If you're getting traffic to your website but few people are buying, you're like a lot of people I know. You may have a good product (or service) and a good price. You just don't have the sales you feel you ought to have.

One action you can take that can produce astounding results in short order is to change the headline at the top of the page - or, if you don't have a headline, put one up there!

Jim Edwards did exactly that on a promotion that was going south and his conversion rate jumped up 500% in a matter of minutes!

But if you change (or add) a headline, it has to be the right kind. This article will give you some important guidelines that will help you choose a headline that acts like a booster-rocket to your sales.

First, let's define terms. What is a headline, anyway?

A headline is the first set of words that your prospect sees on any piece of copy you write. It's just like the headlines you see in a newspaper.

Here are five typical newspaper headlines. (But… a warning. The first four are NOT the kind you want on your website):

1. Economy Improves As Unemployment Drops, Consumer Spending Swells

2. Ninth-Inning Grand Slam Saves The Day

3. Flu Vaccine Shortage Worries Health Officials

4. Spring Rains Flood Farmlands

5. New Computer Chip Promises Better Video On Hand-held Computers

While all these headlines would work well to sell newspapers and get readers interested in reading the news stories that follow, only last one would work in marketing, 99% of the time.

Why? Because most newspaper-style headlines merely sell the reader on reading the story, but they aren't designed to create interest in, and desire for, a product or service that you'd be telling the prospect about.

However, the last headline in the list…

New Computer Chip Promises Better Video On Hand-held Computers

… has a characteristic that could make it work just as well for an ad as for a news story. It's this: The headline conveys a benefit ("Better Video on Hand-held Computers") of a product ("New Computer Chip"), and this not only creates interest in the product. It also creates a desire for that product - if, that is, you're the kind of person (like me) who likes video on your computers.

In short, a headline not only needs to capture attention and keep your prospect reading. It also needs to set the tone for what the prospect is about to read - and, to create a mood in the prospect that will begin to make him or her receptive to taking the action you will eventually invite him or her to take in your sales copy.

That action might be to buy what you are selling. It could be just to request more information. Or, it might be to request an application form, which would lead to the next step of the sales process.

Whatever action it is you desire your prospect to take, your headline has an important job to do: prepare the prospect emotionally for the invitation you are soon about to make.

Clive Anderson

David Garfinkel is author of "Advertising Headline Templates That Make You Rich," a powerful resource that makes writing highly profitable headlines easier than anything else. Many top marketers privately consider this ebook their secret weapon. To find out more, go to:
Advertising Headline Templates That Make You Rich