Web Writing

Headlines

What line of text has the power to either launch you into fame or bury you in anonymity?

A headline.

When written well, a headline makes someone stop what she’s doing and pay attention. Later, it becomes shorthand for your thesis — Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, Too Big to Fail.

On the other hand, if you treat your headline as an afterthought, or don’t make it catchy enough, you deprive yourself of an audience. Put simply, a headline can make or break your work.

In this workshop, we’ll study the case studies and tricks by which the smartest marketers whet their reader’s appetite without deceiving them through clickbait. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

✅ How to identify the most compelling angle of your work.

✅ How to create an itch.

✅ How to make your headline convey interaction.

✅ How to get specific.

✅ How to write a “listicle.”

✅ How to A/B test your work.

Read More About HEADLINES

📌 Why You Should Always Write 2 Headlines

📌 Your Headline Should Sell, Not Summarize

Hyperlinks

The best links are woven seamlessly into a sentence.

Search Engine Optimization

In addition to writing for one’s mom, today’s writer must also write for Google. Yet, as always, the devil’s in the metadata.

The secret of SEO is that every online article requires two headlines: The first is for the wordsmith in you — loaded up with wit, irony, and humor — while the second is for Google — loaded down with straightforward keywords.

We’ll review how the leading websites pull off this balancing act — and how you can, too.

Read More About SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

📌 How to Make Google Laugh: SEO Your Headlines

📌 When Content Isn’t King: The Importance and Ease of Search Engine Optimization

📌 Why You Should Always Write 2 Headlines

Websites

This is what happens when you let an engineer write your website copy: “Sorry, this page isn’t available The link you followed may be broken, or the page may have been removed.”

Gee, thanks. Couldn’t you at least have displayed a list of similar pages? Maybe linked to some frequently asked questions? At the least, you could have expressed a witty apology or summoned a brand-appropriate quote. And, if all else fails, bring forth a kitten pic!

This is why every website needs a wordsmith: To convert errors and necessary evils and other common, often-overlooked functions into opportunities.

To this end, we’ll walk through 30+ examples of error pages, tip jars, donation forms, calls for comments, and e-newsletter sign-ups and unsubscribe requests. We’ll analyze what works in each example, extract a series of best practices, and craft unique, brand-appropriate calls to action for your own website.