The only guide you’ll ever need to write headlines that sell

A good headline is one of the bookends of any marketing copy. The other is the call to action.

Without these two items, your reader might well pass your marketing messages over without a second thought.

But headlines aren’t just for marketing… Everyday bloggers are realising the power of a good headline in the battle to stand out in the feed/wall/stream/page.

You will often read that if you are going to blog about a popular topic you should add your own spin to it. And if you aren’t going to be unique, be useful.

This week’s blog is going for useful, giving you a great collection of resources to form the only guide you’ll ever need to write really effective headlines.

I don’t think any post about headlines would be complete without a reference to Copyblogger and this post will have two.

How To Write Headlines That Work from Copyblogger

This blog post outlines Bob Bly’s eight (tried and tested) headline categories. This is a great place to start reading and you can’t really go too wrong.

How To Write Magnetic Headlines from Copyblogger

This is more than a post about headlines. It’s an entire series of posts about headlines and not just any headlines, headlines that beat the averages and actually push the reader straight into your copy.

A Cheat Sheet for Writing Blog Posts That Go Viral from Jon Morrow

This one is a gold mine of sensational headlines that will definitely get reader’s attention.

102 Headline-Writing Formulas by Chris Garrett

While writing a really awesome headline takes a lot of brainstorming, this extensive list of formulas can speed that process along. And sometimes, just sometimes, you’ll find a great fit on the first pass through.

So there you have it, my ultimate collection of guides to help you write headlines that sell. It’s not an exhaustive collection by any means but these are the ones I refer to when I’m hunkering down to write my headlines.

I would love to extend the list though so if you have a favourite blog post you are willing to share, add it to the comments!

Belinda (AKA The Copy Detective)