•Tom "Big Al" Schreiter  •Ken Seto  •Rod Cook - Contributing Editors

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Big Al’s Cheap, Sleazy, Trashy, Four-Step Formula For Tabloid Type Headlines
by Tom "Big Al" Schreiter
 

Headlines are the most important part of your ad. Want proof?

Grab your daily newspaper. Do you read every article in your daily newspaper? Of course not. So how do you choose which articles to read?

By the headlines.

For instance, let’s see what you do as you skim your paper and see the following headlines:

“Conflict continues in Europe.” (Same headline every day, I think I’ll move on and read another article.)

“Fire destroys lots of buildings.” (Okay. That’s terrible, but this does happen a lot.)

“Government proposed to pass more laws.” (Nothing unusual here.)

“Elvis Presley’s two-headed great-grandchild elopes with two-ton alien.” (Hmmm, I’d better read this article.)

What’s happening? Why did we choose to read only the last article?

Because it was interesting. Our lives are busy and we don’t want to waste time reading boring, uninteresting articles. We want a little excitement.

And tabloids know this.

Check out all those cheap, trashy, sleazy tabloids at the check-out counter in your local supermarket or newsstand. What do they really have to sell?

A great sports section? No.

Outstanding investigative journalism? No.

In-depth business reports? No.

Interesting headlines? Yes.

That’s all they have to sell – just headlines. And they do an excellent job of selling their tabloids because we love their interesting headlines.

What are some examples of interesting, tabloid-like headlines that you could use for your ads? Here are a couple of my favorites that really sell the reader to read further:

“Atlanta Housewife Investigated And Almost Arrested For Losing 73 Pounds.”

“Overweight Granny Loses 57 Pounds, Steals Granddaughter’s Tight-Fitting Jeans, Then Enters Limbo Contest.”

If you wanted to lose weight, you would definitely choose to read the rest of these ads. Why? Because the headlines are interesting.

So what makes certain headlines interesting? Well, when we talk about people, it’s interesting. That’s why soap operas get such high ratings. That’s why People Magazine has many readers. We like to peek into other people’s lives.

And adding specifics to your headlines make them more believable too. That’s why I include specific odd numbers in my four-step formula.

Are you ready for the four-step formula so that you can create cheap, sleazy, trashy (but very interesting) tabloid-like headlines? Well here it is.

Step #1: Benefit

Step #2: Occupation

Step #3: Geography

Step #4: Odd numbers

That’s it! It looks simple, but let’s put it to use to give us some interesting headlines.

Step 1: Let’s pick a benefit for our product. Imagine that we sell tax advice to entrepreneurs. Our headline should include a benefit (saving taxes), so our headline would say:

“How to save money on your taxes.”

Good headline, but it could be better. Let’s go on to Step #2, occupation. Maybe the tax advisor used to be a bank teller. Now we can improve our headline to say:

“Underpaid bank teller shows ordinary people how to save money on their taxes.”

Better headline, isn’t it? There is more personality and interest with this revision. But we can do more. Let’s go on to Step #3, geography. Maybe our tax advisor lives in Weird Falls, Virginia. Now we can improve our headline to say:

“Underpaid bank teller from Weird Falls, Virginia shows ordinary people how to save money on their taxes.”

If you wanted to save money on your taxes, you’d probably read this ad, wouldn’t you?

We have one more step to go, Step #4, odd numbers. Now what has more credibility?

1.      “About a thousand.”

2.      “973.”

When we say “973” to someone, it has more credibility because it is specific. So now we add some odd numbers to our headline to get:

“33-year-old, underpaid bank teller from Weird Falls, Virginia shows ordinary people how to save $751 on their tax return by adding just one little form.”

You definitely want to read this ad now to find out what form to add to your tax return.

Want some more example of using this simple four-step formula?

Step #1: How to stop snoring.”

Step #2: How a car mechanic accidentally discovers how to stop snoring.”

Step #3: How car mechanic from Wabonsie Center shows people how to stop snoring.”

Step #4: 61-year-old car mechanic from Wabonsie Center discovers how to stop your spouse from snoring in only 13 seconds.”

Want to do it again?

Step #1: “How to make more money.”

Step #2: “Beautician’s assistant shows mothers how to make more money.”

Step #3: “Beautician’s assistant from Diamond County shows young mothers how to make more money.”

Step #4: “21-year-old beautician’s assistant from Diamond County shows young mothers how to earn an extra $323 a month.”

Is this the only way to make interesting headlines? No. It’s just an easy, four-step formula to get you started. Once you have your Big Al cheap, sleazy, trashy, four-step tabloid-like headline, you can edit and fine tune the headline for your needs.

Want some more headline examples? You can get more headline examples and free ideas at www.fortunenow.com.

Tom Big Al Schreiter is the author of the Fortune Now Newsletter, a generic training resource for professional network marketing leaders. If you’d like to read some free back issues, go to http://www.fortunenow.com or call 281-280-9800.