You Know You’ve Made It On Medium When People Start Copying, ehem Borrowing Your Headlines
You Know You’ve Made It On Medium When People Start Copying, ehem Borrowing Your Headlines
The power of the right words
I’ve been noticing a few familiar headlines over the past weeks on this platform. It’s not a coincidence. Some people like to borrow. It was Steve Jobs who kind of (mis)quoted Picasso when he said:
Good artists copy, great artists steal.
To tell you the truth, I’ve also copied my headlines from time to time. There’s a time and place for everything. It’s humbling, really, because it might mean that I made it on Medium.
A noteworthy headline
What I see here and there is a variation of the headline from my most-read story on this platform. Over the weeks, this post has amassed more than 190K views, 55K reads, 1.6K fans, and 7.5K claps.
It’s been around the Medium block a few times.
Naturally, this inspires other writers. It does inspire me as well. A headline that generated a huge amount of views must be a good.
It’s this one: $400 for 15 Minutes Of (Easy) Work.
It’s catchy, short, promises something, makes you wonder, and yes, has a clickbaity touch to it.
Borrowing is fine
I don’t blame people for copying and adapting this headline. It works for a lot of cases. I’ve seen more of these lately.
If you look closely, you see my name there, by the way.
I said it. I like to steal from me. And why not? This type of headline has worked before, why wouldn’t it again?
The bottom line
I hope you have noticed that this is a humorous post.
I’m grateful for the amount of reads and fans my post has gained since I published it. Seeing similar headlines in my feed puts a smile on my face. I always end up reading these stories.
The headline is just a string of words, but it’s powerful.
To be honest, I have copied successful headline types in the past. There’s a reason why they’re successful. Short, on point, intriguing. Clickworthy.
Want to steal from me? Go ahead ;-)