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Friday, March 20th, 2009

33 Comments

How Digg.com Can Razor-Sharpen Your Headlines

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

If you checked out my previous post, “Websites That Write Your Salesletter For You,” I recommended Digg.com as one of the sites to help you write better headlines and create better hooks in sales copy.

Specifically, find popular news stories that grab attention, and model your headlines based on them using word-substitution.

For example: when I go to the site Digg.com and choose a random headline…

“The Dangers of Not Drinking”

I can turn that into a headline for myself.

That article title took something considered to be bad (drinking) and found a way to tell you that NOT doing it… is dangerous in some ways. The subject in this headline is “drinking”… so you can just change the word “drinking” into something that’s commonly thought to be bad.

For example, in the weight loss niche, you might say, “The Dangers of Not Eating Dessert!” In the pay-per-click niche: “The Dangers of Bidding Too Low!” All those headlines demand that people read on.

Check Digg.com once per day and copy down the three or four most attention-grabbing or funniest headlines you see. This will not only build up your swipe file, but will also make the headline writing process intuitive for you.

How about a couple other great headlines I found?

5 People Who Broke the Rules of Social Media and Succeeded
Man Steals Car to Get to Court on Time
The Death Penalty for Porn
Man Arrested Trying to Smuggle Wife In A Speaker Box

Here’s how you make the Digg swipe file process a daily activity. If you’re using the Firefox browser to Digg, click the orange RSS icon to subscribe to that feed, and save it into your Bookmarks Toolbar… NOT the bookmarks folder.

This will add a button to your browser that you can click at any time, and read the list of headlines without actually reading the articles or visiting any web pages where it might distract you.

Add the RSS feed to your browser’s toolbar and take three minutes out of your day to write the best five Digg.com headlines of the day so you can become a master headline writer… and even if you don’t want to wait that long, you can still use word substitution.

About the Author

Robert Plank is a computer programmer and Internet marketer. Even master copywriter Michel Fortin quadrupled his signups by adding Robert's simple exit pop-up email form to his blog. How many more subscribers and sales will it get you?

Category: Copywriting / Productivity

Tags: article, bookmark, headline, Market, News, Niche, salesletter, swipe, website

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http://www.highertrustmarketing.com/blog/ Jeff

Robert – shame, shame for giving away these secrets!!

I love Digg as a spy tool…I use it to find niche market ideas, copywriting ideas (as you mention) and angles for getting my syndicated content picked up by the directories and social networking sites — great article man!

Jeff
http://www.highertrustmarketing.com/blog/ Jeff

Robert – shame, shame for giving away these secrets!!

I love Digg as a spy tool…I use it to find niche market ideas, copywriting ideas (as you mention) and angles for getting my syndicated content picked up by the directories and social networking sites — great article man!

Jeff
http://www.CMasterson.com/ Chas

I stumbled upon a similar resource ( admittedly an old resource)
.A list of the most frequently “dug” words. You will find it under “Attention grabbing words”.
http://www.CMasterson.com Chas

I stumbled upon a similar resource ( admittedly an old resource)
.A list of the most frequently “dug” words. You will find it under “Attention grabbing words”.
http://foliovision.com/weblog Alec

Oh great, so now we’ll get to see even more copycat formulaic headlines and articles.

Wunderbar.
http://foliovision.com/weblog Alec

Oh great, so now we’ll get to see even more copycat formulaic headlines and articles.

Wunderbar.
http://www.karlmfoxley.com/ Karl Foxley

It still amazes me that it is the ‘obvious’ and ‘simple’ tips that most people miss and yet you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it once you know.

Thanks for sharing this one!

Karl
http://www.karlmfoxley.com Karl Foxley

It still amazes me that it is the ‘obvious’ and ‘simple’ tips that most people miss and yet you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it once you know.

Thanks for sharing this one!

Karl
http://www.thebadblogger.com/ The Bad Blogger

Ya Digg is a great resource for headlines…. thanks for sharing the info, now I know where I can get great headline for my swipe files collection !

The Bad Blogger
http://www.thebadblogger.com The Bad Blogger

Ya Digg is a great resource for headlines…. thanks for sharing the info, now I know where I can get great headline for my swipe files collection !

The Bad Blogger
Tom

Robert, this digg.com headline swipe file is good. I need these “What the Barber Said to the Bald Guy.” And “Blind Accountant Finds Tax Loophole.” type headlines. Good job.
Tom

Robert, this digg.com headline swipe file is good. I need these “What the Barber Said to the Bald Guy.” And “Blind Accountant Finds Tax Loophole.” type headlines. Good job.
http://www.blingcopywriting.com/ Web Copywriting Tips

Thanks Robert…I always liked browsing through Digg and it didn’t ‘click’ why until now. Thanks…you’re absolutely right, Digg is an archive of some of the best short headlines in the world!
I won’t forget this

Stuart Stirling
http://www.blingcopywriting.com Web Copywriting Tips

Thanks Robert…I always liked browsing through Digg and it didn’t ‘click’ why until now. Thanks…you’re absolutely right, Digg is an archive of some of the best short headlines in the world!
I won’t forget this

Stuart Stirling
http://www.gettingunstuckllc.com/ Terrie Wurzbacher

I would love to clone Robert’s mind. It is a phenomenal repository of great marketing ideas. It’s hard to keep up with him because of his fast-paced productivity. He has become one of my top three mentors in Internet Marketing.

