No matter what you are advertising, you need to have a Powerful & Effective Headline. You MUST capture the reader's Attention. Isn't that why you are reading this article?? My headline captured your attention & caused you to want to know more about creating headlines.

An effective headline will capture the reader's attention and create a desire to continue reading the ad, sales letter or message. Because of this, your headline is the most important part of your message. You will never get anyone to read your message if your headline does not drive them to do so. You may have written the most awesome sales letter or ad copy ever written, but it will produce nothing if your headline does not capture the reader's Interest & Desire to act.

Your headline should also state a benefit that the reader can expect to receive from your product or service. It is the benefits that cause a person to buy a product or service or even join an organization. Most of what we do is determined by the benefits we will get.

You do not need any special talents, skills or experience to write powerful & effective headlines. Anyone can learn to do this by following a few simple steps & using some Power Words.

The most used and best Power Words are:

Fast, Free, Easy, Proven, Guaranteed, Discover, How to, Save, Increase, You, Your, Secret, More, 50% (any percent), $29.95 (any dollar amount)

Here are a few examples that I took from the Yahoo classifieds:

• Earn $12.50 per Referral! FREE to Join!
• Millionaires' Secrets Can Make You Rich!
• PROVEN - Guaranteed Success in any program
• A POWERFUL Marketing Secret-FREE!
• RISK FREE - Your Own Home Business - ONLY $29
• Proven Advertising To Increase Your Sales!

Each of these headlines contain one or more of the Power Words and states a benefit you can expect to get from the product or service that is being offered.

Let's start creating your Powerful & Effective Headline. (Be sure to write out each step - the act of writing down what you are doing is very powerful and will help you stay on course.)

First, determine your audience. Who do you want to read your ad, sales letter, article or message? This is your target market - the people that will benefit most and be most interested in your product or service.

Second, write down what makes your product or service valuable to your target market. What benefits will they get from it?

Third, since your ad, sales letter, article or message will be read by individual people, try to imagine one single person that is part of your target market and will be reading your message and be interested in your product or service. Continue writing your headline and ad with this one person in mind. Write as if you are talking to him/her.

Fourth, choose the most valuable benefits this person will receive from your product or service. Narrow the list to one or two benefits. Now write out a list of as many one line sentences that you can think of about each benefit. (Be sure to use some Power Words from above).

Fifth, Select the one most powerful statement from each list of sentences you just created.

Sixth, Now, if possible, combine your most powerful statements into one sentence, or you can select the best powerful statement from all of your lists.

You have just created your first Powerful & Effective headline. Your headline will now capture your reader's attention and interest and will drive him/her to read your ad, sales letter, article or message.

Use these simple and easy steps each and every time you want and need to create an effective headline.