It’s a Twitterized world, we’re just living in it.

Blog posts, Tweets, quick videos, Google+, the Facebook Timeline, and tens of thousands of images pinned to digital boards are flying past us faster than we can read them.

Faster than we can even scan them, depending on the time of day.

What does this mean for writers trying to cut through it all? At least two things that I can think of:

1. You’d better know how to write a compelling headline
2. You’d better know how to write bullet points that grab (and keep) your reader

We’re not telling you to keep your copy short. We’re telling you to keep your copy readable.

Why bullet points? Like it or not, they keep people reading your blog posts, pages, articles, and copy like nothing else…

But lame bullet points won’t take you where you want to go. So let’s take a quick look at how to get this done, and get it done well:

The basics of writing bullet points that work

The essence of a great bullet is brevity + promise.

Brevity has been a hallmark of good writing since writing began, but every one of us living in the Twitter Age possesses an acute awareness of just how important brevity is right now.

Long, complex bullet points would defeat the purpose of writing bullets at all — to keep your reader moving through your copy.

Promise is the element that hooks your reader like a fish. You’re making a plain and legitimate claim that your product/idea/service will give them what they’ve been looking for.

Goes without saying (but of course I’m going to say it anyway), you absolutely must deliver on the promise you make. There are probably faster ways of ruining your credibility and career, but not giving your reader what you promised is definitely in the top three.

Brian Clark wrote the definitive “Bullet Points 101″ post more than five years ago. Go ahead and read that through at your earliest convenience.

Seriously, here’s that link again — click it and read that post about 10 times.

And, since I’d rather straight up steal from Clark than try to outwrite him, here’s his summary of what an effective bullet point is and does:

1. A bullet expresses a clear benefit and promise to the reader. That’s right… they’re mini-headlines. Bullets encourage the scanning reader to go back into the real meat of your content, or go forward with your call to action.
2. Keep your bullet points symmetrical if possible; meaning, one line each, two lines each, etc. It’s easier on the eyes and therefore easier on the reader.
3. Avoid bullet clutter at all costs. Do not get into a detailed outline jumble of subtitles, bullets and sub-bullets. Bullets are designed for clarity, not confusion.
4. Practice parallelism. Keep your bullet groups thematically related, begin each bullet with the same part of speech, and maintain the same grammatical form.
5. Remember that bullets (like headlines) are not necessarily sentences. If you want to write complete sentences, stick with a paragraph or a numbered list.

Now that we’re standing on a firm foundation, let’s move into how to actually write these bullets …

8 ways to write bullet points that work

You might have seen bloggers complain about the proliferation of list posts and “27 Ways to …” articles.

The thing is, the elitists don’t know what they’re talking about. Again, in this fast, short, and constantly evolving digital world, she who makes sense first, wins.

And one of the best ways to make sense of an idea — especially online — is not to dumb it down, it’s to break it up into digestible chunks.

Bullet points can be a great way to do that — but don’t just rely on the stale, simplistic bullet point types you’re using now. Expand your range and add these fascinating bullet point types.

1. External Fascinations: These types of fascinating bullet points are usually found in sales copy. They create curiosity and work like headlines to prompt a purchase or other action.
2. Internal Fascinations: Internal fascinations are pretty much identical to external, except they’re designed to persuade people to continue reading the post they’re already reading.
3. Bullet Chunking: Extracting bullets out of compound sentences helps you drive home a point while also increasing the usability of your content.
4. Authority Bullets: Authority bullets are used to recite the data and proof that support your argument. As with all persuasive writing, turn dry factual information into interesting reading any time you can.
5. Cliffhanger Bullets: Cliffhanger bullets tease and foreshadow what’s coming up next or in the near future. You can also use cliffhanger bullets to lay the groundwork for an upcoming promotion, launch, or special content event.

If you want to know more specifics about how to write those (including examples), check out this classic Copyblogger post on useful bullet point types.

And — as a little bonus — our pal Ben Settle expanded on Brian’s post with a few more bullet types of his own.

Here’s a few of Ben’s favorite bullet point secrets:

6. Give-Away Bullets: These are sort of like the lady who hands out cheese cubes at the grocery store. She gives people a little “taste” of food that keeps them alert and shopping — and many times they end up with the thing they tasted in the shopping cart.
7. Expansion Bullets: These bullets break up the “sameness” of the page (when you have several pages of bullets), and they add more tease, demonstration and curiosity. Plus, they give a nice little “loop” effect to your ad that keeps sucking the reader back in.
8. “Can’t Be Done” Bullets: Basically, this is where you say something that is almost unbelievable. Something 100% true, but that is so wacky and “out there” it makes you say, “How in the heck can you do that?”

Congratulations, you now know more about bullet points than most working writers.

And here’s the simplest shortcut to jump start you in the art of the bullet …

A simple shortcut to writing bullet points that work

Craft each bullet as if it were to serve as your your headline.

The goal here is to achieve, uh, headlineability with each bullet.

You probably won’t quite achieve headline perfection with each and every bullet, but if you stick to this principle generally, writing bullets gets much easier.

And, more important, those beautiful little bulleted lines will keep your readers running down your page like water on a slide…

Want the whole enchilada?

