100 Greatest Headlines Ever Written

July 29, 2009 by Russell Hall
Filed under Articles, Copy Writing

100-greatest Recently whilst searching for "The 100 Greatest Headlines Ever Written" I found several references to the list which has long been considered to be the best of the best. However, one of these lists was in the form of an article by the great marketing genius Jay Abraham in which he’d taken the list and then added his own expert commentary underneath each of the headlines so that the reader could gain a richer understanding of the simple yet powerful psychological triggers that were invoked by each of the headlines. The great thing about that is that you can take those psychological triggers and creatively apply them to your own headlines to come up with some powerful combinations. So I therefore concluded that rather than just pasting the plain list here, that I’d give credit to Jay Abraham for his excellent appendices and republish that article in this post. I’ve just a few of my favorites here, but you can see the full list and commentary in the original article at Jay Abraham’s site at http://www.abraham.com/articles/100_Greatest_Headlines_Ever_Written.html

1. THE SECRET OF MAKING PEOPLE LIKE YOU Almost $500,000 was spent profitably to run keyed ads displaying this headline. It drew many hundreds of thousands of readers into the body matter of a "people-mover" advertisement — one which, by itself, built a big business. Pretty irresistible, isn’t it?

10. DO YOU MAKE THESE MISTAKES IN ENGLISH? A direct challenge. Now read the headline back, eliminating the vital word "these." This word is the "hook" that almost forces you into the copy. "What are these particular mistakes? Do I make them?" Also notice (as with many of the other headline reviewed) that this one promised to provide helpful personal information in its own context, not merely "advertising talk."

13. YOU CAN LAUGH AT MONEY WORRIES — IF YOU FOLLOW THIS SIMPLE PLAN Something everybody wants to be able to do. A successful keyed ad upon which many thousands have been spent.

21. DISCOVER THE FORTUNE THAT LIES HIDDEN IN YOUR SALARY One of those good "discover what lies hidden" headlines. (Note others here.) A proven puller for an advertiser offering sound securities on a "pay out of income" basis.

23. HOW I MADE A FORTUNE WITH A "FOOL IDEA" Paradoxes excite interest. Broad appeal: almost everyone has once had a pet moneymaking idea that others have thought foolish and impractical. Sympathy for the underdog: "What’s the story of this man who ‘turned the tables’ on the people who ridiculed him?"

27. HOW A "FOOL STUNT" MADE ME A STAR SALESMAN What is the ‘fool stunt’? Why did people call it that? How did it transform this fellow? I’d like to be able to ’sell’ myself and my ideas — even though selling may not be my vocation.") A large expenditure was made profitably on this ad after its resentfulness had been proven.

85. 76 REASONS WHY IT WOULD HAVE PAID YOU TO ANSWER OUR AD A FEW MONTHS AGO An interesting example of an ad that backtracks — pointing out in detail what the reader missed by not buying the product before. A frequently repeated ad used by a well-known news magazine to pull for subscriptions.

———————————————————————————————-

So those are just a few of my favorites from the list that’s really worth checking out over at Jay Abraham’s site. Actually, I heard that someone had developed a program that created headline examples based on inputted keywords and other information, and then used this list of The 100 Greatest Headlines Ever Written to compose the samples. I haven’t tried it or even seen it but if any of my readers have I’d love to hear your thoughts,- which you can leave here by posting a comment.

russell-signature