Keith Goodrum

It has to be the folks who write headlines for the covers of magazines like Cosmopolitan, Vogue, and Ladies Home Journal…

I heard that they spend as much time on the cover as they do putting together the whole magazine. You know that makes sense to me because if you can’t get people past the cover it doesn’t matter how great the rest of the magazine is if no one will read it.

These headlines are designed to do one thing & one thing only… to get you to open the magazine and read it. No pressure right?

One headline got me to drop what I was doing & read a magazine…

Yesterday I was cleaning out our magazine collection. We keep our magazines in a sophisticated filing system…

A pile.

Ba-Dump! (Ok, that was my poor imitation at a Milton Berle joke.)

The magazine is called Ladies’ Home Journal, and it is on the November ‘07 cover. The first headline reads:

What’s in Your Parents’ Will?

Nothing special here, right? I figured another X step article on how find out what’s in my parents will. Not quite. The second part of the headline stopped me dead in my tracks pick up the magazine and read the article. Want to see the 2nd part? OK:

Common Mistakes That Cost You $$$

That one came out of left field. Most people are curious about what’s in their parents will. After all we want to know what’s in it for us.

But to think there are common mistakes that could cost me money, instead of my parents… Now that got my attention.

Why this headline is soo good…

The reason this is a good headline is because it covers 3 important areas… Self-interest, curiosity, & urgency.

First it appeals to the greed glands. My self-interest took over, & answered the question… What’s in it for me? It does a perfect job in only 5 words.

Second Curiosity compelled me to find the article & read it. I had to know… what are these common mistakes? Are they easy to spot? Can they be fixed?

Third the urgency of finding out if these mistakes are being made can these mistakes be corrected? Or is it too late.

Take the time to read, and study these headlines. You can adapt them into your own writing, and add some umhp to your headlines. After all they are being created by the best in the business. Millions of dollars are riding on getting people to open these magazines. Now, that’s pressure to perform.

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