WHAT YOU’VE BEEN TAUGHT Aberrational
Behavior and the Causal Effect of Incentives WHAT WORKS Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything • sold four million copies • became a New York Times bestseller • led to a movie, a podcast, a blog, a column in the New York Times, a follow- up book, and a consulting group

THE FLORIDA TIMES- UNION Woman
Tells Putnam County Deputy That Son, 4, Shot Her in Back While She Was Driving FIRST COAST NEWS Deputies: Jackson- ville Woman Shot by 4-Year-Old Son “Stable” MAIL ONLINE Pro-Gun Poster Girl Is Shot in the Back by Her 4-Year-Old Son While Driving in Florida After the Boy Found Her Pistol on Back Seat of Truck

“Just because the Mail Online
represents some of the least savory aspects of digital journalism doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t learn from what it does well. Finding the most compelling angle for a given story, and presenting it in a way that will encourage online audiences to read and share it, should be a part of every journalist’s skill set by now.” — Will Oremus

Here’s What a
Headline Does

Here’s Why a Headline Is
So Important Today

“Once headed for a bland
retirement within newspapers, the headline is making a striking comeback online. No longer the exclusive province of copyeditors, it is now the cornerstone of emailed political appeals, the fulcrum of crowdsourcing capital on Kickstarter, and arguably the basis of an entire communications medium, the all- headlines microblogging system Twitter.” —Ryan Grim

“We are in a street
fight for human attention.” —Amy O’Leary

“The headline is our one
chance to reach people who have a million other things that they’re thinking about, and who didn’t wake up in the morning wanting to care about feminism or climate change or the policy details of the election.” —Peter Koechley

Here’s What Headlines Look Like
Today

“Imagine your headline not as
it looks above your article, but as it looks at the bottom of an unrelated site, in someone’s Twitter or Facebook streams, or in a search result. Think of your headline as an emissary for your post, written to travel around the internet, selling the material to potential readers.” —Matt Thompson

Here’s the Power of a
Headline

That’s how many people will
read your headline.

That’s how many people will
read the rest of your article.

That’s how many headlines Upworthy
tests for every article.

1. Hey White Guys! I
Got Your Back 2. Do You Know How Hard It Is Being a White Guy? 3. Being a White Guy Is Harder Than You Think 4. You Don’t Know What It’s Like Being a White Guy 5. White Guys Don’t Have All the Luck 6. If You Knew What It Was Like for White Guys, You’d Keep Complaining 7. Seriously, Who Is Watching Out for the White Guys 8. This White Guy Thing Is Pretty Rough 9. You Don’t Know What It’s Like Being a White Guy 10. Imagine You Were a White Guy. You Know How Hard That Is? 11. Why Are White Guys Always Being Picked On? 12. Seriously, White Guys Can’t Catch a Break 13. White Guys Have So Many Problems, if Only You’d See That 14. An Open Message on Behalf of All White Guys Everywhere 15. This Is What a White Guy Has to Deal With 16. Put Yourself in a White Guy’s Shoes. Comfy, Right? 17.The Life of White Guys Is Way Harder Than You Realize? 18. This Is Why You Should Feel Sorry for White Dudes 19. An Open Letter From White Dudes to America 20. A Public Service Announcement on Behalf of All White Dudes 21. White Dudes Have It Really Hard 22. Being a White Dude Is Harder Than Being Not a Woman or Not a Person of Color 23. Do You Know How Hard It Is Being a Woman? Try Being a White Dude 24. It’s Pretty Hard Out There for a Dude 25. Your Life Is Hard? Try Being (1) A Dude and 2. White

HEADLINE CLICKS IMPRESSIONS CLICK- THROUGH
RATE 9 Secrets That Will Make Your Headline Go Viral 31 42,946 .04 The Surefire Way to Make Anything Go Viral 8 10,375 .08 The Closest Thing We Writers Have to a Silver Bullet 2 5,683 .08 The Single Most Important Thing You Can Do to Make Your Content Go Viral 1 1,314 .08 How to Write the Perfect Headline Every Time 1 1,228 .07 REVEALED: Every Trick in the Book to Write a Magnetic Headline 1 1,386 .07

That’s how many drafts it
took David Ogilvy to perfect his Rolls Royce copy.

That’s how many slogans the
Washington Post brainstormed before deciding on a winner.

That’s how many times Thomas
Edison failed en route to inventing the light bulb.