These Quick Copy Tips are meant to get you started on (and thinking about) very specific copywriting principles and tactics.

If you want the entire picture of the “Copyblogger Philosophy” — including strategic teaching on content marketing, email marketing, social media, and more — go ahead and sign up for our free Internet Marketing for Smart People course.

Do you love bullet points or loathe them? What’s your favorite way to use them in your content? Let us know in the comments …

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.

Freelance writers make lots of mistakes, especially when they’re starting out online.

Mistakes are useful. They’re fertilizer for entrepreneurial growth. They keep you learning and moving forward.

However, if you fail to make the right mistakes — and to learn from them — you may as well just keep your writing as a weekend hobby.

You want to make the mistakes that teach you how to build a better writing business or show you things you only learned because you were reaching.

What’s one of the biggest mistakes a freelance writer can make?

Let’s find out …

Do not ignore your most important client

One of the biggest mistakes a freelance writer can make — and one most writers constantly fall into — is ignoring their most important client.

Oh sure, most writers take care of the person they think is their best client. The client who pays them the most per word and gives them the most notice between projects, or the most glowing referrals.

And you might be right. That might be your best client, but it isn’t your most important. Not by a long shot.

Your most important client is the one who will stay with you forever. The client who will help ensure you make more each year than you did the year before. Your most important client will help you do all of that, but only if you promise to never ignore them.

Who is your best client?

Your best client is you.

And are you taking care of yourself? Do you make sure your needs are met?

Do you set aside at least an hour every day to tend your projects and build your assets — the same assets that will accumulate over time and help you build streams of steady, passive income?

Probably not, most working writers don’t.

It’s bad enough when you’re freelancing, tearing through so many hours that you don’t have the time to write for your muse or build your assets, whether that means publishing fiction to Kindle or creating eCourses you can sell to your list.

But at least busy freelancers are paying the bills.

They’re growing their businesses and building their reputations.

While busy freelancers who spend all their time cranking out copy are ignoring their permanent assets, at least they have an excuse.

They’re working hard.

A case study in “working hard”

I used to run a small chain of flower shops in Long Beach, California.

There were often times when I felt I had to do everything myself, from stripping roses to answering phones, even sweeping up the shop.

But if I wasn’t booking a wedding, negotiating a better price for international roses, or helping a hapless husband build the perfect bouquet for his beautiful wife, I was costing myself and the business money.

Of course I’d learned all this before I started my writing career. Yet for some reason it took me a couple of years to figure out that the same principles held true online.

For the first year, I couldn’t justify the expense in my head.

My writing business wasn’t generating enough money to outsource, or so I thought. I quickly fell into the same trap I’d fallen into many years before in the flower business.

One excuse followed another until I finally realized that the more I wrote for myself, the more I could ultimately make in the long run.

Yet, that would never happen if I spent all my time inside my WordPress dashboard instead of building my future.

There is never any good reason to spend needless minutes mired in menial tasks that keep you busy and fenced from your future, drowning in tedium and leaving you with a finished product that probably isn’t as good as what you could have paid for.

Do any of the tasks below look familiar?

Are you needlessly spending time on any (or all) of these, because you think you should?

• Coding your website
• Audio or video transcription
• Blog design
• Accounting
• Cover art design
• Editing

You might be decent at accomplishing the items on that list.

But if you’re a writer, none are your specialty.

By outsourcing that kind of work and paying a specialist a reasonable rate, you will be buying yourself more time for the work you can charge top dollar for.

Outsourcing also gives you time to write and create the bigger assets that will make you money over time, rather than just once.

Top-notch content for your own site. Superb client education material. The kind of great marketing you create for your clients, but never write for your own business.

To truly grow as a writer, you must be willing to hand off any menial tasks that strip your time away from what you’re best at –- writing.

The less you write, the further you’ll be from realizing your goals and dreams.

It’s time to work smart

You must be willing to eliminate from your workday any mindless tasks that cannot make you money or help you grow your business.

Every task you keep for yourself is adding distance between yourself, your passion, and the true future you could be building around your writing career.

Outsourcing travels in every direction.

When you write copy for a client who doesn’t want to do it themselves, they are outsourcing their work to you. For you, writing is easy. For them, it isn’t.

Some of the things you don’t want to do, aren’t especially good at, or take you far too long, are tasks other people are exceptional at and enjoy doing: coding, WordPress development, blog design, research, and all the other stuff your writing business needs to grow.

Let others handle the heavy lifting of your business so you can spend your time writing a better tomorrow for yourself instead.

Don’t spend your time sweeping the floor with your future.

About the Author: Sean Platt is a content marketer and cofounder of outstandingSETUP. Get his free report 9 Website Building Mistakes You Should Avoid.

This simple word of advice makes good copywriters legendary.

With it, you’re going to increase sales. Without it, you’re finished.

It’s deceptively plain, and easily ignored.

We already know if nobody makes it past your headline, nobody reads your content or sales page. This makes the headline the most important element of your persuasive copy.

What’s the 2nd most important element?

You’ve already read it …

The first sentence

Every ad, article, sales page, or blog post you write must begin with one hell of an opening sentence.

