You can write a headline in an infinite number of ways. However, certain types of headlines have proven themselves repeatedly for many years. By following the “formula” of these headlines, you can give yourself an edge when you are serious about persuading someone to read and respond to your copy.
The following 9 headline formulas are some of the easiest to write and the most powerful. When it comes time to write a headline, try one of these first. At the very least, this can give you a creative jumping off point to write a headline that works.
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You’ve been working on your blog and need a break. So you kiss your spouse and head out the door for a walk.
But your child’s voice stops you cold.
“Are you bringing home the toy you promised?”
You feign ignorance. “Toy? What toy?”
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Most people who want to succeed as a blogger do everything they can to increase traffic and build a community. That includes creating solid content, using carefully selected key words, implementing sound SEO, encouraging incoming links, and any other trick in the book that works.
But when it comes to e-mail, too often bloggers just shrug their shoulders. “What does e-mail have to do with my blog?”
A lot.
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Getting people to say “yes” is the goal for any sales message. It’s what psychologists call “compliance.”
However, my first exposure to the idea of compliance was not in a psychology book, but beneath a tree decades ago when my grandfather, in a moment of playfulness, showed me something startling with a stick and a few red feathers.
One day, he handed me a long stick with a clump of red feathers taped to the end and said he wanted to show me something. He had a familiar, mischievous look in his eye, so I knew it would be fun.
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Let me tell you two stories.
For the first, we go back to Syracuse, Sicily, in the third century B.C.
Archimedes, a Greek mathematician, physicist, and inventor, was called before the throne to solve a difficult problem. The king had ordered a pure gold crown from the local goldsmith. But when the crown arrived, the king suspected the goldsmith of keeping some of the gold and replacing it with silver. The king asked Archimedes to help him prove it.
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There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of writing guides out there. But in my opinion, none surpass the simple, direct advice of The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B.White.
This classic serves up much good advice, especially in the last 20 pages in a section titled “An Approach to Style.” Nowhere have I seen more helpful advice in so few words and with such precision. This is why I always keep this book within reach.
If (for shame) you don’t already have this reference in your library, I will leave it to you to explore it in depth. But I would like to provide my own version of eight important writing tips as they apply to blogging.
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