Dead People Are Cool

[E. Brian Rose]

Just a reminder that interesting headlines cause people, just like you, to click on them.

Now, I'm not saying this is a good headline, but it certainly peaked your interest enough to click, so it must be interesting.

There is little talk that goes on in this forum about headline writing or subject lines. The fact is that an awful lot of thought needs to be put into these.

I remain on a lot of IMer's lists just to see what kind of subject lines they use in their mailings. Some are really sucky, while others are brilliant. Which category do your subject lines fall under?

[Rob Howard]

I think what ticks people off the most, more than anything, is when a headline doesn't match the content.

Writing a good subject line to get open's is only half the battle. If the subject line doesn't line up, then people feel screwed.

So, for all the "Instant Sale Notification" emails, when they click, they expect to see a transaction receipt, not a "Hey Firstname!, Isn't it great to get those kind of emails! Well you can with my new spammy product!"

Of course, I'm just calling out the obvious here...lol

Rob

EDIT: To answer your questions, I try to make mine invoke curiosity, while relating to the message of the email, without being deceptive. It's like flipping pancakes, a little too much either way and it becomes ineffective.

[DireStraits]

Originally Posted by E. Brian Rose

Just a reminder that interesting headlines cause people, just like you, to click on them.

Now, I'm not saying this is a good headline, but it certainly peaked your interest enough to click, so it must be interesting.

There is little talk that goes on in this forum about headline writing or subject lines. The fact is that an awful lot of thought needs to be put into these.

I remain on a lot of IMer's lists just to see what kind of subject lines they use in their mailings. Some are really sucky, while others are brilliant. Which category do your subject lines fall under?

Well, there's an element of truth in this: it certainly doesn't take long for a dead person to "chill out".

[E. Brian Rose]

I agree with you, CC. This was obviously an exaggerated headline for the purposes of pushing my point. Had this been an actual email subject line for one of my mailings, you can bet that the content would include some reasons on why dead people are cool.

[E. Brian Rose]

Originally Posted by DireStraits

Well, there's an element of truth in this: it certainly doesn't take long for a dead person to "chill out".

Ahhh, somebody got my humor!

[Pusateri]

Originally Posted by ccmusicman

I think what ticks people off the most, more than anything, is when a headline doesn't match the content.

Writing a good subject line to get open's is only half the battle. If the subject line doesn't line up, then people feel screwed.

It doesn't have to be that way, though. Anything in the world can be connected to anything else in just a few sentences AND in a way that piques interest and keeps them reading.

You are right about the, "Instant Sale Notification," example. That's plain old deception. Making the reader want to strangle you is not a good way to begin an interaction.

[pethanks]

Yeah, dead people are cool. Thank you for the reminder.

[Powerwriter]

E. Brian Rose couldn't be more right.

And as fate would have it, Bob Serling sent out an email today that illustrated this point perfectly.

What's even more interesting (and possibly more important) is the relationship between subject lines and

* open rates
* conversions
* ROI

Bob Serling's email this morning talked about how he tested 3 different subject lines, all used to promote a similar service. The three that he tested were...

1) Cut and paste email increases response 142%

2) Here's exactly why you aren't getting any traffic

3) What I taught the French about romance

One of these subject lines produced over 1,000% more revenue than the other two.

Think you can pick the winner?

Now before you see if your answer is right, there are a couple of things this test highlighted quite clearly:

1) Open rates don't matter
2) conversion rates don't matter

If you've been an internet marketer for any length of time I'm sure you've heard a 1000 times how important open rates and conversion metrics are.

What this test proves (once again) is that conventional wisdom isn't always the best information. Open rates and conversions have their place but it's not the true measure of how successful your subject lines are.

No, What matters the most is your ROI (return on investment). How much money your email earned you after the dust settles.

So lets take a look at Bob's numbers to get a better understanding of what this means.

Cut and paste email increases response 142%
Had a very strong response

Here's exactly why you aren't getting any traffic
Had the strongest response

What I taught the French about romance
Had the weakest response


Pretty much what you expected right? Before you pat yourself on the back lets look at what these subject lines helped to generate:

Cut and paste email increases response 142%
Generated approx $48k

Here's exactly why you aren't getting any traffic
Generated approx $62k

What I taught the French about romance
Generated approx $580k

Want to know why the weakest subject line generated more revenue than the other two by a margin of more than 1000%?