That sentence must speak directly to the needs and desires of your audience and your content must deliver on its promise.

Journalists call it the lede, the first sentence (or paragraph) is meant to bring the reader into the piece, to make it irresistible, to get the article read.

Joe Sugarman teaches that the first sentence of your copy should be short. So short, and so compelling, that it’s almost easier to read than not.

I am definitely in the brevity school, but each project calls for its own thoughtful assessment.

What sticks, and why?

What are the most quoted passages in fiction? It’s almost always the first sentence of the book …

It was a pleasure to burn.
~ Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
~ William Gibson, Neuromancer

Lolita. Light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.
~ Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

Where now? Who now? When now?
~ Samuel Beckett, The Unnamable

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold.
~ Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

These lines are immortal, because they are (arguably, in the context of their respective stories) great lines.

But they are also unforgettable because they are … first lines. Why? Is it the way we’re built? Is it the way we remember? I don’t know, and I don’t really care.

It doesn’t matter why, as long as you recognize that it’s true.

The first sentence of your copy should be unforgettably relevant, useful, truthful, and tempting, because the first line is usually what sticks in the mind of the reader — for better or worse.

But that’s not the most important function of the first sentence …

What’s the point?

This isn’t about being tricky, deceptive, or even creative.

Like all great copywriting (and storytelling), the only goal of the first sentence is to make the reader want to read the second sentence.

And the second sentence should effortlessly lead the reader to the third. And so on.

So much of what we do depends on the single line.

And in the case of the first sentence… if you lose your reader there, you lose everything.

What are some of the best first sentences you’ve seen around lately?

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.

As you may have seen on Tuesday, we were disappointed to see that there were no copywriting blogs in last year’s Top 10 Blogs for Writers.

We think persuasive writers — content marketers and copywriters — are as worthy of cheers and accolades as our fiction-writing brothers and sisters.

So today I put together a list of 15 writing blogs I think you’ll get a lot out of.

I got lots of great suggestions for blogs to check out (thank you all), and it was tough to narrow them down to a manageable few.

When winnowing down the list, I had a few rough criteria.

First, writing advice had to be a key element of the blog.

There are hundreds of terrific social media and business blogs, and they’re wonderful resources, but we wanted to focus on sites that would make you a better writer.

I defined better writer in two ways — either as “a writer who ethically and effectively convinces customers to buy more stuff” or “a writer who’s landing more and better clients.”

We also didn’t include the big “name brand” sites — we wanted to focus on some smaller sites you might not have seen yet. Not surprisingly, we’ve got a good sample of Copyblogger guest writers here, but also plenty of folks you haven’t seen here. (Not yet, anyway).

By the way, when you click through, notice how most of these blogs make great use of their tag lines to tell you exactly how they can help solve a specific problem. Smart copywriters.

BenSettle.com
Ben Settle
If you’ve heard Ben speak on our radio show or you’ve read his Copyblogger posts, you know he isn’t wishy-washy. He likes to sell, and he likes to make money. He uses email marketing to do those things, and he has a lot of strong, sharp advice for email marketers. If you’re still nervous about selling, reading Ben Settle might freak you out. Which may be a good and useful thing for you.

Copylicious
Kelly Parkinson
A January post makes us optimistic that Kelly will start writing actively again for this smart, funny writing blog. From her bio: “ … this is not really about copy. This is about improving your whole business.” We couldn’t agree more.

Direct Creative
Dean Rieck
Dean has been one of our most popular guest writers here on Copyblogger, because he knows his stuff. His blog delivers no-nonsense tips and advice on how to improve your direct response copy. If you want to improve your persuasive writing chops, Dean’s site is a must-read.

The Domino Project
Seth Godin
This is a small blog around Seth’s Domino Project, a digital publishing experiment. Seth’s published articles here about digital publishing, ebooks, and how they affect writers and publishing. If you’ve considered publishing a book in this century, you should probably take a look at this site.

Ghostwriter Dad
Sean Platt
Sean has gone from a sweet, enthusiastic fledgling ghostwriter to a sweet, enthusiastic, and really, really successful marketing writer (as well as launching a thriving fiction series. He’s a busy dude). He’s publishing lots of great advice about how he made that journey, and how you can, too.

Good Copy, Bad Copy
Clare Lynch and David Pollack
A charming blog about “good business writing and bad. Especially the bad. Because there’s so much more of the bad.” If you ever help corporate clients communicate with their customers, you need this blog.

Harrison Amy Copywriting
Amy Harrison
Amy doles out copywriting advice for professional writers and businesspeople alike. She has some nice resources on the site, including a good guide on getting your sales page done if you aren’t a professional writer. (Or maybe even if you are.)

Jeff Sexton Writes
Jeff Sexton
If you want to get really good as a copywriter, you have to read Jeff Sexton. He’s not afraid to dive into the thorny, complicated tangle of what makes for truly effective copywriting. Jeff’s a pro, and he writes for pros. This is a great site.

Make a Living Writing
Carol Tice
The name of Carol’s blog says it all — she keeps a tight focus on professional writers and how they can make a better living. Her blog’s got writing tips, business, and marketing advice.

