Steal Nicolas Cole’s Ideas For Writing Irresistible Headlines That Got Him 100M+ Views

Nicolas Cole is a top writer with 100M+ views.

He has written 5+ books, including Amazon’s bestseller The Art & Business of Online Writing. He runs a ghostwriting agency for top executives and is known for category creation and thriving as a writer. He’s the co-founder of the writing cohort-based course ship 30 for 30.

In this book, The Art & Business of Online Writing, Nicolas shares his insights on being a successful digital writer.

Writing online starts with crafting irresistible headlines. Headlines are without a doubt, the most important part of a story, article, or blog post. Yet, most writers don’t give it enough time.

According to David Ogilvy, 80% more people read the headline than the rest of the copy.

Let’s discuss the insights of Nicolas Cole on creating headlines that work.

Three Things That Make A Great Headline

To make a great headline you need to convey three things at the same time:

1. What is your writing about

2. Who is it for?

3. The promise: What are you offering to the reader

When you successfully implement this, you create a curiosity gap.

The Curiosity Gap is what tells the reader what this piece of writing is about, who it’s for, and what it’s promising-all without revealing the answer. — Nicolas Cole

Nicolas gives an example of a headline, “The Big Idea”, this is ineffective. Because it is not conveying anything clearly about the piece of writing.

Here’s how he fixes it:

• The Big Idea That Needs To Get Through Politicians’ Heads To Fix Racial Inequality in America

• 3 Big Ideas From Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, And Jeff Bezos That Changed The World Forever

• This 1 Big Idea Will Change The Way You Think About College

Write Headline Before You Starting Writing The Piece

Like most writers, Nicolas used to write the headlines last and the write-up first. He put more effort into writing the piece. But the thing is, no matter how better your actual piece is, if your headline sucks, you’re going to have crickets.

Writing headlines first does writers a favor. It gives you, the writer, a clear idea about what you want to write about.

He says, before writing anything, you need to decide who you are writing for.

Your headline is, quite literally, a micro-version of your entire Actionable Guide, Opinion, Curated List, Story, or Credible Talking Head Monologue.

Don’t aim for a creative or clever headline

Let us take an example of some top medium stories with massive views.

• This Is What Happens When You Stop Talking About Yourself in Conversations

• I Will Teach You How To Make Your First $10,000 From Writing

• How To Make Enough Money to Retire in the Next 5 Years

What is making these headlines powerful? They are clear. (And other things, that we’re about to discuss below)

Most new writers try to be creative or clever and miss the important point of being clear with their headlines.

Pieces of Perfect Headline

Nicolas breaks down the headline of his article with 200,000+ views.

Here’s the headline:

The 1 Question That Gets Every Single Millennial In Trouble

If we break it down into pieces:

/The 1 / Question / That Gets / Every Single Millennial / In Trouble /

The 1

This part sets the tone of the headline, as it is telling the reader what they are going to get at the end. Or, you can say the promise.

Adding the number 1 also gives a sense that this write-up/piece is going to be short, it reduces the friction and barrier for the reader to start reading.

Question

The 1 What?

Is it a reason? Is it a secret? Is it a solution?

This part of the headline tells the reader about what they’ll get after reading. If you remove this part, the reader will not find the headline clear.

To find the right word to fit here, this sparks maximum curiosity in the reader.

That Gets

This part of the headline works as a bridge between the beginning and the end.

You should use easy to connect and with the minimum word.

Every Single Millennial

This is the part of the headline with who is this for. You’re calling the target audience for the article

The two things you need to balance here are:

• Who-based on age, ethnicity, location, interest, etc.

• Who within that who-is it just 1& of them or all of them.

In Trouble

This is what readers get curious about. The piece is also the PROMISE. The key to finding and writing great promise is by knowing what is triggering an emotional response.

Proven Headline Formats

If you notice the top publications and websites, they follow a pattern in their headlines. Nicolas shares some of the most proven headline formats:

Big Numbers

Having big numbers gets people excited.

Dollar Signs

Money is motivating. Dollar signs immediately catch our attention and make it interesting for the readers.

Credible Names

Celebrities, CEOs, and other credible names catch attention and it subconsciously tells the reader that you will deliver on your promise

“This Just Happened”

This alerts the readers, telling them it is on high priority. The reader doesn’t want to miss out on what is happening and builds the curiosity gap.

The Success Story

Everyone wants a taste of success and when they see someone else success story, they want to know what happened with them, especially if it is about some underdog or some massive achievement.

Things That Shouldn’t Go Together

The best example of this would be the one Nicolas shares, “7 Things KFC And Miley Cyrus Have In Common,” or. “What Jay-Z, Pablo Escobar, And Oprah Can Teach Us About Leadership.”

For The Industry

These headlines are specifically targeted towards an audience from an industry. You straight away call the target audience in the headline.

The Topic Within The Topic

This is where you get ultra-specific with your topic, it works great to target a narrow audience. For example, “7 Ways The Real Estate Industry Is Changing (And How You Should Be Investing Your Money).

Question/Answer

These headlines start with a question and end with a hint of an answer. For example, “Can’t Be Productive In The Office? Try Organizing Your Calander Like This”

X Number

These are the headlines you would see the most floating around the Buzzfeed articles. 13 Reasons, 5 Hacks, 4 Ways, and so on.

Bonus: Including Power Phrases in Your Headline

Here are some examples of power phrases:

• Crucial

• Unforgettable

• Memorable

• Eye-Opening

• Painful

• Emerging

Example of using power phrases in your headline:

“These Unforgettable Tips From Silicon Valley’s 10 Most Successful VC Firms Will Change the Way You Think About Business Forever”

These are some insights from one chapter of the book. Imagine the value you’ll get when you read the complete book.

This book has had a major impact on my online writing journey, I highly recommend you read it.

Which headline formula did you like the most? Please let me know.

- Noman Shaikh

P. S.

This newsletter is about actionable and easy-to-digest information from books. It is not specific to a genre of books. Any book that’s interesting will be broken down and shared here. If you have a suggestion, let me know.

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