Doesn't that just seem so counter-intuitive? I mean according to conventional wisdom the one with the strongest response should have made the most money. Yet it was the one that had the weakest response that cleaned up.

Now I'm not an affiliate of Bob Serling and I'm not even sure he even offers a program. But none the less he released a video that explains all this in detail and which I thought made sense to share in regards to E. Brian Rose's point on subject lines.

I'm not sure if posting links to a website that could be interpreted as promoting a product is a violation of this forum's TOS so I'm not going to risk it.

Instead you'll have to google, yahoo or bing (in quotes) "Creating High Profit Subject Lines" yourself to find the video. It should be at the top of listings.

If you have a problem finding it just send me a PM and I'll send you the naked link.

[Bruce Wedding]

I had to read this one:

Bears eat man at beer festival

[Ross James]

Boy Eats Own Head

[sethczerepak]

Originally Posted by ccmusicman

I think what ticks people off the most, more than anything, is when a headline doesn't match the content.

Writing a good subject line to get open's is only half the battle. If the subject line doesn't line up, then people feel screwed.

So, for all the "Instant Sale Notification" emails, when they click, they expect to see a transaction receipt, not a "Hey Firstname!, Isn't it great to get those kind of emails! Well you can with my new spammy product!"

Preach it music man. reminds me of that juvenile trick that people used on college bulletin boards where the headline would say "sex" and then...."now that I have your attention... blah blah blah..."

--- deposits two cents----

[E. Brian Rose]

Originally Posted by Bruce Wedding

I had to read this one:

Bears eat man at beer festival

Did it have an accompanying video?

[Brad Spencer]

Originally Posted by Powerwriter

E. Brian Rose couldn't be more right.

And as fate would have it, Bob Serling sent out an email today that illustrated this point perfectly.

What's even more interesting (and possibly more important) is the relationship between subject lines and

* open rates
* conversions
* ROI

Bob Serling's email this morning talked about how he tested 3 different subject lines, all used to promote a similar service. The three that he tested were...

1) Cut and paste email increases response 142%

2) Here's exactly why you aren't getting any traffic

3) What I taught the French about romance

One of these subject lines produced over 1,000% more revenue than the other two.

Think you can pick the winner?

Now before you see if your answer is right, there are a couple of things this test highlighted quite clearly:

1) Open rates don't matter
2) conversion rates don't matter

If you've been an internet marketer for any length of time I'm sure you've heard a 1000 times how important open rates and conversion metrics are.

What this test proves (once again) is that conventional wisdom isn't always the best information. Open rates and conversions have their place but it's not the true measure of how successful your subject lines are.

No, What matters the most is your ROI (return on investment). How much money your email earned you after the dust settles.

So lets take a look at Bob's numbers to get a better understanding of what this means.

Cut and paste email increases response 142%
Had a very strong response

Here's exactly why you aren't getting any traffic
Had the strongest response

What I taught the French about romance
Had the weakest response


Pretty much what you expected right? Before you pat yourself on the back lets look at what these subject lines helped to generate:

Cut and paste email increases response 142%
Generated approx $48k

Here's exactly why you aren't getting any traffic
Generated approx $62k

What I taught the French about romance
Generated approx $580k

Want to know why the weakest subject line generated more revenue than the other two by a margin of more than 1000%?

Doesn't that just seem so counter-intuitive? I mean according to conventional wisdom the one with the strongest response should have made the most money. Yet it was the one that had the weakest response that cleaned up.

Now I'm not an affiliate of Bob Serling and I'm not even sure he even offers a program. But none the less he released a video that explains all this in detail and which I thought made sense to share in regards to E. Brian Rose's point on subject lines.

I'm not sure if posting links to a website that could be interpreted as promoting a product is a violation of this forum's TOS so I'm not going to risk it.

Instead you'll have to google, yahoo or bing (in quotes) "Creating High Profit Subject Lines" yourself to find the video. It should be at the top of listings.

If you have a problem finding it just send me a PM and I'll send you the naked link.

Thanks for your example....I googled using your directions and I only found this thread ....rats

Cheers,

Brad

[Grazina Ajana Szewczyk]

how about this one?

[Grazina Ajana Szewczyk]

I think what ticks people off the most, more than anything, is when a headline doesn't match the content.

Writing a good subject line to get open's is only half the battle. If the subject line doesn't line up, then people feel screwed.