Men with Pens
James Chartrand
The times certainly have changed. For example, now there are actual men writing for Men with Pens. What hasn’t changed is a site that mixes business and writing advice for content marketers, pulled together by James Chartrand’s no-nonsense approach to online marketing.

Success Works
Heather Lloyd-Martin
Heather’s bio describes her as “split between watching the search engines dance and pinpointing the exact direct response copywriting strategies that make people buy.” That dual focus shows up consistently in sharp, well-written articles and videos by her and her team about the art and science of SEO copywriting.

The Rant
John Carlton
The name of the blog gives you fair warning — John Carlton does enjoy the sight of his own voice. But he’s also an excellent copywriter and a terrific copywriting teacher. Look to the “Must Read” and “Popular Posts” sidebars for some classic writing advice, given with a healthy dose of … well, ranting.

RicardoBueno.com
Ricardo Bueno
Ricardo specializes in content marketing for real estate professionals, and he’s got lots of resources for using blogs, social media, and content to create effective marketing for that market. I love this example of a content marketer working within a well-defined niche. (If you’re a writer struggling to stand out, think about the niche you could be serving.)

The Well-Fed Writer Blog
Peter Bowerman
Peter’s written some great books on going from being a starving writer to a well-fed one, and his blog continues that tradition with savvy business advice for professional copywriters. No writing advice here — it’s all about how to build your copywriting business, not your writing chops.

Words That Begin With You
Justin Lambert
Justin combines copywriting insights with content marketing advice, wrapped up in a strong writing voice. We like that! Lots of good articles here on becoming a better content marketer.

And one bonus

This isn’t an active blog, but it’s a wonderful resource that no content marketer or copywriter should overlook … Gary Bencivenga’s wonderful Marketing Bullets.

Gary’s one of the most successful copywriters in the history of the business, and he has a lot of simple (but not always easy) advice about mastering the craft of persuasive writing. We’re big Bencivenga fans and we think you will be, too. I have all of these printed out in a binder, and I refer back to them often.

No, this isn’t a complete list!

This is obviously a very partial list of the best copywriting and content marketing blogs out there — what are your must-reads?

We collected some from you in our post on Tuesday, but if we missed your favorite today, let us know in the comments.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Share your favorite writing resources with her on twitter.

Want to discover the smartest ways to mix social media, content marketing, and SEO for lead generation and converting those leads to customers and clients?

We’ve got you covered with Internet Marketing for Smart People. And there’s absolutely no charge.

This 20-installment email course and newsletter delivers the techniques and strategies you need to know when marketing online.

Find out more and sign up for free here.

Copywriters love to tell clients they can create compelling copy.

Few of them ever mention whom they think they’re compelling.

That’s because too few of them have ever given it the thought it deserves.

One of the first rules of copywriting is to know your audience, and many copywriters are fairly skilled at creating copy designed to appeal to, say, a 60-year-old female retiree who’s confused about her insurance options.

The problem is that that’s not how Dorothea in Florida thinks of herself.

If Dorothea doesn’t identify with that picture, what makes you think you’re actually writing to her?

Who does Dorothea say she is?

Dorothea in Florida thinks of herself as a mother to two children, and widow to a husband who recently passed away from a heart attack.

Dorothea used to be a saleswoman and retired when she was fifty, because every company she applied for wanted someone younger.

Dorothea is a poker player and a mystery-novel lover. Dorothea is a damn good cook. Dorothea is a busybody and a know-it-all.

Dorothea has never once in her life thought of herself as a 60-year-old female retiree who is confused about her insurance options.

So copy that was written for that theoretical person doesn’t appeal to Dorothea. It doesn’t appeal to her three closest friends either –- you know, the ones she plays poker with on Thursdays.

And when her eldest son reads the copy, it doesn’t sound like his mother. In fact, even though he thinks she could use the service, he doesn’t send it to her because he doesn’t want her to think that’s his image of her.

She’d be hurt. Or insulted.

Same goes for her doctor, her neighbors, and her book club. No one thinks that copy sounds like Dorothea — because it doesn’t.

It sounds like it would appeal to someone who doesn’t exist.

You need to write for Dorothea

The next time you’re writing, don’t write for a demographic.

Those people don’t exist. The real readers — the ones you want to persuade — won’t recognize themselves in a collection of demographic traits.

Instead, write for Dorothea.

Or write for a teenager named Harper who thinks her parents are ridiculous because they need her help with the computer and they don’t understand anything about Twilight.

Write for Mike, who’s just out of college and has about $10,000 in credit card debt that he hasn’t told his parents about (and hopes he’ll never have to tell them).

Write for Arnold, who’s just getting used to an empty nest after his kids left for college and is wondering what he should do with his hobby business, now that he has all this extra time on his hands.

Give yourself a real person to write for.

Appeal directly to that person. Know all their foibles, their worries, their problems – and explain how this product or service fixes one of them.

The person you’ve imagined in your head doesn’t exist either, of course. But writing for a human being instead of a demographic lets you think and write in new ways.

What this way of writing gets you

With that person’s image in your mind, you’ll be warmer and less robotic.

You’ll be less generic, more personal.

You’ll draw the reader in on a personal level.