NUMBERS ✓ X out of
10 people will read your headline. ✓ X out of 10 will read your article. ✓ Upworthy tests XX headlines per article.

If These 6 Case Studies
Don’t Convince You, Nothing Will

FREEENTERPRISE.COM Entitlements: Face the Truth
or Face the Consequences FREEENTERPRISE.COM 10 Entitlement Truths That Will Blow Your Mind 895 views 26,627 views

IOWA HOUSE DEMOCRATS Zach Wahls
Speaks About Family MOVEON.ORG Two Lesbians Had a Baby and This Is What They Got 2.8 million views 17.4 million views

DEALBOOK Realities Behind Prosecuting Big
Banks • Andrew Ross Sorkin • 970 words • 82 comments • Mark Gongloff • 509 words • 4,591 comments • 2,300 likes THE HUFFINGTON POST Eric Holder Admits Some Banks Are Just Too Big to Prosecute

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
How Companies Learn Your Secrets FORBES How Target Figured Out a Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did • Charles Duhigg • 6,800 words • 60 likes • Kashmir Hill • 1,200 words • 13,000 likes

“I was stunned. It was
an amazing anecdote that crystallized so much anxiety we feel about corporate data collection, how much ‘they’ know about us, and how they’ll use it. I couldn’t believe it was buried nearly 5,000 words into the story rather than being the lede or broken out on its own.” — Kashmir Hill

“The New York Times article
is a delicious nine-course dinner; mine is an equally tasty, bite-sized snack for readers on the go. Most readers online are looking for something quick and easy to digest, so my version worked better for them.” — Kashmir Hill

THE NATION The Hunted and
the Hated: An Inside Look at the NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk Policy UPWORTHY Meet the 17 Year Old Who Blew the Lid Off Racial Profiling With His iPod 40,000 views 2.5 million views

THE WASHINGTON POST Business Coach
Anne Loehr Tries to Bridge Diverse Generations: X, Y, Baby Boomer GAWKER “Generational Consultant” Holds America’s Fakest Job • Ian Shapira • 1,568 words • 1 hour to interview • 2.5 hours to attend • 4 hour to transcribe • 1 day to write • Hamilton Nolan • 436 words • 1 hour to write

“Nearly every day a Washington
Post staffer not only sends us links to its expensive reporting, but even pulls out the most interesting quotes so as to make it easier to pirate.” — Gabriel Snyder

CASE STUDIES ✓ When you
got it, _____ it. ✓ Don’t serve up your summary. Serve up your _____. ✓ Pull out your meatiest ______.

Let’s Talk About the Science
of Headlines

OLD MEDIA The Debt Ceiling
Explained in Three Videos and One Chart NEW MEDIA The Debt Ceiling Explained in 3 Videos and 1 Chart

OLD MEDIA How Social Networks
Change the World in 5 Ways NEW MEDIA 5 Ways Social Networks Are Changing the World

OLD MEDIA King of Thrones:
America’s Best Restroom Is in Minneapolis NEW MEDIA King Of Thrones: America’s Best Restroom Is In Minneapolis

OLD MEDIA When “60 Minutes”
Checks Its Journalistic Skepticism at the Door NEW MEDIA When ‘60 Minutes’ Checks Its Journalistic Skepticism at the Door

OLD MEDIA Boom, Roasted: Here’s
Why You Don’t Ask a Feminist to Hawk Your Sexist Product NEW MEDIA BOOM, ROASTED: Here’s Why You Don’t Ask a Feminist to Hawk Your Sexist Product

OLD MEDIA The Single Best
Short Talk About Psychology NEW MEDIA The Single Best Short Talk About Psychology [VIDEO]

listicle

“The geek equivalent of a
Cosmo cover.” —Anil Dash

“Contemporary media culture prioritizes the
smart take, the sound bite, the takeaway — and the list is the takeaway in its most convenient form. You are, initially, sucked in by the promise of a neatly quantified serving of information or diversion. There will be precisely 10 (or 14, or 33) items in this text, and they will pertain to precisely this stated topic. You know exactly what you’re going to get with a listicle.” —Mark O’Connell

“Promise me 11 things; I
will at least read three of them.” —Choire Sicha

HEADLINE SOURCE 7 Important Tax
Facts About Medical and Dental Expenses 75 Facts About the 75th Secretary of the Treasury The 10 Most Unintentionally Hilarious Propaganda Videos 8 Things We Still Get Wrong About Policing The 6 Things You Never Thought to Tell House Guests

SCIENCE ✓ “List” + “article”
= ________. ✓ Write numbers as numbers, or with letters? ✓ Where do numbers go? ✓ Should you capitalize each word? ✓ Double quotes, or single quotes? ✓ Italics, or capital letters?

