, the more they become familiar with you, trust you and see you as an expert coach. And clients love hiring experts!

So, if you’re actively blogging or putting out articles to draw attention to your business, here’s one thing to watch out for that reduces the number of people who read your writing – spilling the beans!

Spilling the beans means giving away the secret giving people a reason not to click and read.

You don’t want to give away the good stuff in the headline.

This will cause you to lose the reader as he/she will either think she gets the article or will discount the article as “common advice”.

An example will help …

Let’s say you saw the following article title out on the web, Lose Weight with Exercise.

This article title is problematic because it gives away the advice, to exercise.

There’s no reason to read the article anymore.

But it’s worse.

I bet you had some compelling story, some special insights, and some great material to share to help people take action and exercise more.

But when someone sees that title, the point is over. There’s no need to read.

You’ve just lost a reader.

More not-so-hot titles that spill the beans (they are simply statements of advice):

• Set Goals to Succeed
• How to Destress – Take a Vacation
• Become More Enlightened with Meditation

Again, these titles, while they may have some unique, special or amazing content, cause the reader to lose interest.

So, remember to NOT give away the secret.  Don’t include the beans in the title.

With our first example, Lose Weight with Exercise, we can hide the secret of the article by simply removing it and adding HOW TO.

Thus, our title will become How to Quickly Lose Weight.

We got rid of the beans (with exercise) and added “How to”.

This is a better title.

Even though it is a better title, unfortunately the subject of “losing weight” has been beaten to death. So, let me give you another move to make for additional enticement.

We can do this by making the beans into mystery beans – that is instead of giving away the secret, we can come up with a new phrase to describe the secret uniquely, like this …

How to Quickly Lose Weight with Ladies Night.

As you can see, instead of “with exercise” we now have “with Ladies Night” – a new, unique, interesting phrase that’s sure to get attention.

In your article, you need to explain this concept – Ladies Night. You can talk about your unique trick for getting exercise (I’m making this one up) which is about getting your female friends together for a long healthy walk with nuts and berries and fun chatting instead of the usual feasting at the diner.

What we have done is replaced the common “with exercise” with something mysterious and unique – Ladies Night.

In summary …

My main piece of advice is to avoid putting the “lesson to be learned” (the beans) into the title, so the reader can’t say, “Oh, I already know what’s in that article.” Instead, take out the beans and add in mystery.

Qs for U

Are you writing articles that spill the beans? Do your titles seem flat or uninteresting? Are your titles sounding like advice or cliches? Have you written a recent article that could use a tweak? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Just post your comments.