You’ll be compelling because you know who your reader really is, what that person is worried about, and why this matters to them. You’ll be compelling because you’ll be focused on how you can help a person, not focused on how you can sell a product. And your reader will sense it.

You’ll be compelling because getting this right will genuinely benefit this human being in front of you.

If you think your readers can’t tell the difference, you’re dead wrong.

Just ask Dorothea.

About the Author: For more compelling writing tips, get on the Damn Fine Words mailing list at http://www.damnfinewords.com. Owned and operated by James Chartrand of Men with Pens, you’ll get weekly tips on writing, content creation and getting results from your words.

Today, how to choose the power words that make headlines work harder.

Okay, show of hands.

Who wonders if their writing might be just a teensy bit boring?

No, you’re not as boring as your high school math teacher (let’s face it, that lady could put an amphetamine addict to sleep.) But you do go off on tangents on occasion, and you have a tendency to get so wrapped up in giving people valuable information that you forget to make it fun.

And so you get ignored.

Not because your content sucks, not because you stink at SEO, not because the universe hates you and gleefully ruins everything you do.

But because we live in an ADD world, and if you don’t grab people, they pass you by, bebopping onto the next shiny, noisy spectacle and forgetting about you forever.

It’s a shame, really. The world shouldn’t be this way.

But it is.

So, smart writers adapt. Smart writers learn how to command attention. Smart writers create spectacles of their own, hypnotizing readers with words so interesting they can’t click away.

Let’s talk about how.

Not all words are created equal

There’s this great scene in the movie Analyze This where the FBI asks Billy Crystal’s character, who is a psychotherapist treating a mob boss, if his patient has mentioned anything about an upcoming bloodbath.

He tells them no, and when they ask if he’s sure, he says,

“Yes, I’m sure. A word like ‘bloodbath’ really stands out in a conversation.”

And it’s true. It does stand out.

In fact, if you think about it, there are a lot of words that pop out at us and grab our attention. “Sex” is one of them. “Lies” is another. The word “taxes” may very well send your blood pressure sky high.

Why?

To use a term from neurolinguistic programming, some words have strong emotional “anchors.” We associate them with a certain emotion, and anytime we hear those words, we feel that emotion again. It’s essentially the same effect as Pavlov’s dogs salivating when they heard the bell.

Like it or not, each of us are programmed the same way. If you hear the word “sex,” you probably can’t help feeling a spark of lust (especially if you’re a teenager). And if you hear the word “lies,” you probably experience just a touch of anger.

Either way, these types of words are hard to ignore, and so the smart approach — “smart” is another power word, by the way — is to deliberately use them in your writing.

And the best place to put them is in your headlines.

You only have half a second to grab their attention

You’ve probably heard you only have seven seconds to grab the reader’s attention.

That might have been true once upon a time, but it’s not anymore.

According to my own informal research, it’s closer to half a second. The majority of readers decide whether or not your content is worth reading based purely on the headline.

And it’s not even a conscious decision.

They don’t read the headline two or three times, considering the content and deciding whether or not it’s relevant to them. They scan it, subconsciously glossing over the words and making a gut-level reaction.

So, if you want them to read your content, you have to punch them in the gut.

Because of the half-second rule, you don’t have time to educate them, get them to think, or even help them create a new connection.

All you have time to do is trigger an anchor that’s already in place.

Here’s how:

Stuff your headlines with power words

I don’t know if you noticed, but the headline for this post has four power words in it.

Sex, lies, commanding, and attention are all words with strong emotional anchors.

The same goes for many other popular posts here at Copyblogger. For instance, take a look at these headlines, where I’ve marked power words with an asterisk (*):

• 11 Smart* Tips to Brilliant* Writing: “Smart” evokes feelings of either pride or shame, and everybody wants to be “brilliant.”
• The Most Dangerous* Threat* to Your Online Marketing Efforts: Anytime we hear “dangerous,” we immediately go on red alert. The same goes for “threat,” and by pairing the two, the fear factor is magnified.
• On Dying*, Mothers*, and Fighting* for Your Ideas: “Dying” is scary, everyone either loves or hates their “mothers,” and “fighting” gets your adrenaline pumping.
• Why James Chartrand Wears Women’s Underpants*: anything about underwear is fascinating, and the fact that it’s “women’s underpants” paired with a man’s name sends the fascination level through the roof.
• Five Grammatical Errors* That Make You Look Dumb*: A word like “error” makes you nervous, and nobody likes to be called “dumb.”
• 5 Crippling* Beliefs That Keep Writers Penniless* and Mired* in Mediocrity*: “Crippling” has both a strong fear and disgust factor, as does “penniless.” “Mired” evokes frustration, and nobody wants to be “mediocre.”

See what I’m talking about?

Now, take a look at those same headlines with the power words stripped out

• 11 Tips for Better Writing
• Don’t Do This with Your Online Marketing
• My Life Story, and Why I Care so Much about Writing
• Why a Woman Changed Her Name to Make Everyone Think She Was a Man
• Five Grammar Tips Everyone Needs to Learn
• 5 Beliefs That Make It Harder to Write

Nowhere near as compelling right?