Let’s Talk About the Art
of Headlines

“Did the local sports team
win tonight’s big match against their rivals? We’ll tell you, next.” “A well-known politician got into a screaming match with reporters today. The video, after this break.”

You Will Not Believe What
Mitt Romney Wants to Do to You Just right: I can’t help but click. Mitt Romney Says Something Bad, Again Too vague: I don’t want to click. Mitt Romney Says, “I Want the Middle Class to Be Tied to the Roof of My Car” Too specific; I don’t need to click.

Adorable Chimpanzee Does Something Rather
Unexpected Just right: I can’t help but click. This Is an Amazing Video Too vague: I don’t want to click. Chimpanzee Sniffs Own Butt, Passes Out From Doing So Too specific; I don’t need to click.

Now This Is Why I
Voted for Barack Obama What’s this mean? I must know! Click… Click… Click… Obama Blasts Obama’s Evasive Stance on Gay Marriage Great job, but now I know what it is and don’t need to click. Obama Says Same-Sex Marriage Should Be Legal Boooring. Already done.

“Headlines now are a strange
cross between imperative and inviting. The tone is soothing, seductive and at least a little bit demanding, like every character ever played by Linda Fiorentino.” —Choire Sicha

Bold
Fun
Contrarian

Be Bold

You’re Doing It Wrong: Poached
Eggs This Awesome Ad, Set to the Beastie Boys, Is How to Get Girls to Become Engineers Why the FBI Director Is Wrong About Encryption All the Problems at Bloomberg Come Down to One Stat Bill Gates Makes Over $1 Million Every Day Doing Almost Nothing

Be Fun

Why Infographics Are Terrible, in
One Terrible Infographic Demand Media’s Bold New Strategy for eHow: Suck Less What Shamu Taught Me About a Happy Marriage Headless Body in Topless Bar

Be Contrarian

Think Like a Woman and
Make More Money Congress Deserves a Big Fat Raise Coverage You Can’t Buy: Why the Disastrous Healthcare.gov Rollout Could Be Good for Obamacare Don’t Say Goodbye When You Leave a Party. Just Ghost Why Tom Brady Is the Most Overrated Quarterback in NFL History

Personal
Immediate
Exaggerated

Make It Personal

Don’t Ask Hillary Clinton About
Abortion if You Can’t Handle Her Answer Everything You Need to Know About iOS 8 19 People Who Are Having a Way Worse Day Than You What Recruiters Look at During the 6 Seconds They Spend on Your Resume 9 Questions About Syria You Were Too Embarrassed to Ask

Make It Immediate

Here Is What Happens When
You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie 10 Things You Need to Know Before the Opening Bell The 15 Best Countries for You to Move to Right Now The U.K. Has Officially Begun the Brexit Process. Here’s What Happens Now

POPULAR SCIENCE Meet the Climate
Change Denier Who Became the Voice of Hurricane Sandy on Wikipedia GAWKER This Guy Is the Reason Hurricane Sandy’s Wikipedia Page Didn’t Mention Climate Change Until Today

Make It Exaggerated

The Impossible Choice That Had
Elon Musk on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown The Most Sensational Murder Trial You’ve Never Heard of Started 100 Years Ago A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius The Pope Just Published One of the Most Powerful Critiques of Modern Capitalism That You Will Ever Read This Is the Greatest Hoodie Ever Made

A Boy Makes Anti-Muslim Comments
in Front of an American Soldier. The Soldier’s Reply: Priceless See Why We Have an Absolutely Ridiculous Standard of Beauty in Just 37 Seconds Dustin Hoffman Breaks Down Crying Explaining Something That Every Woman Sadly Already Experienced 9 Out of 10 Americans Are Completely Wrong About This Mind- Blowing Fact This Amazing Kid Died. What He Left Behind Is Wondtacular

This Amazing Kid Died. What
He Left Behind Is Wondtacular

Get Specific

GENERAL How to Use Android
SPECIFIC Android for Dummies

GENERAL How to Sell Social
Media SPECIFIC 15 Case Studies to Get Your Client on Board With Social Media

