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Three methods to make Headlines:

Subject lines are used to get your prospects attention.
It doesn’t matter if you have great copy if they never OPEN the email or READ the first sentence. Grab them in with a catchy subject line… ….but CAUTION: Don’t use a totally random line that doesn’t relate to your story at all. If you say in an email subject line, “YOUR MOM JUST DIED” ….they will click it, but get very angry and turned off when you start saying, “Do you need new email marketing software??” Here’s three different ways to write good subject lines (pay particular attention to the last one): You can write however you want, but here’s some practices I personally use with success:

• The more like an editorial piece, the better (like a newspaper column)
• Keep the text width really small. 550 pixels-wide maximum.
• Use bolds or underlines if you would SPEAK something with emphasis.
• Use centering to exaggerate something.
• Use quotes from famous people that relate. Center and italicize them.
• Use bullets to show lists of interesting things.
• Max 2-3 sentences per paragraph to keep it reading fast.
• For page flips….say stuff like, “Ok, but that’s not the best part…..”
• Use P.S. and P.P.S. to summarize or make sure they take an action.

 

“Heard it off the street” Method

Step 1) Make a chart like this on a piece of paper:
Step 2) Under the “Something you heard” section, brainstorm some things that if you heard them passing someone on the sidewalk, you’d stop and go “Errrgghh!!??” Examples:

• I dropped $700 like 10 feet from here….
• My dog shat out a $100 bill today….
• I couldn’t believe my daughter made $300 from her phone today….
• My brother was bald but then his hair grew back…..

Step 3) Under the “What you’re selling” section, write what you’re selling. Example we’ll use: Selling an HTML5 programming course Step 4) Take the best lines, and pair them together:
Step 5) Combine them together to make mini-stories (watch the video for examples). Step 6) Use your new-found “catchy-mini-stories” as either subject lines or opener lines to get people’s attention.

Headline Formulas for you to use:

Sometimes you need a little “assistance” to get your brain juice going.  These formulas will jog your brain in the right direction:

[End result they want] + [Time period] + [Address the objections]

Examples: [How to make amazing tacos] + [In 10 minutes] + [For under 5 bucks]. [Make a landing page] + [By tonight] + [With zero experience]. [Increase walk-in traffic to your restaurant] + [This month] + [Without paying for advertising] But formulas can be BROKEN or SHIFTED!!  Let’s be bad little monkeys and change the formula to something like this:

[Take this action] + [Specific Time Period] + [End Result]

Examples: [Consult with me] + [For 1 hour] + [And I’ll improve your eCommerce site sales]   [Talk to just 3 of your customers] + [For 5 minutes] + [To laser-target your sales pitch] [Put this liquid in your fish tank] + [Wait 1 hour] + [And you’ll never have to clean it again]

Want to make a title that’s good for SEO?

If you’re doing a how-to kind of article, often a good ole’ descriptive title can be the simplest. These can also be the best for SEO purposes.   Allow me to demonstrate……by seeing how we can headline an article about cooking eggs   Step 1.) Go to Google Trends.  
Look for keywords that are getting more popular with time.  So we’ll check the popularity of  “How to cook an egg.”  You can see a nice little chart that’s increasing, so this is a pretty popular term:  Step 2.) Let’s enter some other words to compare.  
Let’s just add in some other close keywords.  I’ll add in “How to cook scrambled eggs”.   As you can see, our competitor word wasn’t AS popular (probably because it was more specific), but still a good up-trending term:   Step 3.) Find the hottest words.  
We then added the term “How to make eggs” which is only slightly different, but look at the MASSIVE amount of searches that term gets versus the others! You can’t even see the other search volume compared to how much this one gets! This would tell me that a great how-to article or video titled “How to make eggs” could potentially hit a huge audience based on search volume. Try it yourself on Google Trends.

Examples of headlines grabbing attention in different ways:

Found in a magazine.  There’s basically 3 main words that grab your attention.   Paired with the image of a ripped dude, you INSTANTLY get the ad is about fitness and losing flab:
  This is a silly example.   But if you were perusing car listings on Craigslist, you’d sure as hell notice this one!!   The craziness and entertainment value alone makes you want to read it:

Anatomy of a headline.  
A lesson to always remember:

The whole point of your headlines is to grab someone into the article or video.   They then start sliding down a “slippery slope” as Joseph Sugarman puts it.   I even made you a handy graphic to demonstrate what going down a “Slippery Slope” should look like.  

Remember this:

8 out of 10 people will read the headline.  "2 out of 10 people will read the copy.”  

The job of the headline is to suck people in, but ALSO to eliminate people who are the wrong readers! Think of your headline as the bouncer of your club. You don’t want to let EVERYONE in, only the people who match your style.