In fact, I would even predict these posts wouldn’t have become popular without the power words that drive them. Or at least not nearly as popular.

The same is true for your headlines.

Go back and read the last few headlines you published, and ask yourself if they seem a little lackluster. If they do, try stuffing them with a few power words and see what happens.

My prediction:

You’ll be stunned at the difference.

The ultimate formula for writing great headlines

Of course, power words aren’t everything.

If you really want a great headline, you need to combine them with a strong structure (like one of the proven headline models I gave you in Headline Hacks), as well as write about a topic that keeps your audience awake at night.

The equation goes something like this:

Proven Headline Structure + Important Topic + Power Words = Great Headline

For instance, the headline for this post uses “The Art of [Blank]” template. For the topic, I chose commanding attention, a topic many a marketer tosses and turns over. For the power words, I began with “The Art of Commanding Attention” and then expanded the headline slightly to “Sex, Lies, and the Art of Commanding Attention.”

Is it a great headline?

Well, it depends on your standards. I’ve written better, but it’s pretty good. Better than most.

And most of the time, that’s good enough. Using the above formula, you can write a good headline maybe in minutes, certainly in less than an hour.

If you’re busy (and who isn’t?), that’s important. You probably don’t have time to invent everything yourself, and so you need a system to make sure you’re hitting the key elements.

This is that system.

So give it a shot.

Write some great headlines.

Get yourself some traffic.

And if you need some more help, don’t forget about the free live headline clinic today at 4 PM Eastern, 1 PM Pacific. Sonia Simone and I will be there to help you create a killer headline for a blog post, sales letter, or special report, and we’d love to help you out. If you haven’t registered yet, you can still sign up here.

Look forward to seeing you later today!

About the Author: In addition to serving as Associate Editor of Copyblogger, Jon Morrow is on a mission to help good writers get traffic they deserve. If you’re one of them, check out his upcoming blog about (surprise!) blogging.

Over the last three years, I’ve quietly been sleeping with Copyblogger readers.

Not just once, but hundreds or possibly thousands of times.

I’ve slept with women. I’ve slept with men.

Young or old, successful or inexperienced, I’ve gone to bed with them all, often more than one per day.

And you know what?

I’m totally unashamed. In fact, I want to go on record and publicly encourage you to sleep with your readers too.

Just let me clear one thing up:

I’m not talking about sex

Sorry to disappoint you.

Of course, it’s a metaphor, creating the illusion of scandal to get your attention. Tasteless, I know, but the truth is, I’m desperate.

Out of the millions of writers in the world, only a handful truly understand the lesson I’m about to teach you. Not because it’s particularly difficult or subtle, but because it’s boring, and so most writers ignore it.

Somehow, I needed a way to make it interesting, and so I used a cheap trick to grab your attention. Here’s why:

If you don’t understand this, you will never be a successful writer or marketer.

It doesn’t matter how hard you work or how much talent you have. Get this wrong, and it all goes to waste.

So what is it?

It’s about Life and Death

Imagine two women, lying in bed.

One can’t sleep because she is worried about her teenage daughter. It’s 2 AM, and she still hasn’t come home. Mom knows it’s probably just normal teenage rebelliousness, but she can’t stop the horrific images going through her head.

First she sees paramedics pulling the corpse of her daughter out of a car crash. Next comes a vision of her huddled in a back alley, sobbing and broken because she’s just been raped. After that, she sees her daughter in an orange jumpsuit, holding on to the bars of her prison cell, looking forlorn for doing God knows what.

It doesn’t matter if it’s all nonsense. That worried mother will toss and turn for hours, hoping for sleep, fighting against her fears, but losing because it just scares her too bad.

The second woman can’t sleep either, but it’s for a different reason.

Tomorrow, she is going back to work for the first time in twenty-two years. The mother of three kids, she is used to going to sleep every night at 10 PM, getting up at 5 AM the next morning to prepare lunches and clothes, and then spending the rest of the day chauffeuring kids hither and yon — the normal life for your average suburban housewife.

Secretly, she’s always wanted to work, but her children were just too important, so she shoved it away, locking it up safe in a corner of her heart, waiting for the day when her little chickies would grow up and leave the nest.

And at last, that day has come. Her oldest packed up and went off to college two months ago, and rather than mope around the house all day, she decided to start looking for a job.

Surprisingly, she found one, and she starts tomorrow. Anxious but also strangely excited, she lays in bed, thinking not about bosses or paperwork or the commute to the office, but about going into a restaurant and having a quiet lunch all by herself or buying a nice suit and it actually being clean for more than two days, not stained by snot or puke or jammy fingerprints.

For the first time in years, she feels independent, empowered, important. And while she wouldn’t trade her previous life for all the money in the world … she likes feeling this way.

So she tosses and turns. Knowing she should sleep, but unable to stop her mind from racing from one life change to another. All of them fresh, all of them exciting, all of them too sinfully delicious to drift off into Lala land.

Interesting, huh?

You probably didn’t realize it, but you just slept with two women

One couldn’t sleep because she was worried for her daughter, and the other couldn’t sleep because she was bursting with joy over her new life.

