Tag Archives: HEADLINES

Crazy ideas are cool, but only good ideas work

Before you write any piece of copy, you need to figure out if the idea you’re writing about is any good. If your idea sucks ass, your copy will suck ass too. On the flipside: if your idea is good, writing the copy will be much easier, and faster. And chances are, your copy will be […]

Why you should spend more time in bed with your reader

Writing copy to grab your reader’s attention is hard. You might spend weeks testing different ideas for nothing. Even if the product or service you’re selling is great, it doesn’t necessarily make writing captivating copy any easier. But there is an exercise you can do to write copy with a much greater chance of success. […]

Why it’s dangerous to ask questions in copy

Questions in copy can be dangerous… Do you agree? No. And there you go: my question is answered. Just like that, it’s all over. Sorry to waste your time. I’ll speak to you another day. … … … Wait. What happened there? Well, I asked a question. You had an answer. The transaction ended. Hell, […]

How Kurt Vonnegut could help improve your headlines

I think it was Kurt Vonnegut who said it… “If you can’t explain your story to a fourteen-year-old in one sentence, you’ve got a problem with your story.” Something like that. Possibly. And hell, if he didn’t say it, he should have. It sounds like something he’d say. Anyway, it’s a useful little thought. Indeed, […]

Don’t hide your best stuff: the importance of top-loading copy

A long copy sales letter can run to around 10,000 words… Writing so much copy takes a while. So, it figures you’re going to have moments deep into the writing process when fresh inspiration comes. I had this recently with a letter I’ve been working on for a financial newsletter in the US. The idea […]

Why less is more when it comes to headline copy

If one helping of me a week isn’t enough…good news. I launched a new website last week where you can hear more of my thoughts on things that aren’t so sharply focused on direct response copy. TheGlennFisher.com – as you can tell from the title – is more a resource to find out what I’m personally up to. […]

The C.I.A. secret for identifying good ideas

Before you write any piece of copy, you need to figure out if the idea you’re writing about is any good. If your idea sucks ass, your copy will suck ass. Worse: A bad idea will make it even harder to write the suck-ass copy, which is just dumb. Why spend extra time writing bad […]

New copywriters make this ONE mistake all the time

You can’t prove that your exciting new product works before you’ve proved that it’s exciting in the first place. Think about that. Because it’s a flaw with long direct response copy that I see over and over. Too soon a copywriter will start trying to prove a product works before they’ve proved to the reader that they should be […]

The “Live. Die. Repeat.” approach to writing headlines

“Live. Die. Repeat.” That’s the tagline of Tom Cruise’s new movie, Edge of Tomorrow. Have you seen it? Basically Tom Cruise gets the blood of an alien on him, which means that whenever he’s killed he returns to the day he got the alien blood on him. He meets Emily Blunt and then he has to […]

Two clever puppets explain why ‘clickbaiting’ is bad

I’m a huge fan of the Glove and Boots blog. “Mario and Fafa: unlikely internet marketing experts.” There are very few sites on the web that I actively visit to check for updates, but Glove and Boots is one of them. If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll remember I first featured them in my 15 other things to […]