So you don’t want to spread your message too thin by trying to catch everyone, like this:

“How to cook eggs and scrambled them and also how to make a good yolk but also keep the egg whites intact and then how to make the egg taste good and also bread.”

 
Instead you want to make it to the point and relevant, like this:

“How to cook a classic breakfast egg.”

But then we can sex-up that headline to whatever your topic is.  Maybe you have a nutrition blog that’s talking about how to make a healthy egg:

“How to cook a high-protein egg breakfast like Michael Phelps.”

The top 100 blog post headlines from QuickSprout.com ranked on number of Facebook shares and comments:

Headline	Shares
How Spending $162,301.42 on Clothes Made Me $692,500	1953
22 Gmail Plugins That All Content Marketers Need to Know About	1831
How a Ferrari Made Me a Million Bucks	1491
How to Improve Your Facebook’s Organic Reach	1483
What Are The Best Times to Post on Social Media	1235
The Ultimate Content Marketing Checklist: 40 Questions to Ask Yourself before Publishing Your Next Blog Post	974
37 Point Checklist: How to Create Content That Will Increase Your Traffic by Tomorrow Morning	942
The Content Marketer’s Toolkit: 35 Tools You Can’t Blog Without	781
The Ultimate Guide to Hashtags	769
10 Ways to Improve Your Content Marketing	684
7 Obsolete Social Media Tactics You’re Wasting Your Time On	678
7 Marketing Tactics That Increased My Growth by 679%	645
Why We Like, Comment, and Share on Facebook	630
What SEO Used to Be Versus What SEO Is Now	615
The 10 Key Elements of a High Quality Website	562
7 Obsolete SEO Tactics You’re Wasting Your Time On	511
Is It Worth Responding to Blog Comments?	494
Stop Guessing: Here’s a Social Media Strategy That Works	493
How to Structure a Perfect SEO Optimized Page	465
The Scientifically Proven Best Time to Think and Write Creatively	458
10 Marketing Predictions You Should Prepare for in 2015	423
Why You Need a Social Media Calendar and How to Create One	421
How to Create The Perfect Social Media Post	403
7 Tips for Increasing Your Click-Through Rates on Facebook	401
How to Make Custom Images for Your Blog Posts Without Hiring a Designer	392
8 Ways to Get More Social Shares Without Annoying Readers	371
Why Link Building Is NOT the Future of SEO	366
Who Is More Active on Social Media? Men or Women?	361
The Ultimate SEO Checklist: 25 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Your Next Post	359
The Day After: 11 Things to Do After You Publish a Post	356
How Does Content Marketing Actually Get You More Sales?	355
10 Fun Exercises That Will Help You Become a Better Entrepreneur	354
7 Things Every (Great) Landing Page Needs	354
11 Tactics to Get More Click-Throughs from Social Media	348
7 Lies About SEO You Probably Believe	333
The Complete Guide to Building Your Personal Brand	330
How Google Crawls and Indexes Web Pages	321
How to Double Your Writing Speed Without Lowering Its Quality	312
Why You Shouldn’t Hire a Marketing Consultant	312
How to Be More Productive on Social Media	310
100 Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Blogging	303
11 Business Philosophies to Live and Die By	297
Don’t Blog Unless You Use These 11 Tools	289
How to Structure a Perfect LinkedIn Profile	286
Which Social Media Platforms Are Best Suited for Your Business?	285
Why Do Sites Rank High on Google When They Aren’t Optimized?	281
How to Avoid a Google Penalty	281
How to Increase Your Instagram Engagement by 182%	279
11 Essential Elements of a Perfect Blog Design (a Data Driven Answer)	276
How to Write a Great Value Proposition	276
How to Get Customers Without Spending Any Money	273
How to Get Your First 1000 Facebook Fans	270
How to Increase Your Website’s Traffic Without Any Marketing	268
The Anatomy of a High Converting Landing Page	267
The Science of Instagram: How to Get More Followers and Likes	253
13 Important Questions You Need to Ask Yourself Before Blogging	244
The Anatomy of a Perfect Facebook Post	241
Should You Repost Your Blog Content on Other Websites? A Data-Driven Answer	237
How to Write Emails Your Subscribers Can’t Wait to Open	235
7 Proactive Ways to Get Backlinks That’ll Actually Boost Your Traffic	232
The Ultimate Guide to Creating Visually Appealing Content	231
A/B Testing For Beginners: 70 Resources to Get You Started	230
How to Turn Pinterest into a Revenue Generating Channel	230
How Content Length Affects Rankings and Conversions	230
How to Get Your First 1,000 Blog Readers	229
How to Improve Your Marketing with Google Analytics Data	228
7 Conversion Lessons Learned From Eye Tracking	227
How to Get 247% More People to Read Your Content	226
7 Popular Content Marketing Myths You Need to Stop Following	222
How Blogging Affects Your Bottom Line	222
7 Lies About Social Media Marketing You Probably Believe	221
8 Ways to Improve the Usability of Your Website	221
Running out of Topics to Blog about? Follow These 5 Simple Steps	215
What Spending $57,000 on Instagram Taught Me	213
How to Grow Your Blog Traffic by 20,000 Visitors a Month	212
How Many Links Should You Build to Your Website?	210
How to Create Content That Drives Lots of Organic Traffic	210
15 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Starting My First Company	209
7 Simple Copywriting Tweaks That’ll Shoot Your Conversion Rate Up	206
The 5 Stages of Blog Growth: How Your Traffic Tactics Should Change as You Grow	206
Can You Grow Your Organic Traffic Without Generating Content?	206
The Blueprint of an Optimal Blog Design	206
How to Receive Great Testimonials	206
How Much Copy Should You Write on Your Homepage?	204
How to Generate $1,000,000 from Your Blog	203
The Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking	202
Does URL Structure Even Matter? A Data Driven Answer	201
How to Build a Loyal Audience on the Web	200
7 Strategies That’ll Actually Drive You More Social Media Traffic	200
How to Engage and Persuade People Through Storytelling	200
How to Keep Your Readers on Your Blog Longer	199
Why Transparency Is The New Marketing	198
What I Learned About Content Marketing by Analyzing 614 Posts	196
Why All Marketers Should Be Thinking Mobile	196
How I Reached 100,000 Visitors with These 7 Rules	195
How to Build Brand Awareness for Your Business	194
How to Build a Million Dollar Business From Your Personal Brand	193
7 Lessons and 3 New Strategies I Learned From Launching My 5th Blog	192
10 Most Costly Marketing Blunders I’ve Ever Made	191
7 Landing Page Flaws That Kill Your Conversions (and How to Fix Them)	190

