Headlines and thumbnail images are your biggest attention assets!
What good is having great content if nobody opens your article?!?!?!
It's important to remember that when most people come across your post, it's in a huge list of other posts (in a feed, a steemit chat promotion room, a discord promotion room, etc.) Now think of yourself staring at a huge list of posts...which ones do YOU click on? Unless you happen to already know the author, this decision is heavily influenced by the headline and/or thumbnail image catching your attention!
Often there is that one post that seemed to 'pop' for you with many others seeming to have a rather lackluster response. Likely it will be that way for you for a while. But the goal for most of us in the end are to consistently improve our payouts and there are some strategies you can try to help move you towards this. So this guide covers choosing strong headlines and images for your thumbnail to entice more people to actually open your post, ideally bringing your greater success over time on Steemit!
Q: What makes a Headline catch someone's attention?
Think about what makes you click on things. Is there a certain word or topic that got you interested? Maybe it posed a question you wanted an answer for?
As an example...say you have a post showing off some pictures of flowers you took. Which headline grabs you more?
1. Some cool flowers
2. Overtaken by Nature's Beauty
Now I know this is kind of a cheesy example. But can you tell the difference? I'd guess that the second one got more of your attention...like you want to see what is being discussed. This is what you are shooting for! Using strong actions and descriptions go a LONG way. It's also important to remember that the first words in your post also show up in this list view under the headline and thumbnail image. You can use these to you're advantage too!
I know it's not always the easiest thing to come up with strong catchy headlines, but working on it over time will help you improve. If you find a post doesn't get much attention, try to think what you might have done to make it more appealing to click on (even though sometimes you might have just gotten unlucky and there wasn't much to improve on the headline.)
While I don't recommend relying on this...if you find yourself stuck, you can use a Title Generator to get some ideas. Most of them are rather lame, but often you'll find one that sticks out as something worth a try.
Lastly, try to pay attention to what headlines get your attention! Was it a certain word or phrase that drew you in? Maybe it was the thumbnail image they used?
Q: What makes a Thumbnail image catch someone's attention?
We again want to remember that all our posts are first seen in a list view. So we need something that sticks out and makes somebody want to open the post for a better look. Let's jump right into an example...which of these two pictures grab your attention more?
This one:
[IMPORTANT: Your FIRST image in a post will be used for the thumbnail image! So choose it carefully.]
I made these pictures smaller so we can get a better idea of what they look like in a thumbnail image. I'd bet that every one of you were drawn to the second one, whether because of the brighter color, greater details or some other reason. The first one, while also a picture of a flower, just doesn't have the same appeal with the actual flower being so small and the grass around it being rather full.
I know we don't always have the pictures we want available from shots you took yourself. So don't be afraid to use a google image search with the usage rights set to "Labeled for reuse"...since we make money off our posts and want to respect copywrites. Some other sites with images you are safe to use include Pexels, Pixabay or Unsplash just to name a few.
A Few Final Thoughts...
Finding a great headline and thumbnail image isn't always the easiest thing to do. So don't be afraid to just try different things, maybe even ask someone else for their opinion. This is something that has to be developed over time. But even for the best of us, things don't 'pop' as much as we though they would.
Keep your chin up...Keep posting...Keep improving!
Part 1 of this guide on getting more votes can be found HERE
Click HERE for a list of All my Guides!
Please Follow, Upvote and Resteem if you found this Guide Helpful.
Image Sources:
Kitty Meme
Newspaper
White Flower
Pink Flower
This was very educative and helpful. I'll definitely try out what I've got from this post.
Thanks for sharing.
Great post
Thanks for your tips @sykochica.
Also the point is not to overdo with post header making it "clickbaiting".
Oh exactly! It's walking that fine line of being 'catchy yet applicable' and just clickbait.
Great point :D
yea follow me am following you too @mrboy12
lol, I was drawn to the first thumbnail (green) because I couldn't see as clearly what the image was portraying and so was intrigued by it. ;)
I can understand that..lol. :)
Since I’m still a beginner this post was really helpful! Not only are these tips helpful for Steem but really any time you are trying to market content online!
great advice as always... the headlines are tough for me .. but I am working on it ..never give up
Thank you!
I have ones of my own that I look at an think...'how blah' it was. They can't all be home runs. :)
I have found that title generator helpful in the past to give me some ideas when I feel stuck though.
Really helpful post :) I Think its really hard to make an article an Eye-catcher but this tips will certainly help :) I will try them out :D
Thank you for another amazing guide for beginners and maybe even for users that aren't new on Steemit.
keep it up!
