(Please enjoy this guest blog post from ANDREW T DRAUGHON)

One of the world’s greatest copywriters – Gary Bencivenga – said that if you can improve yourself by just 1% per week, you’ll quickly become an expert in your field.

And what better skill to master than the art of crafting an irresistible headline.

Here’s why…

If you can create juicy, must-read, action-generating headlines for your ads, articles, blog posts, emails, capture pages, and sales letters … it doesn’t matter what you’re selling, what company you’re representing, or even what the economy does.

You WILL consistently make money hand over fist.

It’s that simple.

The techniques you’re about to discover will light the fire under your tookus and help you improve your headline-crafting “know-how” by a minimum of 1% weekly (if not daily)…

If you practice these consistently, one day at a time, by the end of the year you won’t even recognize your writing.

Now, before we dive into the nuts-and-bolts…

First we need to address certain limiting beliefs (which lead to poor habits) that will cripple your ability to write anything at all…much less purely irresistible headlines!

Make 2k17 the Year You Vanquish “Writer’s Block” Forever!

It doesn’t matter whether you went to public school, private school, prep school, or parochial school. What does matter is that most so-called “education” murders effective writing in its infancy.

Does this sound familiar…

You were taught that your writing should be formal, proper, and more “straightlaced” than the way you talk naturally…

That you’ve got to know your pronouns from your adverbs. That you shouldn’t dangle your participles or end a sentence with a preposition (…whatever that means).

You grew up innocently turning in your essays, term papers, and homework…only to have them come back bruised and bloody with red ink and “corrections.”

Maybe a teacher even commented that you weren’t “achieving your potential.”

Ouch!

Didn’t it make you want to never write anything again, ever?

Most of us are so scarred by an encounter with our 5th grade English teacher (you know the one!) that our writing muscles have withered and we’re certain our writing sucks.

And you already know that certainty will kill your business, right?

But here’s the thing…

Writing is just communication. Period. Which means that…

If you can talk, you can write.

So all you really need to do is slay that demon 5th grade English teacher that still lives in your head…taunting you and poisoning your self-regard…and write!

In fact, the best writing advice you’ll ever receive is to…

Write every day—no matter what!

How world-class writers master their craft

You might have heard that Jerry Seinfeld’s advice to an aspiring comic was to write a joke every single day.

Maybe that seems “simple,” but it’s the best writing advice you’ll ever receive.

You’ve got to flex those neglected writing muscles and unclutter the neural pathways between your brain and the page so your thoughts can free flow.

And the only way that’s going to happen is with regular exercise.

Here’s what one of the greatest copywriters to ever live had to say on the subject…

“Now, the first thing I want you to know about writing (other than how much it sucks) is the best way to get good at writing is…by writing!”
— Gary Halbert

Now, one of the most powerful and effective exercises you’ll ever do for yourself is to “free write” three pages first thing in the morning – before your coffee, before you get the kids up, before your “inner English teacher” wakes up.

Julia Cameron, bestselling author of The Artist’s Way (and former wife of Martin Scorsese), calls this exercise…

“Morning Pages.”

The purpose of “Morning Pages” is just to get your muscles moving.

They’re not for show. Nobody’s ever going to see your Morning Pages. You’re not going to share what you’ve written or subject it to any criticism. Honestly, you don’t even need to read the pages yourself.

You can loosen up and relax into a writing rhythm because you’re not being graded. There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to write them.

The point, again, is simply to exercise your writing muscles.

All you need is a notebook or journal, and a pen. You want to get your nervous system used to making the connection between your head, your heart, and your hand on the page.

While you can do your Morning Pages on the computer, it’s not preferred.

You work at your computer.

This isn’t work, so don’t make your brain associate the two.

The only thing to do is write.

Every day.

The process helps you capture deep thoughts, feelings, ideas, and perceptions while they’re still swirling close to the surface. You’re writing before your conscious mind has even had a chance to wake up and interfere.

Sidenote: if you’re a night owl (like me), don’t despair! You can also write your “Morning” Pages at night, once everyone else is asleep. The filters in your head that bottleneck your creativity get fatigued by evening, allowing for plenty of room to get into the flow.

So what should you write?

You’re not trying to impress anybody (including yourself). Write whatever’s there. The object of the game is to keep your hand moving on the page…

If you get stuck, write that.

If you’re bored, write that.

If you have no clue what to write about, write that.

If the neighbor’s dogs are barking, write that.

If you’re distracted, write that.

Just keep your hand moving and write until you’ve filled up three pages. Then stop, put the notebook away, and get on with your day (or evening).

If you haven’t guessed, the point is to write!

What writing every day will teach you that you won’t learn any other way…

Just like recovering from any injury, you might experience some pain and discomfort as the “circulation” in your writing muscles starts to improve…

You’ll start looking for excuses to put off your exercise (write about that!)

You’ll “get too busy” (write about that!)

You’ll “forget” to write (pick up the notebook and write about that!)

The challenge is exactly the same for everyone.

“Don’t wait to get organized. Don’t wait for ideas or inspiration. Don’t wait until you “feel like it.” (I never do.) Just Start!”
— Gary Halbert

If you’re committed to the process of Morning Pages, over time you’ll start to experience some interesting changes in the process as your writing muscles recover.

You’ll discover “patterns” of thoughts and feelings that have been non-consciously “running you” behind the scenes…

You’ll start to notice yourself complaining over and over again about the same things.