Top 100 blog post headlines from OkDork.com ranked by adding all shared values:

Headline	Total
Why I got Fired from Facebook (a $100 Million dollar lesson)	11612
Why Content Goes Viral: What Analyzing 100 Million Articles Taught Us.	8098
Are things happening to you or are you making things happen?	4249
We Analyzed Nearly 1 Million Headlines. Here’s What We Learned	3777
How to attract the best talent in the world	2989
We Analyzed the 3,000 Most Successful LinkedIn Publishing Posts	2791
A (Proven) Freelancer’s Guide to Growing Your Business	2565
How to Create Great Content That Drives Traffic	2072
The 6 Step Guide to Getting Free Press for Your Startup	1342
How to get your first 100 email subscribers	837
SEO for Beginners – Everything You Need to Know	704
The 18 Books that Changed my Life	600
A Guide to Grow Your Blog (or Any Blog) 10X	546
6 Steps to Writing Great Cold Emails	534
What I learned spending $2 Million on Facebook Ads	485
How to get an eBook to #1 on Amazon	479
The Secret to Effective Marketing – Quant Based Marketing	446
How Not to Feel Guilty about Charging For Your Time	429
What You Can Learn from KISSmetrics’ SEO Strategy	411
Create Your First Marketing Plan	397
What’s Your Normal Email Open Rate?	384
How to Hit #1 on Amazon’s Bestseller List	365
Funny Out of Office Messages: Top 13 Ideas for Your Out of Office Replies	344
The Formula for Creating a 1,000,000 Download Podcast	310
Why I Quit Mint.com (and lost out on $1.7 million)	304
How to Make Better Decisions with a Priority Framework	289
How to Earn More Money: By Asking	283
36 ways to Deal with Depression	264
The Samuel L. Jackson Marketing Hack	234
Mint Sales and Marketing: How Mint Beat Wesabe	216
How to Hire a Great Marketing Person	214
What Babysitting Taught Me About Business	198
How to Grow a Blog to 100,000 Visitors in Less than a Year	197
Make it Easy to Say Yes	185
What OkDork’s Marketing Funnel Can Teach You	178
How to Create Your First Profitable YouTube Campaign	177
What I learned about email marketing after losing $135,000 a day	169
How to Look Busy: Top 10 Ways to Look Busy at Work	167
What It’s Like to Hang with Millionaires	165
How to Create a Happiness Advantage	164
How to Simplify Your Decision Making	164
How to Improve Customer Satisfaction (or how to make your customers orgasm)	164
the expert curse	163
How to Connect with VIPs: 5 Tips for Cold Emails	160
Showing vs. Telling: How to Convince Anyone	154
How to Get More Email Subscribers	151
How to Organize a Conference: How We Made Over $100,000	142
Think and Grow Rich: Quotes & Book Review	136
The Difference: Successful People and Losers	133
How to Make a Great Day	132
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less – Book Review	129
My 2014 Processes (No More Resolutions)	129
Startup Tips: How I grew a waiting list of 20,000+ at Mint.com Part I	114
How I Made $50,000 in College (and What You Can Learn Too)	108
How One Survey Created Insane Results	107
Startup Advertising Spend Calculator	107
Permission Based Email Marketing: 6 Tips for Reducing Unsubscriptions	95
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products – Book Review	81
How to Write a Convincing Craigslist Ad (or You get out what you put in)	79
If it’s uncomfortable, you’re growing.	77
How to Spend Your First $100 on Retargeting Ads	76
The Power of Habit Book Review	75
Learning from a Shitty Experience	73
The WordPress Plugin that DOUBLED My Conversions	71
How to Be a Professional	71
Unlabel by Mark Ecko – Book Review	68
What Waffles Can Teach Us About Business	67
Improving Conversion Rates: How We Doubled AppSumo’s Conversion Rate in 2 Days	66
Smartcuts – Book Review	65
What I learned not eating for 60 hours	64
Make an Impact	62
Daily Accountability Marketing Metrics	61
Sales 101 for Startups – 3 Rules to Success	61
Kick ass using Positive Triggers	58
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz	56
Things I Learned in Cuba	56
If You Don’t Like Your Life, Change It! – Book Review	54
THE BIG FEARS ENTREPRENEURS FACE—AND HOW TO GET PAST THEM	51
My 2013 Goals	51
The Demise of Craigslist	51
Free, 12 Week Marketing Course – Summer of Marketing	50
Walk a mile in my shoes (literally)	47
30 Days of YouTube Videos	45
How to Build Customer Relationships	40
Social Media & Business: Don’t believe the hype	39
Connecting with Others: What Have You Done for Me Lately?	38
The End of Overeating — Book Review	35
Original Mint.com Landing Pages	34
15 Ways to Optimize your Subscription Model	33
Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It – Book Review	32
How to Guarantee Success like the show House of Cards	31
My Travel Hacks & Free Luggage for Your Next Adventure (Part 2)	30
7 steps to a legit Mexican Restaurant	30
“GEBY”: The 4 Ways To Engineer A Great Morning	29
Small Giants by Bo Burlingham — Book Review	28
Noah’s Ultimate Speech at UC Berkeley	28
How to Give More: Give and Take — Book Review	27
How to Choose a Lawyer: Questions for Startups to Ask	25
10 Best Ways to Quit Your Job	25
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene – Book Review	24

