Secrets to Creating Great Headlines
By
Catherine Franz,
The Syndicated Columnist, Radio Producer,
International Speaker, and Author
Alexandria,
Virginia,
U.S.A.
catherine@abundancecenter.com
http://www.AbundanceCenter.com
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© Copyright 2005 Catherine Franz
 Great!
You finished your piece and now need a headline. Usually
headlines are less than ten words and need to be expressed
in short, expressive, active words. This provides
quick focus and pull in. By waiting until you know
what you are ending up with, it will save you time.
You can give a temporary headline while drafting.
If
you have a good lead paragraph, you will find the
headline. If you want to intrigue or hook your readers,
look
at the significant points instead. Which idea or thought
can
you use as that hook.
Here
are some tips on how to write that headline:
*
Grab a highlighter and underline the nouns and key
words
in your lead paragraph.
*
From the key words, imagine yourself composing a
telegram, and each word is costing you $10. Avoid
articles
-- A, An, The -- and prepositions -- On, Under, Beside,
etc.
*
Substitute simple but effective synonyms to keywords.
Say
"polls" instead of "elections"
or "go on" instead of
"continue."
*
Write headlines that are simple and easy to read.
Don't
use heavy words. Use words that are short and familiar.
*
Directly give your story's main idea at the beginning
of
your headline.
*
Try and working in the main benefit the reader gets
for
reading further. Also, add another benefit in the
lead
paragraph, to keep them moving forward.
*
Use dynamic and powerful words. Not what you think
is
powerful but what you reader is going to think as
powerful.
*
Always be specific and avoid generalities. "Do
this and
you will get this" needs to be specific to be
believable.
Provide examples or statistics. Give the result that
is
believable to the reader.
*
Only use a person's name in the headline if they are
well known. Provide a link to where someone can find
out more about this person.
*
Repeating key words, using weak verbs such as a, an,
is,
are, or starting the line with a verb is not recommended.
*
If you have to use abbreviations, do so only when
the
abbreviation is commonly known to your main target
market.
Create a footnote for a definition or place the
abbreviations in parentheses.
*
Use numbers only if important and write them in figures
-- use B for billion and M for million.
*
Even if your statistics are out standing you might
night
want to state them. If they are too unbelievable,
people
will not buy.
These
thirteen tips are not all inclusive to all the tips
and techniques you can use to create headlines. When
I
wrote these I wanted to convey some suggestions for
the
frequent mistakes I see made or unique recommendations
that
will get your headline noticed quickly and build curiosity.
Catherine
Franz, business and writing coach, resides
in Virginia and is a syndicated columnist, radio producer,
International speaker, and author. Ezines and other
articles: http://www.abundancecenter.com
http://abundance.blogs.com
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