the second secret of creating killer content is to perfect the headline. So in this video we're going to talk about how to hook the reader's attention. Whether you like it or not, your headline is the most important part of your writing. It's the gateway. If you don't write a great headline and fewer people will click through to your article, open your email, watch your video or buy your product. Now. Do you know why publications like Buzzfeed and upward the rose to prominence. It's because they spent more time perfecting their headlines than they did their articles. I'm talking about headlines such as 24 pictures that will make you feel better about the world or what this airline did for its passengers will make you tear up or six harsh truths that will make you a better person. While some people may call these headlines, click batey. The truth is is that Clickbait has been around before clicking and computers even existed. Consider what a company called boardroom, which was the 19 ni...

neties media company did to get people to open their popular newsletters in the mail instead of leaving their envelopes, boring and bear on the outside, they turned it into a headline opportunity. Here's an example. Now, wouldn't you be much more likely to open up that envelope than if there's nothing written on it again? The power of a headline in a different era and the same thing happened during the golden age of print advertisements. Take a look at this example for 1926. The headline reads, they laughed when I sat down at the piano. But when I started to play this ad which was created by john cables for the U. S. School of Music was one of the most successful of its time because of how it grabs the reader's attention and made you want to find out what happened. It was so good that almost made you forget that it was an ad. But it's more like the beginning of the story. The same is true today when it comes to grabbing people's attention. In fact it's more true than ever before. Great headlines aren't really Clickbait if your article is also great but nobody will ever know that if you don't try to bait them in the first place. So you got to play the game in order to win the game. That's why it's important to know what works and what doesn't. Next time you're writing a headline, remember to eat now I'm not saying to eat as an eat food. I mean e a e a T is my formula stands for the end result. That the reader wants a addressing any objections and t the time period they'll get that end result in. Okay, so let me explain that. I know that's a lot. So let's say you're writing an article that teaches people how to speak french in 10 days, what would they eat Formula B. For that article First and foremost. The end result that the reader wants is to speak french the A. That addressing the objections they may have is that maybe they can't pay for a tutor or a teacher, let's say that's the objection in the time period they can get the result. Let's say you're teaching people how to speak french in just 10 days. Of course, once again, your article must deliver on this promise. But assuming it does, you can mix and match the E and T components to come up with different headlines and don't feel confined to using all three components or even keeping them in the same order. So here's what I mean, for example, how to learn french in days without a teacher, E. T. And a write in order. Next headline. 10 ways to learn french for free. That one we didn't even use the time interval, we just use the E. And the a the end result. And addressing the objection the next headline is no tutor. No problem. Here's how to learn french in 10 days, right. And that one is using the A E and T in that order beyond using the formula here, three bonus tips to guide your headline writing so you can hook the reader's attention first and foremost, keep your headline between 12 to 18 words in link after researching over million headlines and seeing which perform best on social media content analytics, company buzz sumo, discovered that post with 12 to 18 words in the headline received the highest number of facebook engagements on average headlines that were longer or shorter than this number saw a decline in the average of facebook engagement. So just a guiding principle use the numbers five, 10, 15 or seven when you're writing ballistic als right. Many of the most engaging phrases contain numbers and many use a list post format or elliptical and if you're using a number and the number 10 is actually the highest performing headline number for the next three best performing numbers being five and seven. So of course you must remember that you must deliver on the promise of the headline. That's the common theme here and you never want to have crafted content just to make the list longer or cut great content to make your list shorter, which is why this course is called the Seven Secrets of creating killer content instead of the five Secrets. Right? So you want to deliver more value if you can. The third bonus tip is to try out these templates in addition to the formula, you're not striking gold with that try out these templates which have worked really well for me, the act as cookie cutter solutions or just another way to kickstart your brainstorming to help come up with an awesome headline. So here are a few templates that I compiled from amazing writers, chris Garrett and neville mid hora who I really encourage you checking out the world because they're amazing, amazing copywriters. The first type of templates are the money templates which include examples like the following everything you need to know about getting cheaper blank. Right? And these blanks are where you put your topic or your area of expertise. 10 tips for hassle free blank. Right. They all speak to the idea of money and doing things in a more costly way. The next type of templates you can use are called the fears templates which include the following what your blank is not telling you about blank. So what your doctor is not telling you about checkups, terrible example, but you get to fill in the blank. Right? Beware of blank and how to spot them. Or finally the unseen dangers of blank. Right again. Think of your topic and what you're speaking to and fill in those blanks. The next set of templates are called the Secrets templates which includes some of the following. The real truth about blank. The 10 secrets that blank experts don't want you to know. Or the little known ways to blank another kind of template which is called the tricks of the trade template. And some of those examples include how to plan the ultimate blank. Here's a quick way to blank or creative ways to blank. So you're giving insights, you're giving tricks of the trade and how people can do something unconventionally or differently. And lastly There's my personal favorite, which is a superlative templates which places like buzzfeed used all the time. So an example of a few of these are the world's best blank you can actually afford to buy or the world's top 10 most important blank or the world's worst advice about blank. So again, just some things that can help you trigger a thought process, you can see a longer list here on the screen. But things that really have helped me when I'm writing my articles for Forbes and time just to figure out a way to increase the chances that people read the article or increase the chances that they read an email that I'm putting together by perfecting that headline. Now let's go even deeper because in terms of tools to use, I recommend using this amazing tool called Coast Schedule Schedule is a free tool and basically what it does is it literally analyze your headline and it gives you a score based on how powerful it is. Simply go to coast Schedule dot com slash headline analyzer. Sign up for free account, type in your headline and aim for a headline score above 70. That's it. It makes it super easy and then use those tools and tips and temples that we talked about before to help perfect that headline until you have a higher score. In fact this exact formula step by step process is what I used to write many of the headlines behind my most popular Forbes articles such as this article. Let's let's get super specific. I wrote this article called How to Get an amazing job without much experience and I got 140, views and you can see what I did there right now, knowing that behind the scenes, I just use the formula right? I emphasize an end result, which is getting an amazing job while addressing the objection of not having much experience, which is what a lot of people think about when They feel like there's an obstacle in their way about getting an amazing job. I tried a bunch of headlines using Ko schedules, headline analyzer tool that we talked about and ultimately chose this one because it scored a solid 74 points and boom, that was it. I put up the headline with the article that did really well and I think you'll find similar success doing the same thing, right. Whether you're titling a speech, an article, an email newsletter, the subject line, this is a foolproof way to make sure that your headline is irresistible. And with that I want to say congrats on finishing the second lesson on how to create killer content. You know, I don't know how to grab people's attention with a great headline and I'm excited to see you in the next video. We'll talk about how to balance stories with statistics. See you there

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Jon Youshaei

World's top marketer by Forbes, Entrepreneur and Inc Magazines; Writer for Time Magazine with best-selling e-courses.

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Secret 2: Perfect The Headline

Secret 2: Perfect The Headline

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4. Secret 2: Perfect The Headline

Lessons

Introduction

Secret 1: Write Like A Seventh Grader

Quiz - Secret 1: Write Like A Seventh Grader