Confession time. I had two people show up to this training today, which makes me feel like I didn’t quite explain how vital headline writing is.
So, let me rant for a second.. *takes off jacket*
Folks, the #1 mistake bloggers make is a poor headline. Yes. The headline.
Nobody’s reading your post?
99% of the time, it’s the headline.
I’ve had hundreds of people since 2017 tell me “Tom, I’m not getting any readers! _(Insert platform here)_ is broken!” And literally 99% of the time I look at their profile and immediately notice their headlines are horrific. Like, the stuff of nightmares. Like, so bad I wouldn’t click on them if they paid me to.
Bad headlines are the common cold of the blogging world.
You could spend 10 hours writing a beautiful 2,500 article, but nobody will read it if you botch the title.
It’s like the equivalent of making an Oscar-winning film but the poster looks like it was designed by a 4 year old….dog. As a writing coach, it makes me want to tear my hair out.
“I can just use ChatGPT to write headlines, Tom!” “Or Coschedule!”
Yeah, not really. How’s that working out for you right now? You’re still getting 3 likes per article, and barely getting any new subscribers. I’ve tried using ChatGPT to write headlines, and 100% of the time, they’re garbage. And that’s not hyperbole.
Most writers online who have large followings are masters of headline writing. Absolute pros. And they’re not using ChatGPT to write their headlines—I promise you that.
To write great headlines, you need to understand human psychology. And many of the most popular bloggers ARE masters of human psychology.
Headline writing is also marketing… plain and simple. I heard a bunch of people groan just now when I said that but I’m sorry—you need to learn how to market your work better if you want more readers.
I’ve been writing online for 10 years now, garnered 50,000,000+ views across all platforms, and learned 15 elements great headlines use to almost hypnotize readers into clicking. I’ve learned these by studying hundreds of blog post titles and Youtube video titles. I’ve also written 1,000’s of titles for Medium articles, Substack articles, Huffington Post articles, and Youtube videos. If I didn’t know how to write a great headline, you would not know who I am. It’s that friggin essential, folks.
Now, I don’t condone writing heinous clickbait—but there is a way to harness these 15 elements in a more “subdued” way to get more clicks, subscribers, and likes on your work.
Your headline is literally the first thing potential readers see. You only get about 5-10 words to entice a click. It all comes down to your headline. It is absolutely necessary vital OBLIGATORY for you to learn how to write a good one, and no, ChatGPT isn’t quite good enough to do this for you yet.
So, *straightens hair,* with all that said, I hope you give this training a chance. Honestly? It’s probably my best training. People might not have been interested today because I didn’t explain it well enough, but I hope they are now. If you’re not, well, that’s your loss. If you want to truly succeed on Substack, it’s in your best interest to watch this.
I don’t normally get so animated talking about my trainings, but I felt it was necessary today.
In this 90+ slide training, you’re going to learn an easy 3-step process to write a perfect headline from scratch every time. You’ll also learn 15 vital elements most viral articles have. It’s so easy to implement once you get the hang of it. Below is the full slide deck for this presentation.
Thanks for sitting through my rant. 😆 I love you all.
