My Other 6 Headlines

Recently I wrote a blog post talking about 4 out of the 10  types of headlines I use when writing my email copy, sales copy or any time I need a really good headline.

People loved that blog post, and wanted to know what the  other six were. So here they are:

Instant Gratification

This is BY FAR, my go to headline. Give people a quick  solution to a desperate problem, and often times that’s all you need.

The simple formula is “How to do [a specific solution they desire] in [a very specific time frame]…”

For example:

“How to write a 400 word article in 7 minutes or less, including proof reading and research” for my 7 minute article product.

Or…

“How to write near world class copy in 3 hours or less” for my copywriting success shorcut system.

Or…

How to fin a profitable niche… create a 24.7% converting squeeze page… a magic solution product… and 1% sales copy… all in one sitting” for the niche invasion system product I did with Lance Tamashiro.

5 times out of 7, this is the first headline I go to, and when in doubt, this is the one I fall back on.

Dramatic Demonstration Of Proof

Once for an email, I wrote a headline that said “Me and this guy created 72 products in 2008″ to promote Product University.

Another time I created a headline that said “I bet with $100 of my own money I can show you how to create a product in 48 hours or less” for my 48 hour report product. This time I combined instant gratification with proof.

One of the best examples I saw was a headline that I believe Gary Halbert created for Robert Allen that said “Drop me off in any US city, only give me money for food, and in 72 I’ll buy you a prime piece of real estate with no money down”.

Another example: Claude Hopkins one time wrote a headline that said “These 7 questions about yeast were asked 683 times” or something to that effect (going by memory here).

The most famous example was by one of the greatest advertisers of all time, David Olgilvy, who said “At 60 miles an hour, the loudest sound you here is the ticking of the clock…”.

If you have a dramatic way of demonstrating your claims, you should consider using that in a headline.

The Story

To tell a story, you only need three things… a character (or characters), where they were at, and where they’re at now. That’s it. Watch how you can transform this into a headline…

How A Former Chicago Bears Cheerleader Partnered With Two Young Nerds Who Did $160,000 In The Last 3 Months To Share
With You… The Ultimate FREE One Day Workshop On Invading & Dominating ANY Niche In 7 Days Or Less!

It’s a headline I created for a workshop I’m doing in Orlando at the end of the month with Robert Plank & Mary Wilhite.

I got this from John Carlton, who once wrote a headline that said:

Crippled Golfer Stuns L.A. Open Crowd By Crawling From Death Bed To Beat 110 Pro Golfers With a 67 (Using A Short Backswing) And Qualify For The Last Spot In The Famous 2002 Tournament!

One time in a copywriting class, I came up with a headline for one of my students, Elisabeth Kuhn, which said:

“Former Breast Cancer Survivor Stranded Over Seas Was Forced To Discover Simple But Effective Cures For Stress”.

In each of those example, you notice there is a character (former bears cheerleader, crippled golfer, breast cancer survivor), where they were at (on death bed, stranded over seas, “did 160k in last 3 months) and where they are at now (qualify for the last spot in us open, stress relief master, holding an amazing free workshop).

Simple stuff.

Predicting The Future

We all love to speculate in the future. Sometimes those make the greatest headlines.

Here are some great examples:

“What the wolverine leak means for the future of piracy…”

“8 ways the future of gaming is being reinvented”

“Imagine pinpoints brain regions that ’see the future’

“10 skills developers will need in the next 5 years”

“Are paperless receipts the future in Retail?”

Offer

If you have an unbelievable offer, you should put it in the headline. I did that in the above “former chicago bears cheerleader” example, when I combined the story with the offer.

Here’s another example: “Why two sick bastards are offering 43 of their own personal tools for only $7″. I created this for an offer at twosickbastards.com.

We liked it so much we did it again at themrrclub.com when I came up with the headline “Master Resale Rights, Private Label Rights & More To 81 Products For Only $7″.

Combo

The last technique I use is a bit anti-climatic because I’ve already demonstrated it to you – combining these different techniques together. Once you have chosen one angle to work for a headline, why not add in a second? For example, after I wrote “how to write an article in 7 minutes or less including proof reading and research” I immediately followed it up with a “proof” subhead. I combine story with incongruent juxtaposition all the time. Etc.

So, quick recap on the ten types of headliens to use:

1. Anger
2. Challenging conventional wisdom
3. promise of little known information
4. incongruent juxtaposition
5. instant gratifcation
6. proof
7. Story
8. Predicting the future
9. Offer
10. Combination of the above

There you have it. Once you master these ten types of headlines, you’ll never want for another headline again.

Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

-Jason