Have you ever been browsing a long list of blog posts when suddenly, the title of a post reaches out of the screen, slaps you in the face and screams “READ ME!”

That’s what all bloggers are going for – click-bait; titles that stand up and demand to be read based on a brilliant headline.

I see a lot of blog posts about headline writing, citing some of the common techniques employed by writers to write effective titles. The two techniques that I find most commonly talked about are fear (“why you should be…”) and tutorial or help (“how to”) headlines. Don’t get me wrong, these are both sound and sensible ways to write great headlines, and if you’re stuck, these two should be your go-to techniques.

Blog post titles are written deliberately to make you click through and read them; fear and help are two things that evoke emotional responses that will draw readers in incredibly well.

But what about curiosity?

An example of writing a headline that deliberately provokes the reader to click based on curiosity is above – it’s why you’re reading this post.

Grabbing the attention of someone browsing the web is hard, so using a headline that makes them think, “What is that about?” will definitely stop them in their tracks.

Ask a question

One sure fire way to provoke curiosity is to ask questions. Readers will want to know why you are even asking that question or what you think the answer is. Asking questions is also a sure fire way to provoke responses from the audience if you ask a question they can’t resist answering; it tantalises your readers into clicking through.

This one from Copyblogger is an example of a classic question that marketers are always asking each other:

This headline demands a click because maybe the reader will discover something about themselves, or even get some more insight on this debate. A question like this is likely to drive people to interact further in the comments section and offering their point of view on the subject.

A great example of asking a more provocative question can be seen on Freakonomics’ blog:

I’m drawn to click on this because I have absolutely no idea where they are getting this idea from and I’m interested to see what their observations have been to make them even think of the question.

This becomes click-bait because it is an unexpected title and makes such a specific claim and potentially sparks further debate.

Make outlandish statements

Saying something controversial is sure to turn a few heads. There’s a fine line though, between being close to the knuckle, and being offensive.

This headline from Copyblogger does a great job of saying something bold without going over the top:

The reason this works well is because it says something that would normally be considered bad advice or a reckless decision. Readers will click on this title to try and discover how the author can defend this statement and see if there is any mileage in the argument whatsoever.

LinkedIn is another great source of unexpected advice titles:

The author uses humour here to create his click-bait title, as anyone who sees this just has to find out exactly what life lessons he has learned from this experience. For most people, being hit in the face is something they tend to generally avoid so the fact that the author is telling readers that it could be a good thing becomes fascinating and impossible to ignore.

The writers of Cracked.com are the masters of using humour to drive massive amounts of web traffic. On any given day, you can visit their homepage for just a few seconds and suddenly discover that you may have to pry yourself away from the screen.

This one is typical of their style:

Ridiculous? Yes, but impossible to ignore.

In truth, Cracked’s headline writing is mesmeric; every post on the entire site demands a click, purely because of the titles.

Ridiculous comparisons

Another way of sucking your readers in is to make odd comparisons between two things with seemingly nothing in common, like this one from LinkedIn:

Again, this will demand a response from the reader as they will be interested in seeing where the author is going with it.

Freakonomics have built a reputation of making these comparisons in their books, but their blog also features some great examples of how to do it. For example, a recent podcast of their’s was entitled: “What do medieval nuns and Bo Jackson have in common?”

Seemingly tenuous at first, the skill is finding something that links the two vastly different subjects together. Making these comparisons requires a lot of research in order to make sure you can link the two subjects, rather than making the comparisons for the sake of a cheap laugh.

The inspiration for finding titles like these and the other ones I’ve mentioned in this post are all around you. Maybe a friend or colleague said something that you can expand on, maybe it’s a quote you’ve read or heard, or maybe it’s a personal experience that you’ve had.

This technique is certainly not meant to replace the tried and tested styles of how-to and list based articles. More often than not, your best option is to stay safe and go with the traditional approaches. Trying to force a click-bait title with an overly cryptic headline puts you in danger of making it too absurd and alienating readers, rather than snaring them. However, by playing around with your titles and adding new techniques like this to your repertoire, you might find that you’ve opened an Aladdin’s Cave of ideas.