But you spent the entire night with both of them, listening, empathizing. Learning them from the inside out. And now you can talk to them more intimately than anybody in the whole wide world …

The secret to writing, marketing, or really, life in general

It’s all about knowing what keeps people awake at night.

You’ve probably heard you need to profile your prospect, see the story through the eyes of your reader, or do your best to listen to people. But how many of us actually do that?

We write down a few demographic facts about our prospects, or we read a few letters from our readers, or we spend a few minutes listening to a coworker, and we think we understand them.

But we don’t. To really understand people, you need to know what keeps them awake until 2 AM, tossing and turning and unable to sleep.

Maybe it’s a fear like your daughter getting raped or your house getting foreclosed on or your wife discovering you are cheating on her. Maybe it’s excitement from getting a new job or starting your own business or buying a new house.

There are an infinite number of reasons people stay awake

But everybody has them, and if you really want to influence readers, you need to know what those reasons are.

If you’re a writer or marketer, you also have to take a step further and know the common reason that keeps your audience up at night.

If your audience is politicians, it’s getting reelected. If your audience is parents, it’s their children. If your audience is bloggers, it’s their popularity or lack thereof (trust me, I have this one pegged).

How do you discover the common reason for your audience?

You sleep with them. Not in reality, of course, but metaphorically.

You spend so much time with them, listen so carefully, and analyze them so deeply that you know what would keep them awake and what wouldn’t.

And here’s the kicker:

Once you know, make a decision to talk about nothing else.

Why some content is popular and the rest gets ignored

Want a benchmark for predicting the popularity of your content?

Here you go:

If it’s about something that would keep your readers up until 2 AM, it has a shot at being popular. If it’s not, it doesn’t have a chance in hell.

And it all starts with your headline.

A couple of days ago, I gave you a collection of the most consistently popular structures for headlines in existence. Fill in the blank, and you’re good to go.

But that raises a pretty big question:

What goes in the blank?

The answer is anything that keeps your readers up until 2 AM.

Let’s take a look at the headlines for two of my most popular posts, and I’ll show you what I mean …

Example #1: 20 Warning Signs That Your Content Sucks

20 Warning Signs That Your Content Sucks

When I wrote this post, Copyblogger was still using Tweetmeme, and so its tweet count has been reset. But if I had to guess, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s received over 2,000 tweets, and been linked to by somewhere between 50 and 100 different blogs.

Why?

Because it’s like one of those dreams you have in high school where you realize you are wearing nothing but your underwear, and the whole class turns around and laughs at you.

Where teenagers are insecure about their bodies, bloggers are insecure about their writing.

Sure, they think it’s good, but what if it actually sucks?

What if that’s the reason they’re not getting any comments or links?

What if everyone who stops by their blog secretly thinks they’re a fool, but no one has the heart to tell them?

You can’t help but wonder when you’re publishing your best stuff but nobody is paying any attention. If your work is important enough to you, you might even lose some sleep over it.

So that’s why I wrote about it. I deliberately poked my finger in the wound to get their attention.

And it resonated with people on such a deep emotional level they couldn’t help talking about it.

Example #2: How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise, and Get Paid to Change the World

How to Quit Your Job, Move to Paradise, and Get Paid to Change the World

With 5,518 shares on Facebook and 2,365 tweets on Twitter, this is the most popular post I’ve ever written, and some folks are saying it’s their favorite post of 2011 … from any blog.

Why?

Because it’s about dreams.

Every blogger dreams of quitting their job and writing full-time. Every blogger dreams of moving to paradise and working from their laptop on the beach instead of a cubicle. Every blogger dreams of somehow, some way doing their own small part to change the world.

And I packed all three dreams into a single headline. It’s like taking pure Godiva chocolate, the world’s strongest espresso, and the finest scotch known to man, and combining them all into a single drink. The potency of it would damn near blow your head off.

Same thing happened here. People were so touched they burst into tears. One guy emailed to say he had been planning to commit suicide, and the post changed his mind.

It wasn’t my impeccable grammar that stopped him. It wasn’t my flawless spelling. It wasn’t even, I’m sorry to say, my devilish good looks.

And it wasn’t my dream.

It was his dreams

His dreams, seen through a lens that made them seem achievable. All I did was build that lens.

In the end, I think that’s our most important job. Not to inform, not to persuade, not even to entertain, but to construct lenses through which our readers can see their own dreams and nightmares more clearly.

And to do that, you have to sleep with them.

So put on your jammies.

Climb into bed.

Snuggle up close.

As they toss and turn, listen to what’s going through their mind.

And then write about nothing else.

About the Author: In addition to serving as Associate Editor of Copyblogger, Jon Morrow is on a mission to help good writers get traffic they deserve. If you’re one of them, check out his upcoming blog about (surprise!) blogging.

P.S.

Don’t forget to join us for this week’s live Headline Clinic! It’s tomorrow afternoon, and Sonia Simone and I want to take apart and rewrite your headline so it’s as amazing as it can possibly be. Here’s where you go to get all the details.

Today, sign up for our free headline clinic, coming later this week.

Do you ever have trouble with headlines? Most content marketers do, from time to time.

Well we have good news.

