As blogging gets more competitive, and traffic becomes more difficult to get, one way you can leapfrog past your peers is by learning how to write good headline that get eyeballs attention.

The headline is what people see in social streams, in an email’s subject line, and on your blog’s homepage.

Its job is to get people interested enough to read the post.

To do this, you need to learn how to write a headline that is witty enough to get people clicking, without boring them by using the same tricks every day.

Doing this makes it easy to get social traffic, and more importantly, easier to get people past your home page and into the heart of your blog.

Traditional blogs like Copyblogger and Men with Pens offer great advice on crafting clever headlines.

But let’s face it, if everyone uses their advice, including you, it will be very difficult to stand out.

Instead, I’ve come up with my own list of 7 ways to write good headlines for your blog posts.

These techniques will not only help you stand out from the crowd, but are sure to get people interested in what you have to say.

1. The Shock and Awe Effect

Wars have been won and kingdoms conquered with techniques like this.

Though we won’t be fighting any battles, we will be trying to win the war of attrition.

This is why the shock and awe effect, used sparingly and with force, is so powerful.

Here’s some examples:

2. The Pique Curiosity Effect

Sometimes, you just need them to click through to hear an important message (often, this is a sales pitch), and that’s when this technique comes in handy.

The goal is to get them interested without telling them what they’ll see.

Here are some examples:

3. Using Dirty or Bad Words

Obviously, this is a favorite tool of mine, and I can speak from experience when I say that it works wonders.

The trick to using dirty and bad words in this manner is to do so without sounding like an awkward teenager trying to be cool.

There are two ways you can do it:

• Make it part of your lexicon,
• Sound like the crazy church lady.

In other words, you’re not the type of person to curse – but when you do, everyone listens.

Both are effective when used properly.

Here are some examples:

4. The Underdog Effect

This, when used properly, can help you achieve massive growth and scale to become a successful blogger.

One person who used this technique to reach amazing heights is Chris Guillebeau, now an author and founder of the World Domination Summit.

Chris and his army of world-changers have created a movement, one that has helped him achieve a healthy income and travel the globe on a weekly basis.

Here’s an example:

5. Using TV and Movie Characters

This is one out of the Copyblogger playbook that has continued to gain them new readers for a decade or so.

They’ve written posts about Fight Club, Eminem, Mad Men, and Johnny Depp, all in ways that lure readers in and help to create great stories.

The trick to using a personality like this is to capture their essence in a way that can help the reader make an instant connection to your motive, without overdoing it or trying to make an analogy that isn’t there.

Here are some examples:

6. Using Numbers

Granted, this is part of the standard playbook.

But when you combine it with any of the above examples, you end up with an even more powerful headline that people cannot wait to click through to devour what it’s introducing.

I prefer to create the number after I’ve written a few examples, instead of trying to come up with a number first and trying to extend it with examples that don’t work.

The mantra here is: Keep it Simple (stupid).

Here are some examples:

7. The Authority and Proof Effect

Our last example is one that uses what is perhaps the most powerful trigger in the copywriter’s handbook, which is to use examples from people who have been there.

For instance, if you’re going to talk about advertising, you can’t go wrong with mentions of David Ogilvy.

If you’re talking sports, you can’t go wrong with Michael Jordan.

If you’re talking movies, you can’t go wrong with Brad Pitt.

In our case, we can invoke the names of Gary Halbert, Frank Kern, Brian Clark, or any other legend you can think of.

Here are some examples:

These seven techniques represent the best headline writing tips I’ve ever learned, heard, or received, and I can tell you that after years of testing multiple tactics, these are field-tested and blogger-approved.

That said, use a style that fits your personality – and more importantly, that of your blog.

There’s no use in trying to fit square pegs in round holes.

Before you start testing, though, you need to have engaging and high-quality content.

To create content that your readers will devour, you need to understand the process.

And the process includes choosing the right keywords and content structure in a way that will make your reader take a specific action at the end of your blog post.

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I could go on and on.

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