The success of marketing copy such as brochures, ads, and press releases depends on the headline—or in the case of an email, the subject line. It needs to grab the reader and compel him or her to take action by reading the brochure or opening the email.

It’s your first hurdle, and it’s a big one.

The headline needs to speak to a pain the reader has or something the reader wants—now. Arousing curiosity is a good tactic. Appealing to strong emotions grabs the attention of the reader and hits him or her on a basic, gut level.

Following are a few ideas to show you how to write your next powerful headline.

Benefits, benefits, benefits.

Create a headline from your main benefit. What will your product do for customers? Get to the point, and show them what they get.

Try a brain dump.

Don’t worry about a great headline yet—get your thoughts down. Add to the benefits. Remember the pain you’re trying to ease. Think about the 5Ws and an H: who, what, where, when, why, and how. Can you use any of those words in your headline? Write five or ten options out, and play with them.

Don’t be too clever.

A little cuteness makes people laugh and helps them remember your product, but too much sounds insincere. People can spot phonies a mile away. Remember, while they don’t care about you, they need to feel they can trust you before they buy.

No false promises.

Misleading promises or incorrect information is always a no-no. You don’t want to appear untrustworthy. One person who doesn’t trust you can suddenly become 10, 20, or more.

Keep it short and sweet.

If your headline is too long, try taking out words or groups of words, and see if it still flows. You probably won’t get a perfect wording on your first try. Take out words like that, really, and just. Use short words and action verbs wherever you can. Make the customer feel as if you are addressing him directly. Speak in the second person—you, not we.

Finally, when you think you have a good headline, let it sit for at least 8 hours. When you go back to it, you’ll see it with fresh eyes. You’ll be amazed at what will come to mind, and you’ll know when it’s ready to go. If you take the time, you’ll surprise yourself at how well you do.

?Guest Post by Michelle Salater from http://writtenbysumer.com/blog/

ElegantEstate turns your WordPress blog into a fully-functional real estate website. The theme makes browsing your listings easy, and adds special integration features for property info, photos, Google Maps and more. The theme is a breeze to set up, and includes a list of additional settings when writing your posts to make creating each listing quick and easy.

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Blogging for Business requires much more than posting two to three times a week on important industry information. If you want your business to benefit from blogging, you must look at the whole picture of online marketing and discover where a blog fits into your marketing strategy.

Promoting your blog on social media platforms and ensuring all posts offer valuable information and are properly optimized are merely a small portion of gaining exposure for your blog and your business. In order to use your blog to its fullest potential, you must build blogger relations.

Below are five tips to build blogger relations and increase blog and business exposure online:

1. Comment on influential blogs: Search for blogs related to your interests and your industry, and comment on these blogs at least once a week.

Comments should offer additional valuable advice, compliment the post, or provide constructive criticism—with respect. Also, do not put your website or blog URL in the body of your comment. This often shows up as spam and will not be accepted as a comment. There is a designated area in the comment section that asks for your blog or website URL, as well as your name and email address. This is the only place you should place your blog or website URL.

2. Mention other bloggers on your blog: Mentioning other bloggers on your blog is a great way to illustrate to your readers that you are always staying on top of industry information and building connections with other industry professionals. Mentioning other bloggers on your blog also shows these bloggers that you are reading their blog and that you put great importance on their knowledge, tips, and advice.

Illustrate your appreciation for bloggers by commenting on their blog and saying, “Hey, just wanted to let you know that I loved this post so much that I mentioned it on my blog. Thanks for the great tips!” This puts you in front of the blogger and is merely a friendly alert that you mentioned them on your blog.

3. Post articles from influential blogs on your social media profiles: When you mention bloggers on your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Twitter, and / or StumbleUpon, it not only adds diversity to the content on your page, but it also shows that you seek out valuable information and find it important enough to share with your followers.

