On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar. —David Ogilvy

Ogilvy wasn’t messing around when it came to headlines, and if he were alive today he’d definitely bump it up to ninety cents. Headlines do all the heavy lifting when it comes to attracting clicks and shares, which is why it’s more important than ever to invest in good copywriting.

But who actually gets it right? I don’t mean your average headline-writing-formula-right, but rather holy-cow-I-must-click-on-this-now-right.

There are three sites known to possess this kind of headline mastery. Strangely enough, two of them are on opposite political spectrums and the other one publishes nonsense—but in all fairness, none of that matters. What matters is they’re getting people’s attention, whether or not you think they deserve it.

Here they are:

The Huffington Post

Sure, HuffPo gets ragged on all the time for its sensational, flimsy content, but you gotta admit—their headlines are really catchy. I’ve even heard they split-test and crowdsource them. Just remember—it’s not every day an Internet-only news site sells for $315 million.

Note the difference in headlines versus the actual article titles (once you click on it):

“Obiwan Kenobi Turns To Dark Side, Charged With Hit And Run”
“‘Octomom’ Broke, Turns To Porn”
“LOOK: You’ve Never Seen Saturn Like This Before”

Drudge Report

Whether you agree with Drudge Report or not, their headline strategy is unconventional and brillant. The site is one big news aggregator, so the editors spend time crafting catchy headlines that do nothing more than link to outside articles.

What results on the one-page site are several boxes of persuasive political narrative which—if you’re of the right-wing persuasion—goes down like really good scotch. For example, here’s a sampling from today’s news (click for graphic), read from top to bottom in exact title case:

• OBAMA ADMITS FABRICATING GIRLFRIEND IN MEMOIR…
• ASKS: ‘Why black people so angry all the time’…
• OBAMA: ‘That was an example of compression’…

The Onion produces the very best headlines on the Internet thanks to the unlikely pairing of real events and absurd humor. I mean, how can you compete with “Black Guy Asks Nation for Change“, “‘Huffington Post’ Employee Sucked Into Aggregation Turbine‘” and (my very favorite) “Owls are Assholes“?

From what I’ve learned and come to admire, The Onion writers take their headline writing very seriously. This makes a lot of sense considering how—if you really think about it—The Onion could probably survive if all they wrote were headlines.

Some are more formal and start each message with a salutation like “Hi, Charles –” and end with a goodbye like “Sincerely, Howard.” They do this every single email, even if it’s a rapid fire conversation.

There are others who don’t address me by name at all. Just plain, unlabeled dialog with no greeting or exit. Sometimes all lower case.

Then there’s the signature. You’ve got the ones who type out their name at the end of each message, and those who rely on the standard pre-written signature. More spartan email writers leave no name.

All this variation goes to show that in email, there are no hard or fast rules. It’s a syntax and lexicon free-for-all.

So what’s my point?

I’m particular to this subject in that I almost always adapt my email writing style to match the style of the person I’m engaged with.

For example, if they don’t start out addressing me by name, I won’t either. If they end with “Thanks, Mindy” I’ll end with “Thanks, Charles.” Excessive use of exclamation points? I’ll go there.

The reason I do this is I notice that when you match the communication style of someone over email, you have a much easier time getting to the point. I get better results when the person on the receiving end doesn’t have to decipher what I’m trying to say, or better yet–how I’m trying to say it.

Put yourself in the situation: You’re engaged in an email conversation and the person on the other end is conveying their message to you in such a way that leaves no guessing. You feel comfortable. The tone is relevant to your tone. No time gets wasted.

Try this—it really works!

Photo by Kanko*

If you’re like me and looking for a great career with meaning and lucrative work, I recommend you take Google’s advice on how to prepare a resume.

You may not be interested in working at Google, but it’s helpful to understand how their reputable hiring prowess can make you a better applicant no matter where you choose to work.

The first two tips are stated directly by Google. The last three are my own which I gathered from “reading between the lines.”

1. Only include essential information

This is simple but necessary to understand: on your resume, the only info you need to share is your name and contact info. Leave out anything which might in any way bias the hiring manager, such as gender, age, family status, sexual orientation, etc.

