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In a previous installment of our weekly writing tips series, we told you how to format your title. Now, we'll give you a little advice on what that headline should actually be.

Bitmob Co-founder Dan "Shoe" Hsu gave all of the staff a little helpful advice a couple days ago that I'd like to share:

"Your headlines must be concise and clear. It needs to sell the story. Some of our stories lately have fairly vague headlines…ones where an average person would probably not be interested in clicking through.

"Remember: The headlines will sometimes appear completely isolated (like in the Mini-Mobfeed or Reddit), and sometimes, that's literally all a reader might see. He might not see any images, your intro, etc. So ask yourself, if you have no idea what this story is about and you only read that headline, does it do its job? Does it tell someone what the story is about, and would it encourage him to read further?"

If you wanted the CliffsNotes version: clear, concise, and interesting — in that order.

When you submit a story to Bitmob, you're submitting that story to the Internet, where readers can decide to click on your link — or not. We have less opportunity to be clever or funny with our headlines…what good is that when such titles prevent people from reading?

Ask yourself three questions of your headline the next time you submit a story:

  • "Does the headline make it obvious what the article is about?"
  • "Can I make it any shorter?"
  • "Would I click on it?"

More than any other piece of advice we'll give in this column: If you get your headline right, you'll get more readers.