So, for all the "Instant Sale Notification" emails, when they click, they expect to see a transaction receipt, not a "Hey Firstname!, Isn't it great to get those kind of emails! Well you can with my new spammy product!"

Of course, I'm just calling out the obvious here...lol

Rob

Totally agree with you.
I'm uncluttering, and that includes my favourites and my email subscibtions. Just got rid of quite a few people who were sending me emails with a subject:
Your Clickbank commision has arrived
and in the email:
how would it feel if you got it tomorrow?

Well, I know how it makes me feel now

[alexpa]

i think its a reminder?

[John Breese]

That's an awesome find, Grazina.

[Chris Worner]

Here is a headline that will get your email read;

Naked Women Arrested...for concealed weapons?

[azmanar]

Hi,

Here's a subject line that got 5,000 people clicking a link in an email I sent:

"The dangerous stuff they use to make cocaine in Columbia."

It is not gimmicky nor funny. It's not even witty. Just point-blank.

I think the word "dangerous" was the pull.

[JonWebContent]

Originally Posted by E. Brian Rose

I remain on a lot of IMer's lists just to see what kind of subject lines they use in their mailings. Some are really sucky, while others are brilliant. Which category do your subject lines fall under?

Doesn't that get kind of annoying though? You probably get an insane amount of emails about products you would never consider buying.

[Grazina Ajana Szewczyk]

That's an awesome find, Grazina.

Glad you like it, John. I'm a sucker for everything silly. If I didn't have to work (lucky I love writing and coaching) I'd spend half of my day on Poorly Dressed People of the World - Fashion Fails, Engrish.com and Web Pages That Suck - learn good web design by looking at bad web design - Home Page
I bet you've seen some of them:

No Smorking
NO CHEWING CUM
Get a Happy!
Salad of tofu and steaming cock

here's one of my my favourites

[Pusateri]

Dead People are Cool...

That's what the necrophiliac told me as I rode the bus to work.

I wished I had taken my car to Mike's Auto Service.

Mike has free loaner cars.

Plus, Mike is not a necrophiliac mechanic. You know the type. Dead cars get them drooling and dreaming of running their fingers through your money.

Mike knows you'd rather keep your money safe in your pocket than spend it on repair bills. So, while your car is in his care, Mike and his team keep a sharp eye out for minor problems that will become major down the road. That way you can fix 'em while it's still cheap.

Big Mike won't tolerate necrophiliac mechanics around his place.

Send him a quick email at mike[a]mikesautoserviceDOTcom and tell him you're sick of necrophiliac mechanics slobbering on your wallet.

He'll send you a voucher worth $20.00 off your next oil change, plus a FREE bumper to bumper survey of all your car's vital systems.

Or do you prefer riding the bus?

[EmmaPowell]

Dead People Are Cool....
Thought this may be a thread on twilight ;0)

Here Are My 3 Tips For Writing Headlines

1) When I am thinking about a headline I write it down on a sketch pad, then I tweak it a little and write it again, I try and write a page some times 2 of headlines.
Using this method you start tapping into the right side of the brain (which is the creative side) and the side I want to be in tune with when writing wicked headlines or emails or whatever.

2) Swipe file - LOVE this, whenever I see something funny thought evoking or compels me to do the action it is asking, I keep it in a file on my comp so I can come back to it and put my own spin on it.

3) Rapping - My husband and I rap back and forth crazy, outlandish headlines, now this is fun! Its totally unplanned, it can happen anywhere at anytime. We might be out somewhere or at a friends or something, sometimes we are poking fun at an ad we just saw on tv, we usually end up laughing so much we cry..... then I gotta get to the comp to get down some of the little sayings down. By far this is my fav!

So in conclusion, dead people may be cool, but they are never online......

[Dermy]

Originally Posted by Grazina Ajana Szewczyk

how about this one?

I remember reading that,hilarious.

[Grazina Ajana Szewczyk]

I know this one is a classic, and I guess everyone read these names - I couldn't stop laughing when I got it in my email for the first time.


