15 Headline Formulas For Getting More Views

So many people have great content, but they don't get the amount of attention that they really deserve. And one of the biggest reasons is because their titles and headlines for their content aren't that good. When you get your titles and headlines dialed in, you start to learn how to create better titles and headlines. More people are going to discover your content and click on it, which means that more people are going to consume your content, whether it's a blog, podcast, or YouTube video. And then if you're teaching, if you're building your business in the way that I'm helping you and that I'm teaching you, they're going to opt in. More people are going to find out about your lead magnet and opt in and then go through your automated funnel. And you are in turn going to make more sales. Okay? It all comes full circle just by changing this one simple thing. So today what I'm going to do is share with you 15 headline formulas that you can use. These are literally plug and play and just take at least one of them, or you can use all 15 from today's piece of content, and they're virtually guaranteed to help you get more clicks or views on your content. Let's dive in. Welcome to episode number 26 of the Profit Your Knowledge podcast. I'm your host, James Allen here to help you turn your knowledge, passions, and skills into an online business so that you can be your own boss, do work that you love in this world, make a difference, and ultimately live a life of freedom. Super excited for today's episode. This is going to be very actionable for you because these are literally plug and play. And I'm going to go over, like I said, 15 of these. I have 5 different categories. And I'm going to share with you 3, 3 formulas from each category. But if you want an awesome guide that I created, I put together 50 of these like proven tested headline formulas that I'm really going to read from the document today. But I put together 50 of them. They're plug and play title formulas that you can literally steal, copy them, use them, and just put in your own keywords. And again, it's virtually going to guarantee that you're going to get more clicks on your blog posts, on your podcast episodes, and on your YouTube videos, which are the 3 big mediums that I recommend you create content on. So I use this document. I started using it myself and I started to get more views than I would if I just made up titles. You know, just like my guess, a title, because these came from and I found these from other people that I've invested in and I've learned from. and just observing great titles that do really well for different channels. It took me a long time to build this guide, but even just 50 of them, if you used one, uh, or one piece of content that you create basically with each one of these, you would essentially have a year's worth of content, 52 weeks in a year if you're publishing one time per week, which is the bare minimum, bare minimum I'd recommend. But honestly, you can just change the keywords, use the same formula, And this guide alone will help you basically come up with better ideas and give you enough content to just like run with for the next year. It's up to you to just create great quality content to go along with it. But this is gonna give you a lot of inspiration, a lot of ideas. I use it myself. My students started using it, started getting better results with their channels. And yeah, I just decided why not just share it with the world. It's my gift to you. It's totally free to get the 50 plug-and-play title or headline formulas for your— to get more clicks on your blogs, podcast episodes, and YouTube videos. You can just go over to ProfitYourKnowledge.com/titles. There's also a link in the description that I'm going to put below this episode. So let's dive into 15 of these. Again, I'm going to read these from the document. I'm going to pull it up myself and just read through them, give you examples for each one of these. Again, there's 5 categories, 3 formulas with examples from each category. Before we get into the actual headline formulas, I want you to start thinking about this. What is a catchy headline? Again, I'm not the best in the world at doing this, but I've learned from some of the best in the world. And these are things that I've implemented that have helped me grow my channel even more. And channels, I do podcast, blog, and YouTube videos. I do all of them. Great titles should be interesting. Intriguing, attention-grabbing, and simultaneously stimulate your target audience's curiosity. Very, very important. I would add to it that they should also be benefit-driven. Specifically, like, it's not about us. It's not about us getting views. I mean, it is, but it's, it's not. I mean, when we can put our attention on benefiting our audience, our target audience, we're going to in turn get more views. Give and then you will get. Okay, give them great content, give them something valuable. You will get more views, you will get more opt-ins, you will make more sales. Topic for another day. We can go deep into that. But yes, interesting, intriguing, attention-grabbing, stimulating your target audience's curiosity while also being benefit-driven. Remember that once people click on your title, it's time to give them an amazing experience with your content. Okay, we're not going to talk about creating great content per se right now. Using these title formulas is going to help you create better content actually. And you're going to see that as we go through this. When it comes to writing titles, we don't want titles to be too long. You're going to notice that. And what I hope you can get from today is noticing what makes a great title versus what doesn't. So when you start watching content or reading blog posts or listening