I get some nice advise from Copywriter Alan Forrest from the UK. As you move around the circle of Internet Gurus, you will see his name among many others. OK! Here is one email to me.
HEADLINES. Without a doubt the most important line within any copy is the headline! Get it wrong ... the copy WON'T, DOESN'T, NEVER gets read. That's a long time tested fact! How important is a headline? Try this: sit outside a newspaper stand and WATCH & OBSERVE. See which pile of daily goes down the fastest. Its always the one with the best headlines.
Ok, here is the how the average newspaper buyer acts. Guy walks up to newsstand. Might spend literally seconds scanning all the headlines. Chooses the Daily Globe for the day. As he walks away ... notice ... he folds the paper once or twice and then ... has the front or back of the newspapers main headline on show so he can read it as he walks along. This is called "above the fold" copy. Or ... THE HEADLINE. The headline really is the most important copy within any newspaper. Why? Its the headline that decides if you buy the paper and read it ... it really is that simple!
Ok, here is a headline taken from two (make believe) papers. #1. Plane Crashes Into Hillside #2. Small Private Jet of World Famous Pilots Hits Twin Peaks. Survivor Tells His Inspirational Death Defying Story. Which paper would you buy? Know the paper I would buy. The one with a knockout, pull em in headline. Point is this ... if you DON'T get your headline right ... you wont sell papers. Dont get your headlines right you don't get your letters read. You don't get your brochures read. You don't get your announcements read.
Famous Copywriter David Ogilvy famously spent six weeks, 42 days or over 1,000 hours creating a headline for one single advert for Rolls Royce! He spent only a few hours writing the rest of the copy. What does that tell you? It tells you the importance of a headline when creating successful sales copy. So many letters and web pages with no headline its incredible. Why though, its nuts to waste time and money doing all of this for no return. You know what to do!
I live in Albuquerque New Mexico in an apartment 5 stories up. This is the highest off the ground I have ever lived. Every morning I get to watch the sun come up over the Sandia mountains. My balcony is fun when the weather is pleasing in the spring and fall. It is too cold in the winter. But I have to admit I do enjoy it on summer afternoons when the sun is on the other side of this building.
I hope you enjoy the many tips I will post on this web site.
For now I will say
Enjoy and I will chat again later
Dolores
