How to write podcast episode titles people click

People skim a feed in seconds. The title has to say what the listener gets or make them curious enough to tap, in the space a phone shows before it cuts the line off. Keep the important words in the first 60 or so characters.

Don't spend that space on 'Episode 14' or your show's name; apps already show both. Put a guest's name at the end unless the guest is the reason people will click.

The contradiction: tell people they're wrong about something. "You're wrong about what you want to be when you grow up" beats "Careers and growing up" because it starts an argument in the listener's head.

The question: "Is it too late to change careers at 40?" The how-to: "How to ask for a raise without a counteroffer." The number: "3 things my grandmother knew about money that I didn't." The quote: "'I almost quit after the first year': a baker on starting over." The stakes: "The phone call that saved our family business."

Interview: "Why the best founders hire slowly, with [guest]." Co-hosted: "We tried to go a week without our phones (it went badly)." Solo: "The 10-minute budget that finally stuck." Storytelling: "Two strangers, 50 years apart, on the same first job." Student or class: "What our town looked like in 1975, according to the people who lived it."

Write ten titles, not one; the fourth or fifth is usually better than the first. Use specific nouns and active verbs. Read each option out loud. Then check the promise: if the title says the episode explains something, make sure it does, or listeners leave in the first minute and don't come back.

Avoid in-jokes, vague words like 'thoughts on' or 'chatting about', and clickbait the episode can't pay off. Curious is good; misleading costs you subscribers.

Apps show the title and a line or two of the description before 'more'. Treat them as one unit: the title makes the promise and the first line says who it's for or what happens. Don't repeat the title in the description. Our podcast description examples show how to write those first lines.

Compare first-week plays for each episode in your host's analytics and note the title style of the winners. You will often find that the most-played episode isn't the one you think is best; it's the one with the strongest title. Most hosts let you edit a title after publishing, so rewrite the titles of strong episodes that underperformed. Naming the show itself is a different job; see podcast name ideas.