You’ve pecked away at your keyboard for hours creating what is genuinely good content for your blog but, for some reason, you’re not attracting the traffic or readership you hope for.

Chances are you’re not serving up the compelling titles – the sort your readers crave. But you will after reading this…

Whether you’re writing for your blog, the MLS, an ad, an article or even a school paper (ugh) the one thing that really determines if your work gets read is your title.

Your title gets the first line of your blog post read. The first line of your blog post gets the next one read and so on. The point is, if you want your stuff read – no matter what it is – it all starts with a good title.

On a recent teleseminar I advocated writing 10 titles before you even write line one of your article. That’s how important they are.

What Clever Titles Tell Readers

In a recent AgentGenius article of mine, “War, Genocide, And Other Real Estate Scams”, a great question was brought up by Matt Stigliano around the use of clever headlines and whether or not they help or hurt a blog.

Now, clever titles are some of the funnest to write and read. They usually appeal to curiosity more than tangible benefits. But, they do a great job of pulling folks in.

• “How To Become A Real Estate Tycoon In One Easy Step”
• “Why Knocking Up A Brazilian Woman Can Save Your Home”
• “War, Genocide, And Other Real Estate Scams”
• “Real Estate Advice From The World’s Friendliest Hobo”
• “A Cross-Dresser’s Guide To Real Estate Investing”

While clever titles are fun to read and write, do your readers really want them?

They’re curious. They’re Entertaining. That’s why they do a great job of pulling people in… they get that first line read. However, while they pull people in many of those folks don’t finish the article simply because the topic matter wasn’t of interest.

After all, your blog readers are there to gain information and using clever titles makes it more difficult for them to find what they need.

Helpful Titles That Make You Irresistible

What about helpful titles?

• “5 Ways To ‘Systemize’ Your Home Purchase”
• “How To Improve Your Home When You Have No Access To Credit”
• “13 Things I’ve Learned About Successful Investing”
• “What Your Front Yard Says About You”
• “9 Style Tips From Highly Creative Home Decorators”

These titles promise a benefit to the reader. In fact, each one follows a formula…

topic matter + benefit = compelling title

For example:

• topic (buying a home) + benefit (systemize the process) = “5 Ways To ‘Systemize’ Your Home Purchase”
• topic (investing) + benefit (success tips based on experience) = “13 Things I’ve Learned About Successful Investing”

With titles that follow this format you’ll increase the pulling power of your posts, attract more targeted readers, and create a far more useful and compelling blog. They’re descriptive and they’re entertaining.

Let’s face it, we all want some entertainment with our education. Follow this format and you’ll be crafting titles that your readers crave.

Sure beats the hell out of Buying A Bank Foreclosure or
Real Estate Market Report For May 2009.