And now that I’ve lured you in…let’s get real here for a sec.
Coming across wild, sensational headlines can be very entertaining.
If they’re done correctly, you can’t help but read the story.
Here are some great ones I came across:
• The Fart That Ended in Aggravated Assault
• 21 Reasons to Hate Kids
• Why Successful People are Douchebags
• China Is Making Its Own Moon?
• Read This Or Die
So yes, using sensational headlines can be a great way to grab someone’s attention. However, your reader is going to go into your story with certain expectations.
And if those expectations aren’t met soon enough, then the reader is going to feel like he or she got click-baited.
Or if you use it too often, it’ll get old real fast.
Here’s a great example:
There’s a YouTube content creator who makes videos about real estate and investing. Now, don’t get me wrong, but the content itself he puts out is great. However, lately I think his use of sensational video titles has been overdone. And a lot of the time, the titles have nothing to do with the actual content, which is what makes this an issue. Plus, it’s gotten repetitive.
But those are just my opinions.
If the titles work and continue to work, then by all means, there’s nothing wrong with continuing.
Don’t fix what’s not broken, right?
My point is:
If you use sensational titles, make sure you meet your reader’s expectations quickly before the feeling of getting click-baited starts to seep into them, especially if you’re writing wild subject lines.
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