What this really means is don’t hide behind or tout anything about your personal life which you think might help you get the job. It’s an amateur strategy that will instantly land your resume in the rejection pile.

2. Customize your resume by highlighting the skills that are relevant to the position

Another obvious tip, but think about where you can improve this. Look for places to cut needless details that may seem important to you but have nothing to do with the job they want to fill.

I must have gone through at least 30 revisions on my own resume to get this part right, and I’m glad I did. Take a look.

3. Use terse, powerful language

Your choice of words determines the depth of your impact on your resume. Use clear and uncomplicated language that solicits just as much attention on your smaller accomplishments as your larger ones.

For example, I’ve built websites for all of my past employers. Not too big a deal, but instead of saying “Built the company website,” I opted for the more impressive “Built and curated [the company's] website to cater to a high caliber and diverse international audience.”

Also, the debate on resume length rages on, but I say keep it to one page. This way, you’re forced to be concise on the those details that explain the impact of your work.

4. Be honest

It’s so easy to stretch details on a resume, isn’t it? Well, don’t do it. There’s nothing worse than submitting a resume you know inside isn’t an accurate representation of you (plus, you probably won’t get the job).

Besides, when you apply to somewhere as tough as Google, they make very clear that you better know your stuff. Anything you list on your resume is fair game for testing, verifying and questioning.

5. Speak their language

When you apply to a company, be sure to take time to understand their core values and culture.

I recommend reading and watching every bit of content they have on hiring and the kind of employee they’re looking for, and then jotting down some “feeling” keywords that best describe their character and culture.

You’ll want to tactfully integrate some of these keywords into your resume. It obviously counts more if you actually share the same values. Either way,  these sort of “invisible” details will score you points when you’re up against many well-qualified applicants.

Photo by mysza831.

There are brilliant bloggers who struggle writing catchy headlines and well-sculpted copy—they’re just not wired for it. Yet, they persist because that’s the winning formula. It attracts attention and delivers value, so they say.

But the result of forcing a writer into a copywriter’s shoes is painful. Needless hours (years!) are lost to hyping ideas with padded, ornate language. It’s like getting all dressed up to go to a clothing-optional beach.

Naked blogging is the way to go, though it’s not without sacrifice. For example—fewer people will click on the title of this post because it’s not hyped up enough. Google won’t know what to do with it, either.

But I can’t hide anymore, just like Seth Godin or Chris Brogan can’t. Neither should you.

This trek is inevitably longer and more hazardous, but you get to be true to yourself every step of the way.

You get to say what you want in the way that you want, and that brand of freedom is priceless.

Photo by Alaskan Dude.

When this happens, I usually seek some unconventional solutions to give me a boost, but they don’t always work. That’s when I turn to coercion tactics.

You know—stuff that gets results but nobody really talks about how it’s done. Kind of like waterboarding, but for writers.

Here are a few not-so-gentle techniques that should do the trick:

1. Write anyway.

This is called brute-force writing. Shut off all distractions and literally force yourself to produce something before you’re allowed to do anything else. Take it a step further and deprive yourself of water, food—heck, even clothes if you have to. Just write.

2. Think about all the writers who are more productive than you.

Seethe in your jealousy. Think about how they erase more in a day than you produce in a week. Better yet—focus on a writer you love around the same age and experience as you. Imagine them sitting down for a mere hour with a smug look on their face, scribbling out something brilliant…and how you’ve got nothing to show in return to stroke your bruised ego.

3. Break an entire box of #2 pencils.

I dare you to try this. Make sure they’re the yellow kind from elementary school, too—the ones that bring back memories of gentle, forgiving teachers who actually cared about your work and wanted nothing more in life than than to make you a better writer. This symbolic irony of this technique will eventually break you down until you’re forced to seek redemption—by writing.

4. Plagiarize.

If you really can’t write, why not consider stealing other people’s good work and using it as your own? After all, you can’t write but you need to something to show. You can be like one of those lazy guys in high school, who would change a few adjectives and prepositions around so it wasn’t technically plagiarism. This is just plain sick.

