If Your Article Has These 4 Elements, It Will Fail For Sure

With examples — so you don’t fall into the same trap.

You know what gives you better insights about the world of writing other than being a writer?

Being an editor!

I’ve been running Medium’s biggest book publication, Books Are Our Superpower, for more than four years. I’ve published thousands of articles on the platform and worked with 1200+ writers.

Publishing 100+ articles every month and seeing the ones that succeed has given me some unique insights that let me study the world of online writing today. It puts me at an unfair advantage where I know what kind of articles work and what stand no chance.

Based on that, and my experience of writing online for more than a decade, I’ve come to understand there are four elements that can make or break an article — 

• Your title
• Your introduction
• Your style of writing
• Your style of formatting

If you tweak these four elements in a way that catch the reader’s attention and get them reading until the end, you’ve already won the game of online writing.

But how to take care of these four elements? Let’s dive right in. Here are the four tell-tale sights your article is going to fail.

1. A title that leaves no motivation to click

Your title is the single most important part of your article. No matter how kickass your content is, if your title puts people to sleep, no one’s going to read the labor of your hard -work.

But how do you get people to click?

By having a healthy curiosity gap, yet letting the reader know exactly what to expect.

Let’s look at some high-performing articles published on Books Are Our Superpower in the past few months — 

I’m Losing My Sight, But This Book is Helping me Deal With the Panic by Colleen Addison

We know it’s a personal story. We know it’s probably going to make us cry. But as readers, we need to click on the title because we want to know so bad what the author is going through. 

Lesson? 

A good title tells the reader exactly what the story is about, and why the author is the right person to write it.

The Book That Taught This Nigerian Girl Not to Wait by Chidera Lynda

The premise itself is so unique, I immediately want to know more. Why was this Nigerian girl waiting? For whom? How did the book change it? 

Lesson? 

A good title is one that incites multiple questions in the mind of a reader.

Fun fact: The title the author had initially chosen for the article was a simple “My top books of 2024.” If I search for that phrase on Google, I’ll get a thousand hits. So many writers have written “best books of 2024,” that I no longer feel interested to learn yet another writer’s favorite books. But a book about a Nigerian girl no longer wanting to wait? That’s something I’m curious about.

I Found True Purpose From a Book About Longevity, and a Harsh Lesson in the Dangers of Ignoring It by Steve Middle

Who doesn’t love reading stories about finding purpose? The fact that this article promises first-hand experience is a bonus. 

Lesson? 

A title isn’t made “good” by its word count, but by how effectively it conveys what the reader is about to get into.

A Girl Read Aloud To Me Every Day In College. So I Married Her by Carter Anderson Lee

Another promise of a personal story. Another impossible hook I need to click as a reader. 

Lesson? 

The title might give away the ending of your story, but its job is to get the reader to click on your article. Something with such a spicy premise can never go wrong.

Rethinking “Daddy Issues” After I Became A Father by Stephen Duncan

The initial title that the author wrote for the draft was just “Daddy Issues.” This is an example of a title no one wants to click. There’s nothing in the words “Daddy Issues” that would make a reader care about the article. 

But I made a small tweak, and this new title got the story boosted. 

What makes it such a great title? 

We know it comes from first-hand experience, and we’ll start reading it expecting empathy and some human connection. Always winners when it comes to building curiosity gaps.

A title checklist for new writers

If you think a title like “Sunday Morning Reflections” or “3Ps of Publishing” will make your article viral, think again.

Make sure your article answers the two most important questions: 

• What is the story about?
• Why I’m the best person to write this?

If it does, and it can create a curiosity gap in the mind of the reader, rest assured that you have a winner title.