A Free Headline Masterclass for a Writer Struggling to Get Reads

24 Nov 2025 #writing

After 600+ blog posts, I’ve learned one big lesson:

Bad headline = no readers.

No matter how much you polish your words, if the headline doesn’t grab attention, readers won’t open your posts.

It’s almost always the headline

That’s the lesson I’d give to Abhishek, a new writer I found on Medium.

I found a post where he analyzes his top 10 posts.

Let’s compare the best and worst headlines.

His best performing:

1. “How I Got My First 100 Followers in Just 15 Days”
2. “Earn $10/Hour: Top 5 Websites that Pay”

And his least performing:

1. “The Ancient Wisdom Nobody Talks About”
2. “10 Relationship Lessons from an Ancient Love Story”

Which headlines make you want to read more? Which one would you open? The ones in the first group, right?

The least performing failed to capture attention. They don’t follow the 3-ingredient headline formula I learned from a top Medium writer with millions of monthly reads.

The 3-ingredient secret formula for headlines that make you stop scrolling

Want your headline make readers stop scrolling? Follow POC.

Every headline should have a POC:

1. One promise
2. One outcome
3. One curiosity factor

Aim for at least the first two to have a decent headline.

Let’s go over the headline of the first least performing post:

“The Ancient Wisdom Nobody Talks About”

What’s the promise? A piece of wisdom. To achieve what? Dunno. Curiosity factor? “Nobody talks about”

That headline fails to promise something. A piece of wisdom for what? To have a happy marriage? To have 6-pack abs? To make more money?

People skip vague headlines and move on the next post in the feed. “Next one, please!”

Now, what do the headlines of the top performing posts have in common?

A clear outcome! “Earn $10/hour” and “get 100 followers in just 15 days.”

Both top performing posts talk about money. And people love that. Analytics might suggest he continue writing about money. But writing about things we don’t care is draining.

And like Seth Godin once said in a interview: if we listen to the data, we might end up showing our feet in a platform for fans. Wink! Wink! OK, I’m paraphrasing to make this post suitable for all audiences.

Lesson to take home? No matter how brilliant your post is, without a strong POC headline, nobody will read it.