How to Write Compelling Article Titles

All too often, people spend the majority of their time researching and writing their articles and then end up throwing together an article title as an afterthought. While it's okay (and recommended, even) to create your title after writing the article, be sure to place careful consideration on the article title you're using. You want to choose an article title that convinces people to read your article; after all, even the best article in the world will gather dust if the article title isn't compelling enough people to read your message.

Following are a few types of article titles that are more likely to attract interest and compel readers to see what you have to say.

Compelling Article Title Type: The question

The human brain is hardwired to seek answers to questions, especially if it's a topic that even vaguely interests us. Think about the last time you were standing in line at the grocery store and glanced over at the magazine racks. Seeing a question in an article title that piqued your interest, you picked up the magazine and flipped to the article. After reading through the main points, you might have decided that the article was interesting or useful enough to buy the magazine so you could take it home and take a closer look at the article. And the article title just served its purpose: to sell a copy of the magazine.

When you're writing articles for your business, it's going to be a bit different because you aren't trying to sell magazines, but the basic premise is the same: if you can get people to click through to your article, you are one step closer to gaining credibility as an expert in your field and, depending on the Author Resource box you use, you might even get a few new clients who click through to your website to contact you.

Some examples of Question article titles might be:

"Is your doctor lying about your health care options?"

"Is your child at risk for cancer?"

"Is your business at risk for financial failure?"

Even if you think that your doctor, child, or business are fine, those questions could pose a nagging doubt that eats at you until you just have to glance through the article to make sure you're not missing something important.

Compelling Article Title Type: The List

The List article title is similar to the Question article title in that both are designed to pique your interest, but, as you might guess, the List article title is structured as a list of top tips or techniques. You still want to use "hot" words that are going to grab attention, like "free," "secret," etc.

Some examples of List article titles might be:

"5 Ways to Keep Your Job in Today's Layoff-Friendly Economy"

"10 Signs That Your Marriage is in Trouble"

"3 Things You Should Know Before Serving Your Family's Next Meal"

All of the article titles above indicate to readers that there are things they don't know that could potentially be sabotaging their jobs, marriage, and family's health, respectively. These article titles promise to give answers (and they should, or they'd be misleading, and you'll actually lose credibility), and if readers like the info you have to offer, they'll be more likely to check out your other articles or visit your website to learn more about you.

Compelling Article Title Type: The How-to

How-to article titles tell readers that you're going to show them exactly how to do something, in a step-by-step manner. These are great for the many do-it-yourselfers out there who are looking for ways to solve their problems, right now.

Examples of How-to article titles are:

"How to Double Your Income This Year"

"How to Get More Done in Less Time"

"How to Publish an E-zine that Gets You More Clients"

One caveat: be sure to only use a how-to article title if your article really does walk readers through the process of doing what you say you're going to teach them. If you say you're going to show people how to get more done, as in the second example, your article shouldn't talk entirely about why you should want to get more done in less time and conclude with a link back to your website, which offers services to help people organize their offices.

People will just be frustrated and maybe a bit ticked off at your deception, and they definitely won't be contacting you to work together. So be sure to actually give them a few tips to get more things done. You don't have to give away everything you know, but you do have to give some useful information. You may think that giving away information will keep people from hiring you, but in showing people firsthand that you're great at what you do, they'll be more likely to want to learn more about how you might be able to help them.

To avoid wasting your article marketing efforts, be sure to take the time to craft an article title that gets your article read. Because the more people who are out there reading your articles, the greater your chances of establishing yourself as an expert in your field and gaining the trust of potential clients, who will then be more likely to buy your products and services.