You sit down at your computer to type out your next post. You’re excited to get it out to people, because you have something valuable to say. You spend a lot of time writing it. You click publish. You’re so excited to see the upvotes roll in. And what happens? It gets minimal results. Hardly anyone pays attention to it.
“Why don’t people care about my work?” you think.
Well, a big factor is how well you bait your hooks.
When fishing, a fisherman must use the correct bait and a strong hook. In publishing resonant language is the correct bait and compelling headlines are the strong hook .
So look at some of your posts. Really analyze them. Pick one in particular you think should’ve performed better than it did and ask some questions about it.
Is your headline juicy & tempting? Does it target the proper fish (audiences)? Would those viewers react with emotion when they scroll across your content? It’s not enough to just be a ‘writer’ or a ‘blogger’, you need to be a ‘hooker.’ (No, not the sex-worker kind, or the Rugby-player kind. I’m talking about a person who ‘hooks’ viewers in well with their headlines and thumbnails.)
Good hooks are super important, and many hivers neglect them.
The same thing goes for thumbnail images. Viewers have seen photos of plants, or animals, or people literally millions of times in their lives. If you just half-a$$ a photo for a thumbnail, you’ll blend in with all the other ‘fluff’ out there. But if you put some time, care, energy, and effort into your image, you may be able to snap people out of their scrolling to stop and click.
Your title and your thumbnail are constantly being judged by viewers. Period.
So it’s worth developing your own rating scale, then looking at your post titles and asking yourself, “on a scale of 1-to-10... how good are my hooks?”
Three more good questions to ask yourself about your content:
1. “Does my content move me, honestly? If I showed it to a stranger on the street would they chuckle? Smile? Tear up? Gasp?” Because our job as writers is to move people to action (whether we want them to think, to upvote, or something else). And that means creating an emotional shift from their auto-pilot lives.
2. “Does my content leverage trends? If viewers are focused on Covid/Trump/Crypto, am I riding their current focus, or does my content go a different direction? If people are talking Tinder / Zoom, does my content fight that, or leverage it?” You don’t have to talk about trending topics, but just know that resonance and relevance are essential and often overlooked, even by the best content-makers.
3. “Does my content persuade people? Do I push their buttons? Can I consider myself an excellent persuader?” Because many hivizens create content that seems to be fire, but in reality, isn’t very persuasive. Or even persuading them towards the wrong thing. Are you persuading to vote? Share? Comment?
And speaking of persuasion, let’s say you do create a headline that hooks and a thumbnail that tempts. Great. It means your audience is very likely ‘on the hook’ and eager to read what you’re offering. But it also means you’re on the hook as well. You’re on the hook to deliver a good reading experience that matches whatever you hinted at in the headline.
If your headline reads: “The Easy Way To Become A Better Person”, you’d better deliver an easy way to be better. If it reads “Here’s What You Don’t Know About Your Hopes And Dreams”, readers better not read through and think, “Pssh, I already knew all that.” Basically...
Every headline you write is making an implied offer to the viewer.
This happens whether you realize it or not.
And every offer you make has two hidden ingredients. Wherein the quality & balance of those two things decides whether others accept your offer or not.
The first hidden ingredient is the 'promise.'
Whether you're inviting people to your art exhibition, DMing a pitch, or selling an ebook... There's a hidden promise in your offer and people are sensitive to it. Sometimes that sensitivity is only deep in their subconscious, but it’s there. And what makes it trickier, is that these days people are skeptical of any promise. Especially direct ones. So you practically have to sneak your promise in through a story, warning, or demonstration. Whatever you do, you've got to make this promise a great fit for your audience.
The second hidden ingredient is 'believability.'
If your headline offers to make someone richer, or improve their mindset, or achieve their dreams... you'll likely need a lot of believability to go with it. On the other hand, if you're offering to shovel locals’ driveways for a few dollars, you won't need much believability at all.
So, when you write a headline, you’re making an offer. If viewers accept your offer, they’ll click on it, if they decide your offer isn’t for them at this time, they’ll scroll by it.
And getting acceptance of your offers is simple. It's just two ingredients.
The reason many writers make it hard is that they avoid being honest with themselves. You’ve got to take a hard look at your offer and your results. Notice if your 'ingredient-blend' is working. Notice if people are ‘accepting’ it by clicking. Notice if people are ‘buying’ what you’re ‘selling,’ or if the truth is… you've got to work more on it.
Think about how long it takes great writers to come up with their headlines, then think about how long you spend on yours. Think about how much effort a good photographer or illustrator puts into choosing an image for their thumbnail, then think about how much effort you put into yours.
Because in a viewer's mind, you’re competing with every other headline and thumbnail on the platform, or at least in their feed. You’ve gotta at least be decent at this stuff if you want to get positive results.
So... where are your offers landing in the magic square?
Do you have any ideas to improve your future writings?
P.S. I touch on more rare writing concepts in my mega-guide “Why No One Reads What You Write: A Masterclass In Communication.” ( Or if you want bite-sized inspiration, I have an Instagram account full of my 'good hook' attempts. Maybe they can inspire you to do the same: https://www.instagram.com/goodhookz/ )
P.P.S. There’s lots of great writers out there not being read, just because of a simple headline slip-up. If you know anyone who this may help, please consider sharing, either on Hive or on centralized social platforms.