4. Ask bloggers to guest blog: When you tie the blogging community into your blog, you are helping to build a name for yourself in this online community. This encourages other bloggers to visit your blog and mention you on their own blog. Also, guest bloggers will often promote their featured spot on other blogs. This means, you are getting exposure to their list and vice versa. You are helping to promote each other.

5. Become friends with your favorite bloggers on social media: Friending bloggers on social media platforms is another way to stay in front of your peers and target audience. Blogs often have an area on the sidebar that features direct links to the bloggers’ profiles on social media. Take advantage of this by visiting their profiles, adding them as your friend, and leaving a friendly message for them on these profiles.

About the author:

Michelle Salater

Michelle Salater is an award-winning writer and president of Sumèr, LLC, a company which specializes in web copy writing, SEO copywriting, and the promotion and marketing of websites after they launch. As an avid business blogger, Michelle has grown her marketing blog, Copy Doodle, to be a powerful lead generation and client education tool, and frequently guest blogs and lectures on blogging. In 2009, Michelle won the Charleston Business Journal’s Forty under 40 award for her business and community leadership.

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Every blogger knows the ethics that blogging is continuous process,and we have constantly to improve and keep up to date our contents to flutter in the blog sphere.But most of the new blogger failed that they have not knows the essential things to build a professional blog,if you are in the same situation then the problem you are facing is not a big one,the real fact is that there once fewer blogs only in the blogsphere,the modern trend now there is a lot of comparisons.

Once your visitors satisfies your competitors blog then your traffic stats falls and your blog is null.So wake up from virtual world to real world and do something to generate traffic. Now I would like to share some suggestions which is something from my one year blogging experience.

1. Target to post at least 2 articles a week and 4 brief articles about your topic,write your article which is something related to readers taste,keep some spare posts in drafts to keep your post frequency.
2. Submit your articles to professional websites as a guest post to receive numerous traffic from back link.
3. Submit your blog to Search engines, at the same time do not forget to submit to Web directories to optimize your traffic. Do not submit your site to search engines with automated link submission tools.
4. Raise interactive comments on webmasters sites to get spare traffic from backlink.  Make sure your comments are not just fewer words like ‘Good post ‘, ‘Keep it up posting’ etc instead of leaving the comments without reading the whole article.
5. Be prepare yourself with social communities like Twitter, Facebook, Linked in etc to get introduction with others.
6. Do Participate online forums like Yahoo and Linked in answers to discover and learn about new vision of modern technology updates.
7. Write a good effective and useful reviews and place ratings on other site.
8. Talk with same niches to place site info for link exchange to get spare traffic.
9. Always place traffic oriented keywords, short and simple head lines which is related to your site contents to catch the visitors attention.
10. Do not forget to interlink with related posts.
11. Analise your site performance with Analytics tools.
12. Do not trust with the term immediate ‘page rank boosters’, persons who request or promote to visit their site for back link and vise versa.
13. Do not fill with widgets on your blogs front page(landing page), probably this will navigate visitors attention to other sites all the time at the same time Load time of your blog will also minimized by this way.
14. Place essential legal statement (Privacy policy) on your blog to avoid legal issues.
15. Spread your contents to readers through RSS feeds and Social communities.

I think this post is very useful for new bloggers,if you satisfies in this post then feel free to add your comment, suggestions.

This is a guest post published by Vijay from http://bayofblog.com

As a designer, at some point I am sure you have faced the problem any web developer faces — lack of professional and high quality icons to use. As we all know, the free icons are used pretty much anywhere over and over, so you cannot impress your client using the standard icons set. The only solution is make use of paid, high quality and so called “premium” icons, however, if you are like me, you might be wondering where can you get such icons for a reasonable price?

Some people buy single vectors, turning them into icons; while this technique does work when you need a large number of icons that are normally not included in one set, it can turn to be rather pricy and troublesome, especially if your project requires converting them to .ico files. The only solution that is left, is to find a quality icons website… right?