You have to think of everything when you create your website

1. The Royal Tit-Watching (Ornithological) Society Of Britain used the domain:
   www.Nice-Tits.org
   
2. Manufacturer of instruments for monitoring temperature, humidity and pressure Dickson didn’t think twice when they choose:
   www.DicksOnWeb.com
3. A holiday rentals company in Spain is called Choose Spain. Hopefully the vacation won’t be a painful experience:
   www.ChoosesPain.com
   
4. A company selling CAD software and Learning CDs was called ViaGrafix – quite innocent until a blue pill hit the market. The company is now called Learn2.
   www.ViagraFix.com
   
5. TeachersTalk: A community for teachers and student to discuss all areas of teaching… Even how to stalk teachers?
   www.TeacherStalk.com
   
6. The small town Winters’ local newspaper is called Winters Express and can be read online at:
   www.WinterSexPress.com
   
7. An eBay competitor was considering the name Auctions Hit, but found it to be a ****ty name:
   www.Auction****.com
8. If you offer a scaffold erection/dismantle service, maybe you shouldn’t have a mammoth as your mascot and call your company Mammoth Erection:
   www.MammothErection.com
9. Things to do and see along New York State’s Canals and vacation regions:
   www.NYCAnal.com
10. New Zealand’s “As Seen On TV” is called “But That’s Not All“. But do they sell Butt Hats or not?
    www.ButtHatsNotAll.co.nz

[Grazina Ajana Szewczyk]

and here's the second part

1. The kids might look nice in their Childrens’ Wear, but remember:
   
   www.ChildrenSwear.co.uk
   
2. IHA Vegas‘ holiday rentals might have a special smell, since:
   www.IHaveGas.com
3. Could a Apple Macintosh make me more masculine? Read more in macHome magazine:
   www.MachoMe.com
   
4. Odds Extractor – Online gambling resource or farmers looking for new and unusual machinery?
   www.OddSexTractor.com
5. If you’re known as Big Al, why not call your online fish supplies store for Big Al’s Online?
   www.BiGalsOnline.com
   
6. SCA Tissue – Away-From-Home tissue products has a terrible issue with their name:
   www.ScatIssue.com
   
7. Even if you’re company is called Cumbria Storage Systems don’t even think about calling your website:
   www.CumStore.co.uk
   
8. Alter Scrap Processing part of The Alter Companies use the domain:
   www.AltersCrap.com
9. Anyone knows if Australian ISP WebOne does some moonlighting?
   www.WeBone.com
   
10. Don’t start a business in Cook Islands… Given that their TLD is .ck and they use .co for commercial domains, you end up with:
    www.budget.Co.ck

from » 20 More Unfortunate Domain Names » Unofficial DreamHost Blog
and it's a follow-up post with the Top 10 Worst Domain Names

[JonWebContent]

That is the funniest post I have ever seen on this board, Grazina! I needed a good laugh right now, so thank you!

[Grazina Ajana Szewczyk]

That is the funniest post I have ever seen on this board, Grazina! I needed a good laugh right now, so thank you!

anytime, my friend.

Nothing makes me happier than helping other people be happy. That's why I'm a life coach, I guess

[JonWebContent]

Originally Posted by Grazina Ajana Szewczyk

anytime, my friend.

Nothing makes me happier than helping other people be happy. That's why I'm a life coach, I guess

Since my girlfriend left me the other day, perhaps you could coach her on making a good life choice - coming back to me!! If you can do that, you should get a medal!

[Greg Wildermuth]

Dead people are cool because of the principle of scarcity... they're dead now so they must have been cool when they were alive!

This thread reminds me of the band (don't remember who it was) who, during their garage days, used the name "Free Beer"...

[Grazina Ajana Szewczyk]

Since my girlfriend left me the other day, perhaps you could coach her on making a good life choice - coming back to me!! If you can do that, you should get a medal!

I can't do that but maybe you can

Give me one day to finish something here, and I'll send you a PM.

[JonWebContent]

Originally Posted by Grazina Ajana Szewczyk

I can't do that but maybe you can

Give me one day to finish something here, and I'll send you a PM.

Haha! No, it's pretty much hopeless!

She moved her stuff out today. She even took the couch! Now I gotta watch TV on the floor!

But she didn't take my case of beer or bottle of Jack so I can't complain!

That said, women are evil. All of them!

[GrowConnect]

Very catchy headline indeed! I was thinking about real story of dead people here. LOL. It is somewhat deceptive. People are sometimes using catchy headlines that doesn't really match with the content of the article. Just like in emails, spam emails in particular, they are using very attractive subjects like you won or something like that, and I really hate it. Now when I get those kind of emails I delete them right away without opening it.

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