Thanks to Michel and Sylvie for putting his ideas on the “Marketer’s Board”

Terrie
http://www.gettingunstuckllc.com Terrie Wurzbacher

I would love to clone Robert’s mind. It is a phenomenal repository of great marketing ideas. It’s hard to keep up with him because of his fast-paced productivity. He has become one of my top three mentors in Internet Marketing.

Thanks to Michel and Sylvie for putting his ideas on the “Marketer’s Board”

Terrie
http://thebreakthroughmarketer.com/ SaRita Hartin

Thanks, Robert – what a great tip! It constantly amazes me how many simple and easy ways there are to connect with my market that I just don’t think of.

SaRita
http://thebreakthroughmarketer.com SaRita Hartin

Thanks, Robert – what a great tip! It constantly amazes me how many simple and easy ways there are to connect with my market that I just don’t think of.

SaRita
http://www.webwritingwizardry.com/ Leon Altman

You don’t have to go to Digg for this. Yahoo is the most visited website, is written and edited by pros (Digg is user based), and has sharper headlines, some of which attract phenomenal response
http://www.webwritingwizardry.com Leon Altman

You don’t have to go to Digg for this. Yahoo is the most visited website, is written and edited by pros (Digg is user based), and has sharper headlines, some of which attract phenomenal response
http://drsuccess.actionpopup.com/ Robert Plank

Leon, any news site will work and I have been alternating having Google News and Yahoo! RSS buttons in my firefox toolbar but Digg always has more specific and funny headlines than any other site I have tried.
http://drsuccess.actionpopup.com Robert Plank

Leon, any news site will work and I have been alternating having Google News and Yahoo! RSS buttons in my firefox toolbar but Digg always has more specific and funny headlines than any other site I have tried.
http://newsuccessonline.com/ Mark McCullagh

Great tip! I’ve always found the best way to become a better marketer is to “copy” what is already working for others.
http://newsuccessonline.com Mark McCullagh

Great tip! I’ve always found the best way to become a better marketer is to “copy” what is already working for others.
http://www.frigidhair.com/ Rebecca Geiger

I have heard of Digg but I will be checking it out now as I had not visited that site . Thanks for the info. THere is so much to know about being online. I really appreciate that your link was shared via twitter (how I found you). I am amazed that compared to hair shows (where lots of platform artists who share what they know) this is such an eye opener and I find that blogs like this promote growth and insight into what you can do to improve what you do!
Thank You for sharing what YOU know!
Rebecca
http://www.frigidhair.com Rebecca Geiger

I have heard of Digg but I will be checking it out now as I had not visited that site . Thanks for the info. THere is so much to know about being online. I really appreciate that your link was shared via twitter (how I found you). I am amazed that compared to hair shows (where lots of platform artists who share what they know) this is such an eye opener and I find that blogs like this promote growth and insight into what you can do to improve what you do!
Thank You for sharing what YOU know!
Rebecca
http://nonstopmarketer.com/ Nando

Wow, that was a really good post and an excellent tip.

I’ve been working harder than ever to come up with eye grabbing copy and this tip will definitely come in handy.

Btw, you’re blog looks great. You guys always set the standard.

Have a good one.

Cheers,
Nando
http://nonstopmarketer.com Nando

Wow, that was a really good post and an excellent tip.

I’ve been working harder than ever to come up with eye grabbing copy and this tip will definitely come in handy.

Btw, you’re blog looks great. You guys always set the standard.

Have a good one.

Cheers,
Nando
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http://georgemanlangit.com/ George Manlangit

Never thought of using Digg for headline swipe. I’m checking out Technorati as well. I don’t digg regularly. Sometimes, article headlines from Yahoo and MSN can be useful as well.
http://georgemanlangit.com George Manlangit

Never thought of using Digg for headline swipe. I’m checking out Technorati as well. I don’t digg regularly. Sometimes, article headlines from Yahoo and MSN can be useful as well.
http://twitter.com/EnvisionBliss EnvisionBliss

GREAT INFO: RT @EmailCopywriter …RT @michelfortin: New blog post: How Digg.com Can Razor-Sharpen Your Headlines http://tinyurl.com/cd7cwe
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
http://twitter.com/IntriguingDs IntriguingDs

New blog post: How Digg.com Can Razor-Sharpen Your Headlines http://tinyurl.com/cd7cwe via @EmailCopywriter @michelfortin
This comment was originally posted on Twitter

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