Last Updated on January 10, 2022 by James McAllister

By: James McAllister

18 Comments

People
What if I told you that you could double your traffic with one sentence? One sentence, that would make reading the rest of your article irresistible? One sentence that could put more cash into your pocket? Can you guess what it is? That’s right, it’s your article’s title.
In this post, I’m going to teach you how to write great article titles that will draw in thousands of readers.

The title  is the single most important sentence in your entire article. Why?

The title is what appears in the search engines. Your article’s title is what draws people in from your competitors, and gets them to come to your website instead.

Don’t believe me? Well, guess what? You’re here, reading this article aren’t you? Why? Chances are, the title sparked your interest. The title made you wonder what could possibly double your blog traffic.

What if I had named it “Why You Should Make A Good Post Title”? Not nearly as attractive, am I right?

So How Do You Write Great Article Titles?

It’s quite easy actually.  You have to make them want to click on your article. So how do you do this?

You get inside the reader’s mind, and cause an emotional reaction that entices them to click on your link.

Titles Based On Fear

For example, fear. If I wrote an article with the title, “How Safe Is Your Blog From Hackers?”, it would get a lot of clicks. It creates fear. It forces the reader to think about the question at hand. Nobody wants their blog to be hacked. Even if they think they are blog security experts, the headline forces them to second guess themselves. So what happens? They read the article just to be sure.

Titles Based On Famous People

We all look up to famous people. We idolize them. We want to be like them. So what does this mean? We can use them to our advantage.

Famous people are famous for a reason. Usually, they’ve done something great to get noticed by so many people. Since we’re all writers here, let’s use Darren Rowse for an example. Darren Rowse is the owner of one of the most popular blogging blogs on the internet, ProBlogger.

Wouldn’t you like to have a website as popular as his? Chances are, you would. So how could I apply this to a headline? I could, for example, write an article called “The Darren Rowse Guide To Writing Killer Blog Posts”, and chances are, a lot of people would read it.

The key here is to choose someone who your readers will recognize and look up to, someone who is famous in your niche.

Titles About Mistakes

Titles regarding potential mistakes your readers could make work wonders if done correctly. Not only do they create question within the readers mind, they also make you look like an expert in your niche.

One of the first articles I ever wrote on JamesMcAllisterOnline.com was titled, “5 Common Mistakes To Avoid When Buying Your Domain Name!”. Let’s analyze this title and find out why it worked so well.

First of all, anyone who was looking up information on choosing a good domain name is probably inexperienced. The inclusion of the word ‘Common’ makes them realize that since they are inexperienced, they are likely to make the mistakes listed inside the article. Nobody wants to make mistakes, so they click on it and read it just to be sure they don’t screw up. See what I mean?

And this can apply with anything really. Some more example headlines are:

  • 5 Silly Mistakes That Are Costing You Traffic
  • 3 Flirting Mistakes That Make You Look Like A Jerk
  • 6 Dieting Mistakes You Don’t Know You’re Making

And there’s way more than that. Any type of headline that can have a psychological effect on the reader is bound to be attractive, and effective. This doesn’t have to only apply to new posts – I’ve gone back and re-titled some of my old posts on other blogs and noticed my click through rate doubled, by only changing one sentence.

And you could too. You now have it – you now know how to write article titles that will pull in the readers. And of course, more traffic means more money for you. If you haven’t already, start thinking of great blog headlines now. Write them all down, and they’ll be ready for you when you need them. You’ll thank me later.

About the author 

James McAllister

James is the owner of JamesMcAllisterOnline.com. He started his first blog at the age of 11, and has since gone on to start several successful businesses. In total, these businesses have sold hundreds of thousands of units and have touched millions of lives. Here on JamesMcAllisterOnline.com, he shares his knowledge that brought him to where he is today. If you want to connect with James, follow him on your favorite social networks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked

CommentLuv badge
  1. Post title is what the basis of blog traffic depend on else nobody will click on un-appealing blog title because thy believe it has nothing to offer and when we think like our blog audience even without researching blog title will still stick to what readers want from us

      (Quote)

  2. I can’t just stop visiting page always, I do visit this page most especially when I have new content to write about but don’t know how to arrest the mind of my readers via the title.

      (Quote)

  3. Titles Based On Fear is best i think, and it includes on “how to” these title is can catch the visitors attention. .

      (Quote)

    1. Right, how to titles can be extremely effective, that is, if you can rank for them. Content farms like eHow and Wikihow are outranking a lot of higher quality websites simply due to their popularity – and they are based on How To keywords.

        (Quote)

  4. Great points 🙂
    To increase your pageviews its very necessary to have a catchy post titles.
    Once you have done this , it also helps us to engage readers to our blogs..
    Cheers !

      (Quote)

  5. Hi James,
    Its indeed a wonderful privilege to visit your page.
    Yes, as you mentioned a catchy headline can draw more traffic to our pages,
    This post’s title itself is a proof to this statement,
    Yes it attracts the attention of your readers.
    Thanks for sharing or reminding this to your fellow bloggers.
    Indeed a thought provoking serious alert to the blog creators.
    Sometimes we do not give that attention while creating the blog title.
    This post i am sure give a reminder to all.
    Keep informed
    Best
    ~ Philip
    Hey, James, I submitted this post at Kingged.com the Internet Marketing Social Website. The content curation site. with the above note in the comment box thanks for sharing this. Here is the link: http://kingged.com/sentence-double-blog-traffic/#comment-78400
    Best Regards
    ~ Philip

      (Quote)
    Philip Varghese Ariel recently posted…Let Us Save Our Environment For Our BenefitMy Profile

  6. Hello James,
    This is really a Great article. I loved the way you write articles.

    The headlines is most important factor to get traffic. Even if we are on #1 page of Google, but our title is not appealing no one will click on our post.

    Mostly, 80% of peoples first read the headline and then decides to read the article or not.

    Your title is most attractive that’s why i clicked and landed here.

    Thank you for sharing this tips with us!

    Well i found this post shared on http://www.kingged.com

      (Quote)
    Swaraj Nandedkar recently posted…Samsung Z-The Tizen OS Powererd Smartphone by SamsungMy Profile

    1. Thanks, Swaraj!

      Did you know some people spend most of their time actually tweaking their headlines? I personally think that’s a bit overboard, but there’s a reason they’re doing it – it works, especially if you’re in a niche where a lot of social sharing is involved. And as you mentioned, it dramatically increases your CTR on search engine results pages as well.

      Thanks for stopping by!

        (Quote)
      James recently posted…How To Invest In Your Blog Long TermMy Profile

  7. Clearly explained information, really it’s good thing, I want know about my site, weekly i’m giving 5-6 comments on news, and before 3 months i started seo work, even one result also not showing on top 10 position for online news and It’s a Urdu newspaper also. Please any help .

      (Quote)

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

Join The VIP Club!

Sign up for the VIP Club and immediately gain access to...


  • 500+ business, marketing, and personal development lessons.
  • A private community forum / support group.
  • My entire library of courses, templates, cheat sheets and swipe files.
  • Many other bonuses!
Send this to a friend