You’ll start to recognize hopes, wants, and drives you’d long forgotten.

You’ll find ideas and insights starting to surface.

Your creativity will start expressing itself as you unblock the flow. You’ll be in more intimate contact with your unique “voice” as a writer.

And as you train yourself in the habit of writing every day, you’ll find any fear of “I don’t know what to write” dissolving, almost like magic.

Writing daily makes you more persuasive

Implementing a habit like Morning Pages will have a profound impact on your ability to write effective and irresistible copy…and it might even transform your ability to communicate in general.

Why?

Because writing daily nurtures your authenticity and forces your writing (and even thinking) to become more clear. More natural. More casual. More real.

Writing daily makes your thoughts less convoluted and your writing less formal, less “stunted,” and importantly, much less awkward.

Truly persuasive writing is honest. It’s in your face, it makes a statement, and it delivers punchy “ah has!” for your readers. You can’t “fake the funk.”

There’s no substitute for substance.

At the end of the day, persuasive writing has something to say…it makes a point.

If you’re writing is empty and hollow, and reads like a word salad of rehashed “copy vomit,” you’re NOT going to persuade anyone of anything!

Forget all the “tricks.”

Focus on having something of value to share. And as you might have guessed…the most effective way to increase your value as a writer is by writing daily.

It’s as simple and as complicated as that.

Now, by now you’re probably thinking…

“Okay, so what’s all this got to do with writing irresistible headlines?”

Spoiler alert…

The best way to quickly improve your headline-writing abilities is to actually write multiple headlines…for every single thing you’re composing.

In fact, there’s a simple editorial process the editors of “clickbait” sites require their writers to practice.

And it only takes 15 minutes.

How the Web’s most “viral” sites craft their headlines

You might remember Upworthy.com (circa 2013), when their genuinely-irritating, curiousity-laden headlines dominated your Facebook News Feed.

And while you do NOT want to emulate their style, which brought us “gems” like:

“This Kid Just Died. What He Left Behind Is Wondtacular”;

“Watch The First 54 Seconds. That’s All I Ask. You’ll Be Hooked After That, I Swear”; and,

“His first 4 sentences are interesting. The 5th blew my mind. And made me a little sick.”

…you can learn a valuable lesson or two from their headline-writing process.

In fact, there’s probably no better source, given that the site consistently generated 50+ million monthly page views at their peak.

Here’s the long and short of it:

Write every headline 25 times.

Yep, their viral “wizardry” is a product of repetition, practice, and simply exercising those good ol’ writing muscles.

Because the more headlines you write, the more irresistible they become.

So, leading by example…

Here are the draft headlines for this post:

The #1 “Secret” to Writing Effective Headlines
Proven Tactic for Writing “Catchy” Headlines
Copy 101: How to Write Headlines that Go Viral
How to Write Great Copy, Even When You Don’t Know What to Say
Proven Trick to Write Killer Headlines
Headline Hack of the World’s Greatest Copywriters
Writing Headlines Made Easy
Step-by-Step Process to Write Headlines that Convert
#1 Tip for Headline Writing
Brilliant Tactic to Write Headlines that Pull
Rid Yourself of Writer’s Block Forever!
Simple Trick to Cure Writer’s Block in 15 Minutes!
How to Quickly Write Attention-Grabbing Headlines
Ultimate Guide to Awesome Headline Writing
Secret of Writing “Viral” Headlines that Drive More Traffic to Your Blog
“Viral” Headline-Writing Secret Exposed!
“Scientific” Method for Writing Great Headlines
Write Professional Headlines in Just 15 Minutes Without Any Prior Experience
The Art & Science of Writing “Click-Bait” Headlines
How to Write “Shareable” Blog Titles
How to Quadruple Your Business in 2016
They Key to Writing Great headlines
Headline “Secret” of the World’s Greatest Copywriters
15-Minute Trick to Writing World-Class Headlines
15-Minute Formula for Writing an Irresistible Ad Headline

Once you’ve written down 25 variations, you simply prune the most-compelling elements from your “brain dump” to create your single most-irresistible headline.

Easy-peasy.

You’ve already done the hard work. Now you pick and choose.

Whether you’re writing a headline, title, or subject line for your ads, articles, blog posts, emails, capture pages, or a sales letters…

The process is exactly the same. And it gets easier with each repetition.

And that’s all there is to it.

Now it’s your turn…

Starting right now, make a commitment to write daily.

Because let’s face it, if you’re an online marketer, you MUST create content. It’s NOT optional. Content is your medium. It’s your mode of communication and your fulcrum of leverage with your audience.

So begin your “1% per week” improvement strategy today.

It only takes a few minutes, compounded over time, to make HUGE strides in your income-producing capabilities.

Now here’s one final trick to quickly write 25 headline variations…

The easiest way to get started is with a “swipe file” that contains proven templates and formulas to jumpstart your brain and get your creative juices flowing.

And it just so happens that Tim Erway, CEO of Elite Marketing Pro and 2nd-to-none copywriter, put together this free special report on writing killer headlines.

It reveals 5 proven triggers (with lots of fill-in-the-blank examples) that will grab your prospect’s attention and pull them into reading the content you worked so hard to produce.

In the interest of full disclosure…

You should know that I always start with these templates and you’ll quickly recognize the building blocks of a few of my examples above inside the report.

So now that the secret’s out…don’t delay, grab your copy and get started today!

Until next time,

Moni Arora’s Blog