to podcast episodes, some titles are going to stick out to you. Maybe it's just the keyword, but it's also the way that they're written and how long the title is. If you make a title that's too long, it's going to cut off and you're not going to be able to see the whole thing. So on average, across all mediums, podcast, blog, and YouTube videos, we want our titles to be around 50 characters long. 50 characters long, right around that is the sweet spot. Could be 40. I wouldn't go over 50 ideally. Sometimes it's necessary, but keep it right around 50 characters long, or I guess letters long, and you'll be fine, okay? Also, in terms of creating better titles and headlines, A lot of these did— I did get influence from these guys over at creatorhooks.com. So I'd highly recommend you check that out. I'll put a link to check out creatorhooks.com. They have an awesome newsletter and then you can pay to get more access to things like I did. But even just being on their newsletter, every week they're sending you 5 different catchy titles and thumbnails as well, because that's a really big piece to getting more clicks on top of the title or the headline. Okay, creatorhooks.com, check that out. So let's dive into the 15 catchy headline formulas. Again, this is straight from the document. So if you like these, you feel like this would be beneficial to you, then definitely pick up the 50 catchy title formula guide that I created. Just profityourknowledge.com/titles, link in the description. The first of the 5 different categories are curiosity-driven titles. Now what curiosity does, it's one of the big things that causes people to click on something. Curiosity and these type of titles cause open loops, which means that it leaves questions in someone's mind and it makes people want to know the answer and close the loop by clicking on your content and then reading your content. Okay, so let me give you a couple formulas. The first one is blank things, so blank number of things blank experts do that you probably don't. An example of this would be 7 Things Plant Experts Do that you probably don't. You could say 5 things that copywriting experts do that you probably don't, or 7 things or 8 things or 10 things that powerlifting experts do that you probably don't. And you can change the words around, but you get the idea. It's these are things that professionals do and experts do that you probably don't, and a certain number of things. That's a great title. Another good one is the tricks blank used to fool you. Okay, so this kind of goes towards like negativity, which is actually great for causing drama, causes open loop. People want to click on it because they're curious. An example of this would be the tricks influencers use to fool you. You could say the tricks, the tricks that politicians use to fool you. Okay, I think you're getting some ideas. So that's a great one. The tricks blank used to fool you. Great title. What's another one you can say? Okay, so here's a good one. The ugly truth, ugly in all caps, the ugly truth of blank, which is an industry you don't see, dot, dot, dot. An example of this comes from Sunny Lenarduzzi. Actually, it's one of her top performing video. She has a lot of them though. The ugly truth, ugly being in all caps, of entrepreneurship you don't see, dot, dot, dot. So you could say the ugly truth of starting a business that you don't see, the ugly truth of running a nonprofit you don't see. Okay, so you get it. You add the industry, which is entrepreneurship or influencers, the ugly truth of being an influencer you don't see. That would probably freaking blow up. I think you get the idea. Now, what I'd recommend too, as you go through these, is to come up with better key— find the keywords that actually have a high search volume and ideally a low competition, but at least that have a high search volume. A great tool for doing that is VidIQ or even TubeBuddy. Those are two great ones in terms of YouTube. You can also look at Google Trends or Keywords Everywhere. There's a lot of tools to find keywords that have a high search volume and the amount of competition that goes with these. So you can see the search volume and the competition. Plug the keywords that make sense for you, your niche, into these different titles, and you could literally run with that. You could create many different topics using this same title. I wouldn't make every piece of content the same exact title, because that's just weird. But you can make one content about the ugly truth of blank industry that you don't see, dot, dot, dot. You could do that and then 6 months later, do another one with a different keyword for the industry. And then you'd have a whole new piece of content. Okay. So that's curiosity-driven titles. The next one from the document is list titles. List titles are adding a number, and you're going to see that here in a second. But lists feel more valuable and tangible than saying simply how to X or how to blank. So here's a couple examples. This is a really good one. You say problem. That's where you fill in the blank with a question mark. 4 common mistakes to avoid. and you can change that number. You could say 5 common mistakes or 3 common mistakes to avoid. An example of this is food sticking to stainless steel plant. Wait, let me do that again. Food sticking to stainless steel pans? 4 common mistakes to avoid. That's really common to have your food sticking to a stainless steel pan. Okay. You can come up with many different ideas to that. Like if you were in the fitness industry, you could say, um, stuck at like a certain body fat percentage or like eating healthy, but not losing weight for common mistakes to avoid. Okay. I think you get the idea. You can come up with some ideas off the top of your own head, but using the numbers is what really