5. Call someone who really loves you and promise to send them a letter.

Make sure it’s someone really innocent who doesn’t see or hear from you much but thinks of you as one of their favorite people in the world (like a niece or grandparent). Tell them you’re going to write it as soon as you get off the phone. What’s your excuse now, sucka?

6. Park yourself at a coffee shop with a laptop and a triple-quad espresso.

You heard that right: a triple-quad espresso. That’s 12 shots of coffee surging through your bloodstream and your brain, firing synapses you never knew existed. Add that to the atmosphere of other java-junkie creative-types chained to their laptops, and you just might feel enough empathy and hyperness to crank out some really good stuff. Just make sure you stay focused on one thing at a time.

7. Quit Writing.

That’s right. Just get up and walk away. Forever. Never come back to the keyboard. Don’t ever call yourself a writer again, either. In fact, go get a “real” job. Writers are manic depressive alcoholics, anyway. Now get out of here.

Image by Guwashi999.

Writing a solid letter is by far one of the best ways to get your point across in a clear, organized and razor sharp manner. Unlike talking, writing allows you to collect your thoughts and feelings into an official, permanent statement. Later down the line nobody can deny what you’ve said because it’s been written down.

To date, I’ve written about ten very memorable letters that have helped me capitalize on rare opportunities or overcome high-pressure and abusive situations, such as:

• Secured a business agreement with a major airline to charter their planes in a competitive market
• Gave my two-week notice to a boss while calmly pointing out their oppressive ways
• Secured my first mortgage when there was no way in hell I was qualified for it
• Got hired for a competitive job I really wanted
• Defended myself and my family members against the personal injustice of others

Each of these required a great amount of concentration and courage, but I emerged victorious every single time.

This post is a bit long (about 1,200 words), but it’s worth a careful read. It outlines for you the exact strategies and techniques I’ve used to help me write these kinds of life-changing memos.

Setting Up the Letter

The first thing you need to do is plan your letter. Get a blank sheet of paper and first write down exactly what you want or what you want to overcome. Be direct and specific.

The very best material for your letter will come from whatever notes you take when your emotions are at their highest. During this time you can see the truth with greater clarity because you’ve just caught a rare and precious glimpse of it.

Proceed to write down why you want to do this, what results you expect to happen and most importantly—why the person reading the letter should listen to you. What are your reasons?

Chances are you’re emotionally charged, which is a good thing, but you need to be honest with yourself. Are your reasons truly valid, or are you just whining about something? Make sure you have at least one very plausible and convincing argument that would make someone stop and actually think about what you’re saying.

The other thing you need to write down is the how. In other words, how do you plan to execute your idea–when and where is it going to happen and in what manner? If you’re asking for something to happen to you, then turn it around: how, when and where would you like the request to be executed in your favor?

When you’ve got all your notes, start organizing them into sections. You should have a what section (what you’re seeking), a how section (the manner, time and place the ‘what’ should happen) and one or more why sections (the reasons of your letter).

Writing the Letter

First of all, take your time and keep a clear head. Don’t ever write a letter immediately after the issue has occurred. What tends to happen is you will come across as raw and reactive and sloppy and unconvincing.

The whole tone of your letter should be dramatic, almost ruthless. You can achieve this by being as direct and calculated as possible. Don’t ever beat around the bush or hint at what’s to come, or back down from your argument. Create an impenetrable wall of ferocity!

The first line of your letter should state as clearly as possible exactly what you’re seeking (the what) and nothing more. Keep it to its own paragraph for greater impact.

Your next paragraph should be a general overview of the how section—just a summary and not all the details. These are basically the supporting accessories to the what without going too deep. You’ll get into this later; for now you need to maintain the pace and intensity of the letter.

Up next is ultra important: your why. Here’s where you get to take all your reasons and very carefully lay them out on the table. My advice is present only your top three reasons and no more.

You need to assertively state why the reader should listen to you, why you are correct or why you deserve what you’re asking for. Have your supporting reason ready to back up your argument and always use clear and simple language. Be polarizing so people will listen.

