Here’s a great way to get ideas for compelling headlines for your articles, ezines, blogs and other web copy, and it comes from Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound in her latest ezine.

The article she writes is titled "Can Your Purse Make You Sick?" If you’re a girl, you probably want to know the answer to this strange question. But there’s a lesson here for everyone. Here’s her tip on writing great headlines:

"That’s called a formula headline, and it’s the kind of headline you often see on the covers of big magazines.

"That got me thinking. Many Publicity Hounds can use a variation of that same headline in their own press releases, blogs, ezines, articles, columns, letters to the editors or even direct-mail pieces. A health expert could write an article titled "Do Video Games Make Your Kids Sick?" A chiropractor could write one titled "Does Your Office Chair Make You Sick?"

"Here’s how to find formula headlines and turn them into your own.

Stand in front of a magazine rack with a notebook and a pen. Or visit Magazines.com at http://www.Magazines.com  Then click on a few magazine covers. Look for headlines that catch your attention. Can you remove a word or two and substitute your own words to conform to your own topic?"

Great tip, Joan, thanks. If you want more great tips from Joan, send a blank email to subscribe to her Publicity Hound ezine here.

Crafting the headline for an article you publish is probably more important than writing the actual article. I say probably, but many professional copywriters who make lotsa money doing this will tell you it is THE most important task.

If your headline is ho-hum nobody will read what you have to say. If your headline is engaging and compelling, people will get drawn into reading your article like Ulysses to the Sirens. They won’t be able to resist it.

Of course, you still need good content in the body of the article. Otherwise readers will be mad they spent the time reading only to come up empty.

Brian Clark of Copyblogger gives some great tips on this. Recently he wrote this in a post called 7 Reasons Why List Posts Will Always Work. Here’s an excerpt:

"Any headline that lists a number of reasons, secrets, types, or ways will work because, once again, it makes a very specific promise of what’s in store for the reader. A nice quantifiable return on attention invested goes a long way toward prompting action, and as long as you deliver with quality content, you’ll have a satisfied reader."

"Plus, these type of posts and articles are perfect for building your authority and demonstrating a mastery of your area of expertise. If you’re business blogging, that’s key."

He then goes on to list 7 classic “list” headlines that you can remix on your blog when you’re looking to boost readership:

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Colleague Adam Urbanski also advocates writing a list to jump start your article writing process. Here’s his article, Six Easy Steps to Marketing Your Business With Articles and here’s an excerpt:

"Begin with listing ideas you want to cover, write down key words and phrases you would like to use… Next, write a paragraph on each idea or key word you listed. Add examples and stories to illustrate your points, list additional resources. .. Spend time creating a strong opening and a good summary or call to action to close your article."

The more you read about a technique or tip, the more variations on it, and the more you hear it from different sources, the more likely you are to remember it, and to try it out. So it is my pleasure to share Adam’s well-written article with you (he has others you might want to check on on the site.)

If you know of other experts who promote the list-writing technique, let me know (besides Jeff Herring of course!).

Yesterday while I was writing about the "secret writing tip" that has made my writing easier and faster (make a list) I ended up with a list of 10 steps I go through each time I write an article.

That’s how powerful the "Make a List" technique is for writing. You will actually create another article while writing the first one.

So from yesterday’s post, here’s my new list of writing tips:

1. Find out what keywords you need to use in your next article.
2. Write out a headline or general subject title (you will revise the title later).
3. Make a list.
4. Write one or two sentences about each point on the list.
5. Write an introduction that tells people why this is important to them.
6. Create a dynamic headline. (Use a headline/copywriter’s manual if you need help)
7. Write the conclusion. (Don’t forget a call to action.)
8. Include links in your resource box or author’s information paragraph
9. Submit to EzineArticles.com, or to your favorite article directory.
10. Repurpose the article for your ezine, blogs, and other uses (use it as a special report, etc.)

There really should be an 11th step here: What other lists did you see while writing the first article? Is there another article you could develop based on the first article? There usually is.

Come by this blog tomorrow because I just created another post while writing this one: how to create dynamic headlines, step #6, is worthy of expanding into its own article.

See how this works? Just walkin’ my talk…

The day I learned this writing tip was the day my writing just got a whole lot easier, faster, and more fun. It’s no secret really, but this one tip could change the way you write articles for the Web, for your ezines, your blog, for all sorts of marketing with content.

Make a list.

That’s right. Not too complicated, is it? As Jeff Herring, The Article Guy, puts it: "If you can write a 7-item grocery list, you can write an article."

Ever since I learned that, getting started with writing (some say this is the most difficult part) has become a snap. If I’d known it was this simple, I might have skipped graduate school.

Here’s how it goes in my head: Say I want or need to write an article on ezine publishing.

How do I know that I need to write about ezine publishing? I did a keyword search and my newsletter site doesn’t come up on the first page of Google when people use the search term "ezine publishing." I only come up on page 3.

If I have more web pages using the keywords "ezine publishing" I should improve my ranking. So I need to publish more articles using those keywords, either in article directories, on my website, on my blog, or in my ezine which gets archived on the Web.

Here’s how the "Make a List" writing tip works:

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