makes this, um, it really makes it more tangible for people. Cause it's not just like how to do this. It's like, here are 7 ways or 6 reasons. That's what makes it a quote unquote list title. What's another one we can go? Okay, so 6 reasons your blank aren't or isn't blank. Example of this, 6 reasons your photos are not sharp. That is a great performing video. That was one of their top performing titles that comes from creatorhooks.com as well. 6 reasons your photos are not sharp. So if you're in photography and you see a title that says 6 Reasons Your Photos Are Not Sharp and you're struggling to get your photos like being crystal clear, super sharp because it's part of your job or just something, a hobby of yours, you're going to click on that video. Okay. 6 Reasons. I'm actually, I'm actually using this title for one of my pieces of content coming up in a couple of weeks, but I'm going to say 6 Reasons That Your Online Course Isn't Selling. Okay. That alone, when I saw that title, I was like, ooh, that'd be a good piece of content. And I came up with 6 reasons and I'm super pumped about that piece of content. So keep your eyes open. Okay. But I think you get the idea. One more example from lists. Uh, this is the only 3 blank you need for blank. Example of that would be the only 3 ab exercises you need for a 6-pack. A lot of people want to get a 6-pack. It's one of the biggest things, uh, that people want in terms of fitness. They feel that that is the staple of fitness. So the only 3 blank you need for blank, what could you come up with for that? Then we move on to the third category, which is for beginners titles or first titles. These are great because people are, or beginners are typically the most eager to learn something. And new people are starting things all the time. When COVID hit, people wanted to learn how to do things, whether it's skills or get in better shape, you know, at their house or work from home. People wanted to learn how to do that and they're like, I'm starting from ground zero. How do I start doing this? So these are great types of piece of content or great types of content to create for your own channels or mediums. So let's dive into some formulas. You could say how to start X as a beginner in, and then insert whatever the year is and then do a dash and say step by step, or you could put step by step in parentheses as well. So example, this would be how to start a digital marketing agency as a beginner in 2022, in 2022, dash, step by step. If you're starting out, you want to learn how to start a digital marketing agency in 2022, step by step, great piece of content for you. Okay. Another example is you could say how to X for beginners or how to blank for beginners. An example would be How to create a resume for beginners. To create a resume is probably a high search volume term. You could say how to start, begin, how to start a business for beginners, or how to get a six-pack for beginners, how to do calisthenics for beginners. Tons of ideas right there. This is a good one. The easiest way to start blank from scratch, and then in parentheses, exactly what I did. This is great because it shows that you're an expert because you've done the thing that this person wants to do. So if it's like getting a six pack, for example, you could, you could say the easiest way to start getting a six pack from scratch. I guess that could work. An example that I have inside the guide is the easiest way to start dropshipping from scratch. And then in parentheses, exactly what I did. It's a little bit longer of a title, but it's a good one. Okay, so again, we want to keep it around 50 characters long, but sometimes, you know, we can finagle around and really just test things. And I'm pretty sure that was 3. Now we're going to move on to the 4th category, which is counterintuitive titles. Counterintuitive titles are awesome because again, this ties into open loops where people see it and they're like, what? They're kind of curious. It evokes that curiosity and it's attention grabbing. Okay, because it's counterintuitive. These go against common advice and it's— they can really stand out from the competition. So here's some formulas. 3. You could say do not with an X or not in all caps. So do not blank. And then in parentheses, here's why. An example would be do not shut down your computer. Here's why. The, I mean, the real sweet sauce or sweet spot with this title formula is to do something that's like a common action, like shutting down your computer. Why shouldn't I shut down my computer? What's the problem with that? It seems like something that is totally normal, like everybody does that. Okay, so do not shut down your computer. Here's why. I'm curious. Why can't I do that? What's the problem? What's it going to do? Is it going to harm my computer? What's the effect that it's going to have on me? Okay. Benefit-driven, even, even though it's negative, it's still benefit-driven because I can learn something from it that's going to make my life better and protect my equipment. Okay. What's another one? Oh, I like this one. So I've stopped blank, period. You should too, period. This comes from a big YouTube, like, growth channel creator guy, and I can't remember his exact name. Forgive me, but he says, for an example, I stopped asking people to subscribe, period. You should too, period. You could say, I stopped trying to get a six-pack, period. You should too. Ooh, everybody's looking up how to get a six-pack, and then all of a sudden you say, I stopped trying to get a six-pack. You should too. What? Why? Open loop. They need to click on it. I stopped blank. You should too. People always ask if you watch YouTube videos. I mean, you already know this. People are like, oh, like my channel or like the video. Subscribe to the channel, leave a