The Balance Quest

What is the most important part of anything you write?

According to CopyBlogger.com, “On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of the headline, and why it so highly determines the effectiveness of the entire piece.”

If you are like me, you find it hard to get down to writing. When you finally do, the last thing you are thinking about is the headline of your article or ad. Maybe it time we take another look. It’s time to put our efforts where they will be most effective.

Like many things in life, 20% of the effort results in 80% of the results. This is the familiar Pareto Principle. In today’s web, where there is so much clutter and so many voices trying to be heard, the headline has become the most critical feature in our writing. The headline is like the infamous “sound bite” the news hounds clamor for. It’s an unfortunate reality in today’s information world that very few people take the time to read entire articles. The average person scans. I don’t know about you but to me scanning means I read the headlines, the sub-titles and the highlighted links. I will only read the body text if the headlines or subtitles draw me in.

To add to this, the search engines like Google and Yahoo, also place great weight on the content of the headline. A headline that contains your keyword or an associated keyword gives the search engine important information about the content of the blog or article.

It is well known that the headline carries a great deal of importance to Google on it’s Adwords advertising platform as well. Having a good headline will increase your quality score and CTR quicker than any other part of the ad.

CopyBlogger.com views the headline to be so important, that they suggest we should spend at least 50% of our time writing the headline.

I have always been a lazy but productive person. When I can adapt, modify or repurpose something that works, I will usually take that route. That is not to say that I will steal, plagiarize or copy anyone else’s work, but I will learn from other’s work.

Here is a very helpful article by Robert D. Boduch, which has helped me with writing my headlines.

This ebook, 7 Quick and Easy Headline Formulas is a wealth of information. It take us through writing headlines using the “The Ultimate Benefit . FAST & EASY!” to the ever popular “Fill In The Blanks” method. One of the 7 methods will be suitable for any skill level. And if this weren’t enough, there is also a swipe file containing 600 of the greatest headlines ever.

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