How to write a successful headline

We're working on a new site for neboweb (you'll see it in a couple months), and one of things we're really focusing on is strengthening our copy. It's an area that we've not paid enough attention to in the past. It's never easy writing good copy, but writing good headlines is especially hard.

However, I can give you one piece of advice guaranteed to make you successful. It's advice I wish my advertising copywriting teacher would have given me in school.

For every one headline you plan to use in a campaign write 100 unique headlines.

Not all of them will be good. They don't have to be, but out of that mass of creativity you'll find a few keepers.

This is a habit I picked up from a great book about advertising copywriting by Luke Sullivan called "Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads.".

It reads a little dated, but I highly recommend it to anyone looking to become a stronger copywriter.