120 Viral Headline Examples to Emulate

Want to Know What All Winning Headlines Have in Common?

PHOTO BY COTTONBRO ON PEXELS

Did you know that headline writing is the highest-paid copywriting job?

The headline is the most important part of an article, book, video, or anything along the line.

Why?

Because all great headlines manage to do one thing successfully. Every great headline compels people to click.

The following 120 headlines are one of the best headlines on the internet. And you’ll learn exactly what a great headline needs after studying them.

I’ve also added Patterns from all the headlines at the end of this article.

Table of Contents
Best headlines from 👇
· Medium
· LinkedIn
· Men's Health
· Harvard Business Review
· TEDx
· Copyblogger
· Small Business Trends
Patterns from all the headlines

Most Viewed Medium Stories

MEDIUM.COM

1. The power of doing nothing at all
2. Don’t listen to those productivity gurus: why waking up at 6am won’t make you successful
3. How Quitting My Corporate Job for My Startup Dream F*cked My Life Up
4. The Rock Test: A Hack for Men Who Don’t Want To Be Accused of Sexual Harassment
5. The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You
6. Digital Exile: How I Got Banned for Life from AirBnB
7. 7 Practical Tips for Cheating at Design
8. 7 Things You Need To Stop Doing To Be More Productive, Backed By Science
9. How Technology is Hijacking Your Mind — from a Magician and Google Design Ethicist
10. Laziness Does Not Exist

Viral LinkedIn Articles

IMAGE BY BEDEXPSTOCK FROM PIXABAY

1. How Successful People Stay Calm
2. 6 Toxic Behaviors That Push People Away: How to Recognize Them in Yourself and Change Them
3. 11 Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader
4. Caffeine: The Silent Killer of Success
5. The №1 Career Mistake Capable People Make
6. Three Things I’ve Learned From Warren Buffet
7. 9 Things Successful People Won’t Do
8. The One Thing Successful People Never Do
9. Stop Using These 16 Terms to Describe Yourself
10. Affiliate Marketing: Grow Your Sales, Monetize Your Traffic

Most Popular Articles of Copyblogger

1. How to Overcome Writer’s Block with Neuroscience
2. 10 Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques
3. The 5 Things Every (Great) Marketing Story Needs
4. How to Make Money as a Freelance Writer: 15 Writing Business Essentials
5. Quit Annoying Your Audience! 3 Simple Steps to Write Better Content
6. How to Become a Freelance Writer: 30 Tips for Writing Business Success
7. 7 Unusual Progress Signs on the Path to a Breakthrough
8. Making a Living Online (or, the Internet Is Not Your ATM)
9. Do You Recognize These 10 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking?
10. Do You Make These 11 Common Grammar Mistakes When You Write?
11. How to Write Like Hemingway
12. Most Persuasive Words and Phrases for Copywriting (and How to Use Them)
13. 8 Creativity Stifling Habits and How to Overcome Them
14. 10 Ways to Master Writing Damn Good Copy
15. 5 Ways to Write a Damn Good Sentence
16. Be a Bad Writer to Be a Great Writer
17. How to Write Articles Fast: 10 Pro Tips
18. One Ridiculously Easy Blogging Ingredient that Satisfies Hungry Prospects
19. A ‘Big Blog’ Strategy Anyone Can Use for More (and Better) Traffic
20. The Two Most Important Words in Blogging, Persuasion, and Copywriting

Most Popular Articles of Small Business Trends

1. 90% of Small Businesses Prepare for Economic Downturn — But Remain Optimistic
2. How Employers and Independent Contractors Remain Independent under CA AB5
3. Motivational Sales Quotes to Inspire You
4. 9 Best Mattresses — Top Mattress Brands Compared
5. How to Work from Home
6. Why was Philadelphia the Perfect Place to Launch Hospitality Tech Startup xtraCHEF?
7. Distance Learning Demand Offers Opportunity for Small Education Businesses
8. 105 Success Quotes to Help You Achieve Greatness
9. Creativity Quotes to Inspire You
10. 61 Persistence Quotes for Entrepreneurs
11. Email Marketing Guide for Beginners
12. Small Business Guide to Video Marketing
13. Guide to How to Do Marketing Research
14. Best Cost Cutting Ideas for Your Business
15. 16 Survey Questions to Ask Customers
16. 10 Tips to Help New Business Owners Get Off to a Solid Start
17. Best Antivirus Protection for Your Business
18. 7 Productivity Hacks from 7 Successful Entrepreneurs
19. How to Start a Beekeeping Business
20. How to Start a Business: Step by Step Guide

