1. Don't start your headline with a gerund
1.1. A gerund is a noun birthed from a verb by adding -ing to the end.
1.2. Examples of gerunds at the beginning of headlines include:
1.2.1. Bringing the power of AMP to Gmail
1.2.2. Tackling Inequality With an Entrepreneur’s Eye
1.2.3. Making Interactive Art
1.2.4. Fostering Independence, One Student at a Time
1.2.5. Recovering from Historical Amnesia
1.3. Only one of the top ten best performing headlines on Medium for each year since Medium was founded in 2013, starts with a gerund.
1.4. The best blog post titles don’t start with a noun ending in “-ing”.
1.5. According to an exhaustive study, the most popular first words that started headlines of articles shared on social media were:
2. Why starting your headline with a word that ends in “-ing” is a big mistake
2.1. Headlines that start with a gerund are ambiguous.
2.1.1. The reader can’t tell who the article is about, and for whom it’s written. The subject and audience are completely lost.
2.2. Headlines that start with a gerund are not reader-centric.
2.2.1. These unhelpful headlines come from the writer’s perspective, with little thought about how the reader will perceive it.
2.2.2. The writer asks himself or herself, “What is my blog post about?” The answer to this questions is always a gerund.
2.2.3. To fix this, think about how the reader will think, feel, or respond to reading the article
2.2.4. Make it about them and what they will learn and take away from the story.
2.2.5. eg: This New iOS App Will Make You Sleep Better Than Ever Before
2.3. Headlines that start with a gerund are weak.
2.3.1. It’s passive voice and that’s a no-no, especially in headlines.
2.3.2. Also, it’s time-insensitive. There’s no urgency to read the article.
2.3.3. It limits the most powerful word in the headline — the verb — to a bland generalization.
2.3.4. "Change the Way You View Horses in 2018" is a better headline than "Changing the Way We View Horses"
3. 4 tips to write captivating headlines that get more reads
3.1. Create a “curiosity gap.”
3.1.1. Write headlines that pique a reader’s curiosity to the point where they must learn the answer.
3.1.2. Put tension or drama in the headline, but don’t cross the line into clickbait.
3.1.3. Be specific
3.2. Put “How to” in front.
3.2.1. Show the reader exactly what they’re going to learn.
3.2.2. “How to” is a beautiful starting phrase for this because it’s focused on the reader and what the reader will learn.
3.3. Pick a niche and be specific.
3.3.1. Identify your audience in the headline.
3.3.2. The more specific you can be, the better.
3.4. Chop off the “-ing” and use the base verb to make it an imperative.
3.4.1. Shorten the verb into an imperative or a call to action.