CeeKue

The vast and ever growing amount of information that reaches me every day makes it impossible to really pay attention to everything I read or hear about.

I am following only 32 people on Twitter at the moment. Mostly people that share information (links) with me. Resulting in well over one hundred links to interesting posts, websites and articles every day. Besides that I try to keep up with over forty blogs in Google Reader. Some of them, like Mashable and SocialmediaBiz, publishing several posts every day.

Of course I am not able to read 150 or more articles each day. So what do I do? I mainly read headlines. And if I think (or better guess) it is something interesting, I click. 

Or, if I have really little time available, I do something else …

Tricks And Clicks

So it looks obvious what you should do to grab my attention. Write compelling headlines that makes me click. Because if a headline does not do it for me, there is a big chance I move on to the next Tweet, post or blog. 

There are a few tricks to make people click. I am sure you have seen them before.

• Use numbers in your headline (3 Tips To Improve Your Position in Google)
• Ask questions (Is Social Conversation A Myth?)
• Make a bold statement (Social media is a fad)
• Offer a takeway (Get more visitors by …)
• Use words in your headline like ‘new’, ‘tips’, ‘better’, ‘best way’, ‘stop’ or ‘avoid’

And there are probably more tricks like this to get more clicks.

Be Aware

I don’t like these tricks.

Too many people use numbers in (almost) all their headlines or ask a question in every headline they write. And too often the promise made in the headline is not fulfilled in the post or article.

No matter how compelling your headlines are, if the stories behind these headlines are not interesting, there is a big chance people stop following you or your blog. They will spend the little time they have to read other posts and articles or to click on other links to interesting websites.

In that case your power-headlines only bring you one-time visitors. They will never return and you will never be able to build an audience.

The Tip

There is only one tip that makes sense. Write compelling contents. Only by doing that you are able to really grab people’s attention with your posts and articles.

So next time you write an article, white paper or post, start with the contents. Then when you are finished, think of a strong headline that covers what you have written. Of course this headline can be a question or contain a figure or whatever. But only if what you have written really fulfills the promise you make in your headline.

And the ‘something else’ I do as mentioned earlier in this post? If my time is really limited, I only read Tweets or posts coming from people that I know in advance are interesting. Independent from the headlines they use.