{"id":73101,"date":"2014-02-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ndf-blog.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/?p=73101"},"modified":"2026-07-31T02:10:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T09:10:58","slug":"before-after-how-to-fix-horrible-headline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/before-after-how-to-fix-horrible-headline\/","title":{"rendered":"Before and After: How to Fix a Horrible Headline"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n \n \n\t\n\n\n\n
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Every day, we are bombarded with content from blogs, newspapers, magazines, etc. With all of this content being shared, we have to be judicious about what to read and what to skip. But the thing that makes us want to read on more than any other part of an article is the headline. As readers, headlines are the first thing we notice. They grab our attention and determine whether or not we\u2019re going to continue with the article.<\/p>\n

If first impressions in everyday life are important, why should it be any different for headline writing? It\u2019s important for writers to come up with catchy and intriguing headline ideas if they want their work to be read. And in the ever-growing world of social media, they also want that content to be\u00a0shared<\/i>, and shared often. Most people will read a headline. But if the headline isn\u2019t captivating, very few will read beyond that.<\/p>\n

Depending on where you look on the web, you\u2019ll read different criteria for what makes for good headline writing ideas. But for simplicity, I\u2019ll break it down into three basic components. Good headlines are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • clear<\/li>\n
  • interesting<\/li>\n
  • short (under 70 characters)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>
    \n

    But alas, a good headline isn\u2019t enough. The writer still has to deliver in the body. So don\u2019t let your good content get wasted because of a bad headline. To make sure this doesn\u2019t happen, write your headline first and build it around your creative writing prompt. After all, it\u2019s the first thing your readers will see.<\/p>\n

    And, of course, no blog post would be complete without examples of bad headlines. I\u2019ve included five of them, along with suggested fixes for each.<\/p>\n<\/div>

    \n1. Republicans Turned Off by Size of Obama\u2019s Package\n<\/h2>
    \n \n \n\t\n\n\n\n
    \n \n \n\t\n\n\n\n\"Newspaper
    \n

    Newspaper article with provocative political headline.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

    \nSource: http:\/\/www.poynter.org\/latest-news\/mediawire\/147650\/newspaper-adviser-obamas-package-headline-was-not-typical-for-that-section\/\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
    \n

    Yikes! This is a serious article from a college newspaper, so I\u2019m hoping that making the reader blush uncomfortably was not the intended goal of the author. Instead, the following headline, free of innuendos and still interesting, is much better:<\/p>\n

    Republicans Balk at Obama\u2019s Short-Term Stimulus<\/i><\/p>\n

    (taken from\u00a0The New York Times<\/i>)<\/p>\n<\/div>

    \n2. Missippi\u2019s Literacy Program Shows Improvement\n<\/h2>
    \n \n \n\t\n\n\n\n
    \n \n \n\t\n\n\n\n\"Mississippi
    \n

    Mississippi Headline.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

    \nSource: http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/2010\/01\/14\/whats-the-worst-way-to-pr_n_423330.html\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
    \n

    This one has an obvious misspelling\u2026while promoting literacy of all things! How can anyone take the writer seriously when there\u2019s a glaring error in the headline? This is evidence for the need of proofing and getting someone else to check your work. Here\u2019s how it should\u2019ve looked:<\/p>\n

    Mississippi\u2019s Literacy Program Shows Improvement\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>

    \n3. Chick Accuses Some of Her Male Colleagues of Sexism\n<\/h2>
    \n \n \n\t\n\n\n\n
    \n \n \n\t\n\n\n\n\"Laura
    \n

    Laura Chick Headline.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

    \nSource: http:\/\/www.dudelol.com\/chick-accuses-some-of-her-male-colleagues-of-sexism\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
    \n

    An oldie, but a goodie. This headline wasn\u2019t meant to be sexist, but a funny thing happened on the way to the print shop! This article is about the accusations of sexism levied by LA Councilwoman Laura Chick against her male colleagues. The author had good intentions, but inadvertently offending people before they could even begin the article probably wasn\u2019t on the agenda. Again, proofing and attention to detail is imperative. Here\u2019s how it should\u2019ve been avoided:<\/p>\n

    Councilwoman Accuses Male Colleagues of Sexism<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>

    \n4. For Swing Voters, Tossup For President\n<\/h2>
    \n

    Boring. Boring, boring, boring! This dull and slightly confusing headline, which states the very nature of swing voters, gives readers no reason to continue reading unless they\u2019re new to the political process and want a 101 course on swing voting. Instead, let\u2019s give readers a more in-depth analysis about\u00a0why<\/i>\u00a0these voters are undecided between two starkly different platforms:<\/p>\n

    Why Swing Voters Remain Undecided About Obama vs. Romney<\/i><\/p>\n

    (taken from\u00a0U.S. News & World Report<\/i>)<\/p>\n<\/div>

    \n5. Two Sisters Reunited After 18 years in Checkout Counter\n<\/h2>
    \n

    Ahh! The age-old tale where heartwarming story happens; heartwarming story gets ruined by bad headline; heartwarming story doesn\u2019t get read! Let\u2019s remove the ambiguity of the sentence (because come on, they didn\u2019t spend 18 years in the checkout counter) by taking the time to properly construct a headline. By simply shuffling a few words around, we can clarify the thought:<\/p>\n

    After 18 Years, Two Sisters Reunite\u2026at the Checkout Counter<\/i><\/p>\n

      \n
    • For more articles with catchy and interesting headlines, be sure to take a look at more of our posts on the NextDayFlyers blog.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/section><\/main>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Every day, we are bombarded with content from the blogs, newspapers, magazines, etc. With all of this content being shared, we have to be judicious about what to read and what to skip. And the things that help us decide more than anything else is the headline. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":73103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-creative-ideas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73101"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84685,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73101\/revisions\/84685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}