Continuing the theme of yesterday’s Headline Hacks announcement, Sonia Simone and I are getting together and holding a Copyblogger headline clinic.

That’s a webinar where we rewrite your headlines for blog posts, articles, and other content. No charge of course … it’s totally free and our way of saying thanks for being the best blog readers on the web.

Got a killer idea for a blog post but can’t think of the right headline?

We’ve got you covered.

Planning to release a free report next year but stuck on the title?

We can handle that too.

Feeling totally lost but strangely attracted to the idea of watching us rip apart other people’s content and put it back together again?

We can dig it. Come enjoy the show. (But Sonia did make me promise we’d be nice.) We’ll be on the line for two hours, and we’ll tackle as many headlines as we humanly can in that space of time.

How to attend the free headline clinic

The clinic will be held live via webinar.

What to do now: Register for the headline clinic here.

Where to show up: After you register, you’ll receive email (from our friend Chris Garrett) with a link to the webinar. Just click that link this coming Thursday at 4:00 PM Eastern. Don’t wait until Thursday to register or you may not get in.

When to show up: This Thursday, December 15, from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM Eastern (U.S.) Time

What to bring: A headline you want to make stronger. Or even a thin, vague, wispy idea for a headline. We’ll help you make it great.

There is absolutely nothing for sale. You don’t even have to believe in Christmas to attend. All you have to do is click here and register.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

About the Author: In addition to serving as Associate Editor of Copyblogger, Jon Morrow is on a mission to help good writers get traffic they deserve. If you’re one of them, check out his upcoming blog about (surprise!) blogging.

P.S.

If you’re looking for something to do until then, go read the announcement from yesterday and download Headline Hacks. It’s not required reading, exactly, but a lot of the stuff we are saying will make more sense.

P.P.S.

The clinics we’ve done at Copyblogger in the past have been insanely popular, and this one should be as well. So don’t forget to register. It’s a good idea to show up a few minutes early so you know you’ll get a spot.

If the webinar is maxed out, just wait a few minutes and try again. I know that sounds a little hypey, but we’ve seen it happen before, and people get really cranky disappointed when they can’t get in.

Up first, a stellar special report for immediate free download.

Some people say Merry Christmas.

Others say Happy Hanukkah.

Still others believe the holiday season is a massive conspiracy created by corporate America to part you with your money.

Whatever your orientation though, one thing is for certain:

You love free swag.

In past years, Copyblogger Media has been a little chintzy around the holidays, in my opinion. Sure, we’ve given you our regular — albeit awesome — daily content right up until Christmas. But we’ve never prepared an actual gift for you.

And that’s wrong. Because … well … we love you guys. And that’s not just the eggnog talking.

So this year, I begged indulgence to do something special. I asked if I could give away maybe the greatest report I’ve ever written, and Sonia agreed.

It’s 55 pages long.

There’s nothing for sale at the end.

You don’t even have to give me your email address to get it.

All you have to do is click here.

So what’s the free report about?

In short, it’s a cheat sheet for writing blog posts that go viral.

About two years ago, I developed it for internal use at Copyblogger, passing it to writers I was mentoring to help them with their posts. Later, I transformed it into a bonus for my Guest Blogging class, and it became even more popular than the class itself.

It’s not a book. It’s not even really a report. It’s a collection of some of the best headline templates ever written, along with a few examples and my thoughts on what makes them work.

What’s special about it, though, is how simple it is.

No, it’s not going to make you a successful writer all by itself, but it will increase your traffic, assuming you have anyone at all reading your work. It’s the closest thing to a magic bullet I could possibly give you.

And besides, it’s free. So go grab it:

Get the report at HeadlineHacks.com

Of course, you might wonder …

Won’t these headlines stop working once everyone starts using them?

And while it’s a common concern, it’s actually not something you need to worry about. Chances are that yes, you will start seeing them everywhere, but that’s like buying a Honda Civic, and then everywhere you go, you see Honda Civics.

There aren’t more of them. You just started paying attention to them.

Your readers, on the other hand, are oblivious. (Read this if you don’t believe me.)

Every publication in the world could start using them for every article, and it wouldn’t even register a blip on readers’ radar. Not because readers are blind, but because, while readers definitely respond to good ones, they don’t care about headlines.

If it works though, you will find yourself caring very much. Like some of my students, you might even decide to use nothing else but this template.

So give them a try.

It’s free … for now

Oh, and don’t forget to download the report itself. I’ll be leaving it up for free until Christmas day, but after that, I’ll require an email address to download it.

For now though, it’s totally free. There’s no benefit to me, unless you count making you fall madly in love with me for doubling your traffic.

This is about generosity. This is about saying thank you. This is about cutting through the BS and getting you some results.

Happy holidays to you and yours,

Your Friends at Copyblogger

About the Author: In addition to serving as Associate Editor of Copyblogger, Jon Morrow is on a mission to help good writers get traffic they deserve. If you’re one of them, check out his upcoming blog about (surprise!) blogging.

P.S.

If you want to write some really great headlines for your content in 2012, keep checking in to Copyblogger this week. I’ll be writing about headlines all week, and presenting a free webinar to help make your content much, much more successful next year. Stay tuned!