On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar. —David Ogilvy

Ogilvy wasn’t messing around when it came to headlines, and if he were alive today he’d definitely bump it up to ninety cents. Headlines do all the heavy lifting when it comes to attracting clicks and shares, which is why it’s more important than ever to invest in good copywriting.

But who actually gets it right? I don’t mean your average headline-writing-formula-right, but rather holy-cow-I-must-click-on-this-now-right.

There are three sites known to possess this kind of headline mastery. Strangely enough, two of them are on opposite political spectrums and the other one publishes nonsense—but in all fairness, none of that matters. What matters is they’re getting people’s attention, whether or not you think they deserve it.

Here they are:

The Huffington Post

Sure, HuffPo gets ragged on all the time for its sensational, flimsy content, but you gotta admit—their headlines are really catchy. I’ve even heard they split-test and crowdsource them. Just remember—it’s not every day an Internet-only news site sells for $315 million.

Note the difference in headlines versus the actual article titles (once you click on it):

“Obiwan Kenobi Turns To Dark Side, Charged With Hit And Run”
“‘Octomom’ Broke, Turns To Porn”
“LOOK: You’ve Never Seen Saturn Like This Before”

Drudge Report

Whether you agree with Drudge Report or not, their headline strategy is unconventional and brillant. The site is one big news aggregator, so the editors spend time crafting catchy headlines that do nothing more than link to outside articles.

What results on the one-page site are several boxes of persuasive political narrative which—if you’re of the right-wing persuasion—goes down like really good scotch. For example, here’s a sampling from today’s news (click for graphic), read from top to bottom in exact title case:

• OBAMA ADMITS FABRICATING GIRLFRIEND IN MEMOIR…
• ASKS: ‘Why black people so angry all the time’…
• OBAMA: ‘That was an example of compression’…

The Onion produces the very best headlines on the Internet thanks to the unlikely pairing of real events and absurd humor. I mean, how can you compete with “Black Guy Asks Nation for Change,” ”‘Huffington Post’ Employee Sucked Into Aggregation Turbine‘” and (my very favorite) “Owls are Assholes“?

From what I’ve learned and come to admire, The Onion writers take their headline writing very seriously. This makes a lot of sense considering how—if you really think about it—The Onion could probably survive if all they wrote were headlines.

Everyone has a their own special way of communication and expression over email.

Some are more formal and start each message with a salutation like “Hi, Charles –” and end with a goodbye like “Sincerely, Howard.” They do this every single email, even if it’s a rapid fire conversation.

There are others who don’t address me by name at all. Just plain, unlabeled dialog with no greeting or exit. Sometimes all lower case.

Then there’s the signature. You’ve got the ones who type out their name at the end of each message, and those who rely on the standard pre-written signature. More spartan email writers leave no name. [Read more...]

Gary Vaynerchuk may be the master of the crushing it with a personal brand, but he was dead wrong when he declared on national TV that the resume was dead. The resume remains the first thing any employer asks to see.

If you’re like me and looking for a great career with meaning and lucrative work, I recommend you take Google’s advice on how to prepare a resume.

You may not be interested in working at Google, but it’s helpful to understand how their reputable hiring prowess can make you a better applicant no matter where you choose to work.

The first two tips are stated directly by Google. The last three are my own which I gathered from “reading between the lines.” [Read more...]

Blogging isn’t easy unless you’re comfortable doing it.

There are brilliant bloggers who struggle writing catchy headlines and well-sculpted copy—they’re just not wired for it. Yet, they persist because that’s the winning formula. It attracts attention and delivers value, so they say.

But the result of forcing a writer into a copywriter’s shoes is painful. Needless hours (years!) are lost to hyping ideas with padded, ornate language. It’s like getting all dressed up to go to a clothing-optional beach.

Naked blogging is the way to go, though it’s not without sacrifice. For example—fewer people will click on the title of this post because it’s not hyped up enough. Google won’t know what to do with it, either.

But I can’t hide anymore, just like Seth Godin or Chris Brogan can’t. Neither should you.

This trek is inevitably longer and more hazardous, but you get to be true to yourself every step of the way.

You get to say what you want in the way that you want, and that brand of freedom is priceless.

Photo by Alaskan Dude.

Writing is tricky and delicate work. Sometimes all the ideas are there but the writing isn’t.

When this happens, I usually seek some unconventional solutions to give me a boost, but they don’t always work. That’s when I turn to coercion tactics.

You know—stuff that gets results but nobody really talks about how it’s done. Kind of like waterboarding, but for writers.

Here are a few not-so-gentle techniques that should do the trick: [Read more...]