comment, you know, hit the notification bell, all that stuff. This guy's like, I stopped doing that and this is what happened. You should too. Great title formula. Oh, here's a, here's a really simple one. How to blank without blank. How to make YouTube videos without being on video. People think you need to be on video the entire time to make YouTube videos and to reap the rewards of a YouTube channel, but you don't. So this video is telling you, or this piece of content, how to make YouTube videos without being on video. Great title. How to X without X, or how to blank without blank. Yeah, I mean, with the six-pack example, just because we're rolling with it, you could say like, how to get a six-pack without working out. Like, what? How does that work? But if you can actually deliver on that content, and you actually do know a way that you can do that, then awesome. Okay. As long as the content itself is valuable. I don't know if that's, if that's even possible, but it would definitely get attention. Remember, with titles, you want to be clickbaity. You want to make sure that you're actually like making a big promise. It's attractive. And then when people click on it, you're delivering on the promise because that's really what a headline or a title is. It's a promise that catches attention. Then you deliver on it. Okay, the last category is intriguing titles. So these are just intriguing titles that I've added into this document, and they're great because they're intriguing, and you're going to see that here in a second. They're just extra titles that have worked great for me, and they're really, really good for grabbing attention because they're just worded in an intriguing way. So let me give you a couple of the formulas. You could say, what no one tells you about blank. Example would be, what no one tells you about fasting. A bunch of people want to do fasting. Here's what no one tells you about it. Ooh, interesting. They're going to click on it. You could say what no one tells you about entrepreneurship or what no one tells you about starting a business. Intriguing piece of, uh, or intriguing title right there. So that's formula number 1. Uh, another one is X things to check before in all caps. UX. So you could say, uh, the example I have is 10 Things to Check Before, in all caps, Before Designing Your Home. 10 Things to Check Before Designing Your Home. Interesting. People always are really big into interior design thanks to TikTok and, uh, my girlfriend especially. And, um, if she saw that 10 Things to Check Before Designing Your Home, we're actually about to move into a new place. Super excited. There's gonna be a lot of cool content around that. You're going to see different changes on the YouTube channel anyway. But this would be really intriguing for me if I saw that as well, because I'm interested in it as well. The third one would be, I'll do this, I'll do a blank or X blank topic mistakes to avoid. An example would be 3 photography mistakes to avoid, but you can change the number. So that's like a list title. You could say, 4 fitness mistakes to avoid, or 5 copywriting mistakes to avoid, 3 email marketing top, or 3 email marketing mistakes to avoid, 3 fasting mistakes to avoid. Okay, people want to avoid pain, so that's why this title works. Okay, hope this gets your brain turning a bit. Um, right there, I mean, that's 15. I would love to talk about this all day, but I want to respect your time. I'm already like pretty, pretty far into this episode, but I hope you're getting your wheels turning about what makes an intriguing title, what makes it cause curiosity the way that it's worded. Again, if you want to pick up my 50 catchy headline formulas that are literally plug and play, you get to see this, which is going to make it easier instead of me just talking about it. You're going to actually, actually be able to see the formula yourself. Just go to ProfitYourKnowledge.com/titles. Copy them, take them, use them, change out the keywords, find high-performing keywords that have a lot of search volume, lower competition in your industry or niche, and literally just plug them in. It's so simple. It's so easy. And with 50 of them, it may not sound like a ton, but you don't need more than that. You don't need 300. You just need 50 solid ones that are going to help you get more clicks and then create content based on those titles and then give people great content. That's really the whole goal. Okay. If you got value from this episode, do leave a like because I'm going to be that YouTuber guy. But it really, the reason that I'm doing is not just to boost the algorithm, but also just helps me see that you're getting value from this. If you're on the podcast, leave a review, please. It really is going to help boost the channel. And I mean, even more importantly than that, I just like to see the kind of results or aha moments that you're getting from this. So just say whatever the, the episode was that you got value from, and then just let me know what you think. Okay. I'm not going to tell you leave 5 stars. I would love that, but leave whatever feels right to you and I will take on your feedback. Okay. That's all I got for you today. 15 headline formulas for getting more clicks. I guarantee if you use these, you're going to get more clicks on your blogs, podcast episodes, and YouTube videos. But most importantly, I'd highly recommend to pick up the 50 catchy title or headline formula guide that I have for you. Click the link in the description, will be the first one, profityourknowledge.com/titles. My gift to you. It's free and it's going to help you grow your channel and start thinking about titles a bit differently. That's all I got for you today. Hope you had fun hanging out with me. I had fun hanging out with you. I will see you in the next one.