Top 30 blog post headlines from Backlinko.com ranked by adding all shared values:

Headline	Total
Google’s 200 Ranking Factors: The Complete List	10233
Viral Marketing Case Study: How a Brand New Blog Generated 17,584 Visitors In One Day	4447
Conversion Rate Optimization Techniques: The Complete List	4155
16 Actionable SEO Copywriting Secrets That Will Drive More Traffic To Your Site	3690
17 Insanely Actionable List Building Strategies That Will Generate More Subscribers Today	3627
21 Actionable SEO Techniques You Can Use Right Now	3034
17 Untapped Backlink Sources (Updated)	2,633
How We Rank #1 in Google And Grew Organic Traffic by 963% (Two Step-By-Step Case Studies)	2254
On-Page SEO: Anatomy of a Perfectly Optimized Page	2128
Link Building Case Study: How I Increased My Search Traffic by 110% in 14 Days	1341
Want More Traffic That Actually Converts? Follow These 4 Steps…	1243
How to Get High Quality Backlinks (Without Guest Posting)	1232
Content Strategy Case Study: 36,282 Readers + 1,000 Email Subscribers	1206
How to Create a Squeeze Page That Converts at 21.7% (Case Study)	1149
Ecommerce SEO Case Study: White Hat Link Building Without Any Content	1052
How To Increase Conversions by 785% in One Day (Without A/B Testing)	942
YouTube SEO: The Ultimate Guide	930
White Hat SEO Case Study: 348% More Organic Traffic in 7 Days	830
The Definitive Guide to Keyword Research	726
How To Boost Conversions by 529% in 45-Minutes (Two Step-By-Step Case Studies)	648
How to Get Backlinks With Guestographics	489
I’m KILLING It With This Completely New Kind of Backlink	470
Why Google Hates Your Site (Hint: It Has Something to Do With TrustRank)	412
CPA Marketing: The Ultimate Guide	381
The Definitive Guide to Guest Blogging	292
The Definitive Guide to Link Building	151
5 Lessons Learned From 1 Million Search Engine Visitors	102
7 Ways to Protect Your Site Against Google Penalties	91
5 Dumb SEO Mistakes That Smart People Make	23

After all that headline info.....here's why you shouldn't pay TOOOOO much attention to headlines:

Believe it or not, for certain things (like your email list) I think you should NOT spend too much time on creating grandiose headlines. I even jump into my own system to show you at the end: