The One Writing Trick to Make Your Content Clickbait-Free
26 May 2025 #writingNo matter how thoughtful your content is, without a strong headline, people won’t read it.
In How to title your blog post or whatever, there’s this tip for headlines or titles:
“Consider title-driven thing creation. That is, consider first choosing a title and then creating a thing that delivers on the title. It’s sad to admit, but I think there are many good things that simply don’t have good titles. Consider not making those things… In practice, it’s often something in the middle: You start to create your thing, then you choose a title, then you structure your thing to deliver on the title.”
Title-driven creation not only applies to blog posts, but also to other forms of creative output:
- Before making a course or paid product, write its landing page.
- Before writing a book, choose a title, write a summary, and design its cover.
Before creating, write the marketing materials first. For blog posts and social media content, that’s the headline.
Every headline is a promise. Keep your promises, and your readers will trust you.
Here are some of my best healdines.