I am but a small little bitty sea horse amidst a gigantic ocean of Beluga whales... where my noobs at, am I right? Thanks for the info! Trying to get a grip on all this
Thank you for the tips @sykochica
I feel this line so much! I feel like that cat asking why? Hahaha. But seriously, with several posts by the minute the headline and thumbnail really matters. And it's the most difficult part for me.
Will the first lines/sentence of the post that appears on the feed be crucial as well? I see most people put in greeting first like "Hello Steemians..."
The first line/sentence isn't as important as the headline and thumbnail, but I'd do feel it can be helpful and have some positive effect. But I don't think it could really hurt you.
Definitely focus of the headline and image first.:-)
Thank you very much @sykochica Happy New Year :)
For an ongoing daily blog, my meditation posts for example, do you suggest using the same thumbnail each day or changing it up?
I've seen both work out for people. However personally I change up the thumbnail on each post.
Now it's been a while since I'd even tried using the same image for the thumbnail. But what I felt happened was that I lost out on votes I thought I might have gotten simply because the voter sees the headline being the same (i.e. Meditation and Minfulness), sees the thumbnail, and thinks that they had already voted (which they did on part 1, but didn't realize this one was part 2.
But again...I have seen it work out for users, so you can try thing out and see if it works for you. :)
Thanks!! Have I mentioned, you're the best? Appreciate it!
Great advice. I wish there was some way to experiment and find out how much an impact a good thumbnail and title has on here.
Yea, there's not really a good 'predictive' option available.
But whenever I felt that one of my posts was 'underachieving' compared to my expectations, the headline and thumbnail is always the first place I look as a possible improvement.
Though we never really know for sure since there are so many other factors that could lead to something getting few votes.
Great advice there @sykochica!
Thank you! :D
What a great lesson to be learned in this post. Quite a few to be exact. This post, along with the first, are must reads. Great job. Happy New Year.
how do you make your thumbs ?
They're automatically generated from the first image you use in a post. I just shrunk the two images I used in the post down to 150 pixels wide to provide a better example.
I am trying to make quality content....but nobody reads it.
very useful information...I will definitely try thank you dear @sykochica
Keep with it! I've seen a lot of people here who had strong content...with the bigger issue being getting people to open it up to actually see the content. I definitely hope this helps out a bit for you!!
thank you very much
I see you funny post
Thanks for the info @sykochica
It is good explained, but sometimes steemit posts go beyond the marketing logic, for unknown reason...
Thanks @skyochicha i believe pictures makes posts attractive but it should be modrate. Nd what if u get flagged for using some picx(meanig are all d picx in d site legit)
If your pictures have a ”labeled for reuse" license your fully safe. You won't get flagged for using any of these.
If we want to use a picture that not under this license, it's good to ask permission from the creator. Most say yes and just happy to be asked.
thanks for useful tips! ;)
Key words attract more. this is intriguing vs this is interesting. One's command of the English language helps. And a zoomed in images helps. More color is generally good. It depends on what you are selling on your Steemit storefront. If you are selling nude or semi - nude photography you are not going to come across like the local clergy. Knowing how audiences responds and having a working knowledge of marketing helps. Thanks for the blog. It was good or should I say it was insightful. I like the insightful response better!
More work needed to be done thanks for sharing this points : )
Cool tips. I kinda knew that but this article will motivate me to do better. Having a nice picture with the title on it looks most professional in my opinion :)
time to make it catch and surprising thanks bro for the tips
everything is good unless we don't do click bait :) isn't it
the starting was cool but i don't think i will make any good content i don't have that much brain lol :D
Great content, I really could use all the information I can get. Thanks much :-)
Thanks a lot for a good advise. Because it is really sucks when you do a good job but no one reads it. I will definitely work on that
Aha! I like that headline generator. I think I need that. :D Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for all the helpful information. I actually never thought about thumbnails attracting users. Kinda silly to learn this since I usually click on post because of them. Definitely going to have a new mind set because of this. I'll try to analyze the bigger post and really see what makes them so big, including their thumbnails, headliners, and those few preview post. Thanks again! I can't wait to read the rest of your tutorial posts for beginners!
I am new here and this information, are helping me on how to get my blog an evening to the readers. Thank you.
As a newbie on Hive this post is really what I need now thanks @sykochica for carefuly taking us through this secrets.
Hola 🙆🏽♀️. Muchas gracias. Muy buena información.