You’ve just spent hours writing an insanely epic and remarkable blog post, and after a lot of sweat and tears you’re ready to share it with your readers.

Hold on, friend. Before you hit publish, I have a question for you:

Do you want your post to live a boring, lonely life tucked away in your blog archive, or a long, happy life surrounded by your friends and biggest fans?

Uh, is that even a real question? Of course you want your post to be the life of the party!

The real question is how do you do it?

One of the easiest ways is to write a killer blog post title. Blog titles are a huge part of getting increased traffic to your blog and building an audience for it. I know this for sure because my posts used to be very lonely.

Here are some examples:

• 8 Ways to Create A Buyer Persona Template
• 7 Steps to Being a Great Content Creator
• Get More Leads from Outbound Marketing

Want to click on any of these? I don’t either. What the heck is a buyer persona template? And why do you care about “being a great content creator”? No kidding… I wrote this title and have no idea what it even means!

Okay, so I get it, you get it. Titles like these are lifeless and uninspiring.

Let’s flip the switch and turn them into attention-grabbing, must-click titles.

Here are nine blog title tips I’ve learned, plus over 120 fill-in-the-blank templates that work (these will come in handy when you're about to hit publish and get writer's block).

1) Know who you’re writing for.

This sounds basic, and yet the #1 thing both my clients and myself have struggled with is defining the “one person” we’re talking to. This lack of clarity translates into a dull blog post title. But when you’re crystal clear on who you’re speaking to, you can even include your audience in the title to grab their attention.

Here’s an example: The Ultimate Blog Post Checklist for Entrepreneurs and Bloggers

If you’re an entrepreneur or a blogger, this post is at least worth a look…

2) Write a post that solves a problem.

Yes, this is more about content than your title. The reason I’m including it is because when your post solves a specific problem for your person, your title will practically write itself. Here are some questions to ask before your write your next post:

• What are my readers struggling with right now?
• What do my readers most want to do?
• How does this post help them do it?

When you approach your content like this, you’ll have very little tweaking to do with your blog title. Which leads me to my next tip…

3) Focus on the benefit.

The biggest problem with the examples I shared earlier is that they’re missing their better half – the Why. People have to know why they should invest the time to click. What’s in it for them, etc, you get the gist.

Take my first example: 8 Ways to Create A Buyer Persona Template

If we turn that into: 8 Ways to Create a Buyer Persona And Get Clear On Who You’re Selling To

Ahhh, there we go. That’s what was missing before. Might be worth a click now, no?

4) Use numbers and lists.

Starting off your title with numbers seems to be a natural attention grabber. I think this is because readers know exactly what they’re going to get. Plus, it sounds like a simple read: Oh, there’s only 5 steps involved here? Lemme check that out quickly…

It’s also easier for people to digest actual digits than words. When writing your blog title, write “5” instead of “five”.

5) Write how-to’s and guides.

Most of the time people on Google are searching for how to do something specific. Including “how-to” in your titles is a win-win. Your readers will know that your post is going to help them do something, and your post will attract search engines because it matches their “how-to” query.

6) Include a keyword in your title.

This is just another way of saying think about how people search, what they’re looking for, what they need, and then make sure that search term is in your title. It’s super easy to use Google’s Keyword Planner to research the most popular keyword related to your topic. When you find one, throw it in there, friend! Be careful not to force it, though. Your keyword should sound natural and really, some titles just aren’t a good fit for keywords. If you can seamlessly replace a term with your new keyword and still retain the context of your title, you’re okay. Make sense?

7) Make them kinda sexy.

Nothing wrong with some sex appeal, am I right? Seriously though, I’ve gotten into the habit of stepping back from my blog titles and looking at them later with fresh eyes. Then I’ll ask myself: Would I have to click on this? Am I salivating over this title?

Of course, you don’t want a title that’s misleading. Your title should always be accurate and set the right expectations. Still, there’s a big difference between:

How to Grow an Email List

and

5 Badass Strategies for Growing Your Email List

The first one sounds wimpy and sad. The second one is sexy, y’all. That’s the the kind of confident you want.

8) Use a working title.

I say this because many times I’ll sit down to write a post with a general idea of what I want to say, but it still needs shaping. I’m not really sure what my angle is yet or what I can include that will be really, really valuable for my audience.

In other words, I’m not really sure where my post is going yet. So I’ll start with a working title that describes it well enough. When I’m finished I’ll poke around on Pinterest for titles that grab my attention (this is a great place to glean catchy titles), do some keyword research, and then rewrite my title.

Using a working title helps you to think about your content and title as 2 separate entities, which they really are. First focus on writing epic content, then write the most epic shorty copy you can imagine. Speaking of short…

9) Keep it short.

Your title should be short enough to convey your message but at the same time descriptive, if that makes sense. Under 70 characters is a perfect length because that’s about where Google will cut it off in search results. Not sure how long yours is? Use this length counter to find out!

If you want, you can download this cheat sheet I created to keep on hand for your next post. Click the link below to download:

120+ Clever Blog Post Title Templates that Work