Headlines!
by David Garfinkel
* Introduction: Writing the best headlines is an art. It depends on journalistic vision and it has many techniques to consider while writing Informatics Articles or just any other articles.
So, how to write headlines of articles you want to publish online?
The info publishing source has great insights. However, here is an article by a guest writer I got many years ago and thought it is useful, as a comment entry on the informatics page linked above.
How Headlines Help You Sell More Information on the Web?
If you've been marketing information on the Web - or even THINKING about marketing on the Web - surely you've heard many times how important headlines are, and how they can increase the selling power of the same piece of copy by five, 10, 15 times or even more.
Headlines, of course, are the strings of words (sometimes a full sentence, sometimes not) that act as titles to a piece of copy or an article. The headline for this article, for example, is "How Headlines Help You Sell More Information on the Web?"
Today I'm going to give you some shortcuts to creating world-class headlines that will help you sell information much more effectively than ever before.
If you have a Web site selling an ebook, an ecourse, a live seminar, a teleseminar, or some other information product, you want to start by creating a headline that does three things:
- it stops your prospect from surfing.
- it rivets the prospect's attention on the Web page, and
- it sets an expectation so the prospect wants to read more.
Let's look at how you can do this. Suppose your prospects are car owners, and you have written an ebook to help your prospects keep from being cheated and overcharged when they go to get their cars fixed.
Going through the three points above, one by one:
- What will stop your prospect from surfing long enough to at least read the headline?
The answer is, the SUBJECT of your headline. Brainstorming, we come up with these words for "subject": auto repair, auto mechanic, garage, tune-ups.
- What will get and keep your prospect's attention on the Web page?
The answer would be, something about the PROBLEM they face in regard to the subject you are writing about.
Brainstorming, we come up with these words to describe the problem: rip off, overpaying, being played for a sucker.
- What will set an expectation so the prospect wants to read more?
The answer is, something about the SOLUTION you provide in your ebook.
We brainstorm these words to describe the solution you'll be providing in the ebook: prevent, stop, you'll be better informed, protect yourself.
Take all of these, pick the best words, and put them into a headline. Like this:
Prevent Auto Mechanic Rip-Offs!
Anyone who's ever been ripped off at a garage will want to read more!
3 QUICKIE FORMULAS!
It's important to go through the three steps to make sure you're focused on a headline that will interest your prospect as much as it interests you. Remember, the headline has to do a lot of work in very few words.
The headline we just came up with - Prevent Auto Mechanic Rip-Offs! - does THREE jobs (stop the prospect from surfing, rivet attention, and set expectation) in only FOUR words!
But to make writing headlines a little easier for you, after you've done the three steps, here are three fill-in-the-blank formulas, each of which will work to sell just about any information product online:
- How To _______
- Why Some People ______
- The Secret of ______
Let's try these out for our hypothetical auto repair consumer protection book.
- How to Prevent Auto Mechanic Rip-Offs?
- Why Some People Never Get Ripped Off by Auto Mechanics?
- The Secret of Preventing Auto-Mechanic Rip-Offs!
Wow! Any of these will work just fine! (And if you happen to be writing a book on this exact subject - hey, they're yours, with my compliments! :)
So, to wrap this up: Most professional copywriters spend hours - sometimes days - coming up with a killer headline. I've just shown you how to come up with one every bit as good as what a pro will come up with - and it shouldn't take you more than half an hour!
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