To close your letter, restate your what and then be more explicit on your how. The person reading the letter will have just heard your convincing reasons and—assuming you’ve made an impact on them—will be paying close attention to your requests.

Editing

Once you’ve written the draft, walk away from it for awhile. Give it time to percolate. Then come back to it and reread it and make changes to it.

At this point you will have gotten the issue off your chest, so to speak. You won’t be as emotional and your letter will appear more as a tactical weapon than an emotional rant. Editing will sharpen that even more.

Depending on the situation, it really helps if you get a trusted family member or friend to read your letter. Ask this person if it sounds convincing and if there’s anything you’ve left out. My wife does this for me and it’s extremely helpful.

Edit your message until you know without a doubt it’s going to make an impact on your intended reader. Then get ready to send it.

Sending It

This is pretty obvious, but you need to send the letter! Don’t just write it for yourself to feel better—you’ll never get anywhere with this attitude.

What I like to do is send it at the moment I know is right. I just do it with the full intention of it working and making a difference and permanently changing my life.

When you send the letter with this warrior attitude, you’ve already accomplished half of your goal. You’ve taken time and energy to speak your truth and you followed-up with the courage to let someone know!

Following-up

Because your letter is so powerful, chances are you’ll get a response. It won’t always be the one you want, but it just might be, too.

If you aren’t totally victorious, don’t necessarily give up. The reader may get back to you with more questions or some sort of compromise. Reason accordingly. If you get back a counter-argument, you can repeat this process with a more tempered and discerning voice.

Whatever the outcome, at least you know that you didn’t turn your back on an opportunity to defend yourself and/or gain an important victory.

A Few Extra Pointers

• Keep it short. One page is desired but not always possible. If you have to, shrink the font, increase the margins and cut some words out. Nothing speaks more powerfully than a simple, one-page letter.
• Sign and date. These are both important to do. By signing the letter (preferably in black ink), you’re giving your personal endorsement. It shows your sincerity and seriousness.
• Use Cc. At the bottom left under your signature, you can add the names of other people you’re sending a copy of the letter to using the Cc: function. This can be hugely powerful if you want to “expose” to others your concerns about the issue at hand.

Got any questions, ideas to share on writing letters? Please leave a comment!

Images provided by Romtomtom, SophieG*, Muffet and kevinzim.

Great content relies on the combination of good writing, editing and publishing. And the better your content, the less marketing hype you’ll require to sell it.

Sounds pretty simple, but not too many bloggers or internet marketers have a basic understanding of this stuff. With that said, let’s go over these basics to get you familiarized:

Writing

You either love writing, hate it, or you’re somewhere in between. But it doesn’t really matter how you feel because as long as you’re a blogger you pretty much have to write content.

The nice part about writing great content is you don’t really have to be a good writer, you just need to be good enough. This means you can get your point across in a clear, concise and consistent manner.

Being good enough is pretty simple, actually. Just remember to:

• Use only as many words as you need
• Use proper spelling, punctuation and grammar
• Be comfortable being yourself

Follow those basic guidelines and I assure your content will do its job to enlighten or entertain your readers, or both. Plus—the more you write, the better your content becomes.

Then you can start breaking the rules now and then and look good doing it

Editing

The editor is the most valuable person on the internet.

Why is this? Because the editor takes an average or good piece of writing and makes it great. Even more importantly, the editor is a strategist: she selects the content that makes her readers happy.

The editor’s value is ever-increasing on the web: somebody has to filter all that content, right? Somebody has to mine all that gold from the cold, silty river. And that somebody is…the editor.

Starting right now, I want you to think of yourself as an editor. Not just blogger, not just writer—but editor. Congratulations, you are now the most valuable person on the internet!

Publishing

Publishing is the business of your blog. It not only includes writing and editing, but also the niche, content strategy, marketing, monetization, SEO and more.

As publisher, you carry a greater amount of power and responsibility than the marketer because you are in complete control of the product, which is your content. Content is king, and it’s also cash.

Another great part about being a publisher is you can publish more than one blog or website under the umbrella of your publisher brand. At this level you can really leverage your talent and experience to grow your business. This is how Wordful plans to grow, by the way.

