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[themify_box style=”light-yellow note rounded shadow”]How important are headlines in today’s Web environment? Very.[/themify_box]
As I wade and sift through tons of Web content regularly, looking for good stuff to share with you here, I can’t help but notice one thing: A lot of people really suck at writing headlines.

Folks, if you can’t write a decent headline for your article or blog post, you’ve pretty much killed any chance of your work getting much in the way of readership.

I know, writing a good headline isn’t easy. Which is why if you’re good at it, you can make a good living just doing them. If you find writing headlines difficult, here are a couple of tips that you may find helpful:

Unless you’re a master at it, forget creative, cute and/or clever. Go for informative. When in doubt, just simply tell readers what they’ll find in the article or post. Period.

If you can’t come up with a simple informative headline, you may want to rethink the article or post. Seriously. That headline’s basically an elevator pitch. For your work. If you can’t informatively sum up what you wrote in a headline, that piece is probably something nobody needs… and likely nobody will read.

Your work doesn’t need them? Let me congratulate you then for being so renowned and highly respected in your field, people sacrifice their children to the gods just for the privilege of reading every word you decide to release to the masses. The rest of us may want to think of and remember the following, however:

What do you think a crap headline tells readers they’ll find in the article or post?

Food for thought.

If you need help, scan through today’s featured selections. None of them have headlines that will win awards and adulation. But they do the job. Have fun!

— EES