GENERAL How to Get Better
at Organizing Your Day SPECIFIC The 5-Minute Guide to Organizing Your Day for More Focus and Productivity

GENERAL Telecommunications Best Practices for
the 21st-Century Enterprise SPECIFIC 7 Simple Ways Enterprises Can Cut Telecom Costs

Use Power Words

WEAK WORDS 11 Tips to
Writing POWER WORDS 11 Quick Tips to Brilliant Writing

WEAK WORDS 5 Grammatical Tips
Everyone Needs to Learn POWER WORDS 5 Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb

WEAK WORDS 5 Beliefs That
Make It Harder to Write POWER WORDS 5 Crippling Beliefs That Keep Writers Mired in Mediocrity

WEAK WORDS Don’t Do This
With Your Marketing Efforts POWER WORDS The Most Dangerous Threat to Your Online Marketing Efforts

THE ART ✓ Create an
____. ✓ Make your headline i__________ and i_______ ✓ Imperative: Be b___, f__, and c_________. ✓ Inviting: Make it p_______, i________, and e__________. ✓ Get ________.

Columbus’s Discovery of the New
World

Books

Movies

The Major Events of the
20th Century

1916 “Physicist Dad” Turns His
Attention to Gravity, and You Won’t Believe What He Finds [PICS]

1928 This One Weird Mold
Kills All Germs

1945 These 9 Nazi Atrocities
Will Make You Lose Faith in Humanity

1948 5 Insane Plans for
Feeding West Berlin You Won’t Believe Are Real

1969 This Is the Most
Important Photo of an Astronaut You’ll See All Day

1989 You Won’t Believe What
These People Did to the Berlin Wall [VIDEO]

Let’s Talk About Those Counter-
arguments

“Millions of readers are lured
by sensational headlines, only to be disappointed to find a superficial dispatch with no new information, dashed off by a harried journalist tasked with producing three stories a day.” —Steven Levy

“Upworthy posts don’t go viral
because people click — Upworthy posts go viral because people share. ‘Clickbait’ is a totally viable way to get a bunch of initial views. But it doesn’t create viral content. By far the most important factor in getting people to share a post is the actual quality of the content. To share, they have to love what they see.” —Upworthy Insider

“There is hyperbole and the
occasional withholding comment, and then there is the pulling at your bleeding heartstrings with the subtlety of a monster truck.” —Lexi Nisita

“Today’s headlines may appear gimmicky,
and no doubt some still are. But when a gimmick endures after the novelty wears off — when it proves resilient to the backlash and to changing tastes and algorithms and market conditions — eventually it’s no longer a gimmick.” —Will Oremus

“What special virtue is there
in letting great videos, articles, and images fall into the Internet’s abyss simply because nobody thought of the right combination of words to unlock their audience? What’s more, when readers find themselves hating a headline picked by a testing audience and shared by 10 million people, whose tastes are we really objecting to — Upworthy’s or ours?” —Eli Pariser

Clickbait is such a scourge
that Facebook recently changed its news feed algorithm to reduce the prominence of these deceptive headlines.

“This is Facebook’s fourth or
fifth algorithm tweak in the past two years that was aimed at reducing clickbait. The problem is that clickbait headlines tend to get lots of clicks. So should Facebook alter its behavior based on what people do, or based on what they say they want?” —Mathew Ingram

Here Are 3 Questions You
Should Ask Yourself

Would I share this article
if I saw only its headline?

If others are writing about
this subject, is my headline different enough to stand out?

Should you write your headline
first or last?

“You may know some of
the elements you’re going to include, you may know how you want it to begin and end, and you may know a dozen other big ideas that have to be in your story. But until you can come up with a headline, chances are you are going to end up like me, with all the hard work behind you and this small sign before you, demon- strating as clear as a Bahamian bay that the greater purpose was never framed and fixed.” —Mike Long

QUESTIONS ✓ Can I envision
this headline in the sidebar of ____ _______ articles? ✓ Would I ____ this article or post it on ________ based on the headline alone? ✓ If others are writing about this subject, is my headline _________ enough to stand out?

TESTING TOOLS

YOU TRY IT!

YOU TRY IT! ✓ Your
organization’s blog ✓ A recent news release from your organization ✓ An important email you recently sent ✓ A memo or proposal you recently wrote ✓ A current event

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