I hope this helps. Please comment if you want to chat.

Photo by aslakr.

I’ve tried using programs like ToodleDo, but the learning curve is just too high—so many features it just ends up boggling your mind. Ironic, eh?

These tools on the other hand are so simple in their design and interface that it takes literally minutes to get acquainted and comfortable using them. Two of them are free and one is a paid iPad app.

Teux Deux. Introduced to me by Seth Godin, TeuxDeux is a to-do list with very little frills. All you do is add your tasks for a given day and check them off or delete them when you’re done.

I like to add all my tasks for the day—even the tiny ones; that way I can see exactly what and how much needs to be done. It’s satisfying to go through and see what you’ve accomplished for the day.

I highly recommend using TeuxDeux for your editorial calendar. It’s more simple than this WordPress editorial calendar plug-in everyone has been talking about.

Tick Tock Timer. This little app requires very little explanation: it’s an online timer. You set the time you want to work on something, start the timer and try and finish it on time!

The sound it plays when it goes off is pretty funny. I’ll let you try it out to find out what it is.

I’m using Tick Tock Timer to write this blog post, and—oops—I don’t think I gave myself enough time.

Writer. I love Writer so much that it might very well be my favorite iPad app. All it helps you do is write…in a pure distraction-free environment.

Since my recent Writer app review, they’ve added a word count. It sure beats the character count. If you have an iPad and you write, get Writer. It’s easily worth the $4.99.

Photo by aussiegall.

Focus on the essence of a single idea. Be as clear and direct as possible, using just enough words to say what’s important. Ruthlessly eliminate fluff.

Don’t be afraid to let your personality illuminate your message. Your readers thrive from the connection you make with them, no matter how small.

Use the 100 word format when pressed for time. The verbiage is just long enough to say something meaningful, quickly.

It’s also an honest way to keep good on your daily writing commitments.

If you have any leftover words, you’ve succeeded!

Photo by antwerpenR

I love poetry and literature and great letters. I loved being an English major in college. And I’ve always considered myself a writer and editor before anything else. It’s been that way long before the internet existed.

But I also love the times we’re in, when an average person like me can make an extremely lucrative living on the web from this thing called “content.”

You gotta problem with content?

As it pertains to making a living online, content is the stuff you need to get people hooked on your site so you can sell them things.

In most cases, content is nothing more than written words—articles, blog posts, ebooks, reports, etc.

Here’s the problem: because I value the quality and craft of writing , it’s agonizing to see content being manufactured and treated as a purely exchange commodity.

Writing is supposed to be beautiful and powerful and honest, but let’s be honest—it’s not totally that way on the web. The people making money writing are not writers. They’re not editors or publishers, either. They’re marketers.

The pervading atmosphere on the web is that people can (and are!) making loads of money off of crap content. They’re also making money teaching people how to make loads of money off of crap content.

To me there’s something fundamentally wrong with this. Just because the industry of newspapers and magazines and books are in trouble doesn’t mean great writing and content should crash and burn with it.

But let’s face it—content sells. Words sell.

We therefore must sell.

I’ve said this before. If you look at the ”celebrities” now on the web you’ll discover they’re all marketing genuises. They’ve done well for themselves because they pioneered ways to make money online by leveraging content that’s good enough to make the sale. I say not nearly good enough.

Herein lies the lesson and opportunity to all you true writers out there: there’s multi-billion dollar industry that has yet to blossom. And it’s open to all the writers, editors and publishers who are willing to listen and learn from marketers who “get it.”

What I’ve done is start paying selective attention to successful marketers. I’m taking time to learn about things like traffic, conversions, list building, landing pages, SEO, viral marketing and social media.

Writers need a hero badly

We need a hero. Someone to boldly step forward and start making lucrative web business out of superb writing and editing. Not just money making with good enough crap.

We need a renaissance of publishers akin to the newspaper tycoons of yesteryear—those pioneers who made a booming business out of content that actually mattered.

Marketers cleared the brush and it’s time for writers to move in on the fresh territory. It’s not that far off, and the time to strike is now.

Photo by Alaskan Dude.