Most Popular Articles of Men’s Health

1. Do This Drill If Pushups Hurt Your Wrists
2. A Physical Therapist Shows the Proper Way to Walk
3. How a Trainer Fixes Lower Back Pain in 30 Seconds
4. The 9 Best Pillows For Every Type of Neck Pain
5. Arnold Schwarzenegger Shares How He Has Adapted His Workouts as He Gets Older
6. How to Come Back From Being a Burned-Out, Crispy Shred of Your Former Self
7. Fall Asleep in 2 Minutes With This Sleep Hack
8. How to Know if You Get Enough Deep Sleep
9. What to Do When You Just Can’t Sleep
10. 30 Sleep Essentials for Your Best Night’s Sleep
11. I Lost 30 Pounds in 5 Months By Doing More Cardio
12. HIIT Helped this Guy Recover From a Heart Attack
13. The 10 Best Heart Healthy Foods
14. The 25 Best Ways to Protect Your Heart Now
15. The Best and Worst U.S. Cities for Mental Health
16. The 20 Best Mental Health Books of 2022
17. The Mental Health Retreat Where NFLers Go to Heal
18. Make 2022 Your Healthiest Year Ever
19. Men Don’t Talk Enough About Mental Health
20. 18 High-Protein Meals That’ll Fill You Up

Most Popular Articles of Harvard Business Review

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

1. Navigating Peer Relationships While Climbing the Ladder
2. Is Data Scientist Still the Sexiest Job of the 21st Century?
3. Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century
4. Why Microsoft Measures Employee Thriving, Not Engagement
5. How Well Does Your Company Use Analytics?
6. Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome
7. It’s Time to Streamline the Hiring Process
8. Motivating People Starts with Building Emotional Connections
9. Don’t Let Mentoring Burn You Out
10. Is Corporate Venture Capital Right for Your Startup?
11. How to Pace Yourself at Work While Pregnant
12. Closing the Gap Between Digital Marketing Spending and Performance
13. 3 Ways to Innovate in a Downturn
14. The “Angry Black Woman” Stereotype at Work
15. How to Survive a Recession and Thrive Afterward
16. How to Stay Cool When You’re Put on the Spot
17. ESG Reports Aren’t a Replacement for Real Sustainability
18. 15 Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer
19. 38 Smart Questions to Ask in a Job Interview
20. Coding Isn’t a Necessary Leadership Skill — But Digital Literacy Is

Most Viewed Ted Talks Ever

Ted

1. Do schools kill creativity?
2. How to speak so that people want to listen
3. Inside the mind of a master procrastinator
4. How great leaders inspire action
5. The power of vulnerability
6. Your body language may shape who you are
7. The next outbreak? We’re not ready
8. Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model.
9. What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness
10. 10 things you didn’t know about orgasm
11. How to spot a liar
12. The art of misdirection
13. How I held my breath for 17 minutes
14. The power of introverts
15. My stroke of insight
16. The puzzle of motivation
17. Strange answers to the psychopath test
18. How to make stress your friend
19. The happy secret to better work
20. The danger of a single story

The Patterns

• A lot of the headlines above have numbers.
• A lot of the headlines address a problem and point out that the article/video has the solution.
• Many articles are of the “how-to” format.
• Title case is easier to read. And it’s the standard for writing headlines. So, many are written in the title case.
• All the headlines above have 8 words on average. The smallest ones have 4 words and the longest one has 14.
• Many headlines above have parenthesis (Increases click-through rate).
• They have a reading level of 5.7 on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test. Meaning: They’re easy to read and a child could easily comprehend most of them.
• Those headlines include the same words as the headline’s intended audience is familiar with.

Thanks for reading.

I’ll be uploading my next story in a few days. So, stay tuned.