Recently, Vista Icons website was recommended to me when I was looking for a high quality vector-based icon set. This website features only paid icons and at first glance you might think that the price is a little high, as most sets cost around $90, however, as you get so many icons in each package, you end up paying as little as $5 for one high quality, vector based icon, which is significantly cheaper compared to other websites that sell stock icons and vectors.

Each set includes a big variety of icons that come in all the standard sizes from tiny to huge, and can be used either as .ico or .png. Before buying, you can always download a sample kit, it includes several icons in all sizes under Icons-Land Demo License Agreement, which will allow you to appreciate the quality of icons, and try them in your actual design before actually buying, so your purchase is pretty much risk free.

If you find a set of icons that suits our needs, you can purchase directly online through their secure website. Be sure to read the License Agreement before purchasing and using, to make sure your usage comply with their terms.

Professional page-based themes have always been in high demand here at ElegantThemes, and while I have made a few (TheCorporation, MyProduct, Minimal, 13Floor, etc.), they all strive to fill the need of a different niche. My goal with TheProfessional was to create a sleek and simple design without all of the extra features on the homepage that some people have no need for (widgets, recent blog posts, recent from boxes, and so on). This layout will be very easy for your visitors to understand and navigate. The three short blurbs on the homepage are easy to take in and the prominent slider provides a clear call to action.

TheProfessional Features

1. Full Width Page Template – As with all of our page-based designs, this theme comes with a full-width page template just in case you don’t want to use widgets throughout your website.

2. Four Unique Color schemes – The theme comes with four different color schemes. If the default Silver color is not your style, then try out the Blue, Green or Purple variations.

Of course the theme also comes with all of the standard theme features that we offer, including the ePanel theme options page as well as complete localization for easy translation.

Get full access to all the themes for a 1 time fee, find out how..

25 years after the launch of .COM, there are more than 90 million domain names registered in the .COM extension. The .com domain space is crowded and choosing a recognizable, short domain name can be very difficult. For example, how do you think the name Yipit was born? Jim Moran, founder of the online e-coupon aggregator Yipit, said “In choosing a company name, we ran a search for 5-letter domain names ending in “it” and chose Yipit, because it was the only one that sounded like a verb.”

Finally a new domain name competitor, fit for companies, corporations and all other forms of commerce, the extension “.CO,” has entered the market. CO Internet S.A.S. launched this week on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 in a “landrush event.”

“The launch of the .CO domain represents the next phase in the growth and development of the Internet,” said Juan Diego Calle, CEO of .CO Internet. “The .CO domain will create new opportunities in global commerce, content development, social media and other forms of interactivity, which will enrich the overall Internet experience for everyone.”

In launching the .CO domain, .CO Internet S.A.S. gave first priority registration rights to trademark holders — including well known brands like Amazon, American Express, Apple, IBM, Coca-Cola, CNN, MTV, Nike, Nestle, Ford, Nokia, Panasonic, Yahoo, Gucci, etc. The company reported that Overstock paid $350,000 for O.CO. “It’s… well worth the investment because it reinforces among consumers that ‘O’ is synonymous with ‘Overstock,’” says Overstock.com Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne. Twitter bought up ‘t.co’ and plans to use the site as a service platform to safeguard users from viruses and enrich the developer ecosystem. See a current list of the other .CO early adopters here at www.Opportunity.co.

By the end of the “sunrise phase” for big brands, .CO Internet S.A.S. had already registered about 11,000 domain names. Since opening their “landrush phase” this week, start-ups, entrepreneurs, small to large sized businesses will now have equal access to register .CO domain names. However, .CO Internet has withheld approximately 2,000 premium generic domains, e.g. car.co, adoption.com, insure.co, from this week’s landrush, that they will auction off in the next year to help promote and maintain the .CO domain. .CO Internet sells domain names through a global network of “Registrars” who distribute domain names to consumers. To buy a .CO domain name, visit registrars like GoDaddy, Register.com, Melbourne IT and Network Solutions. Prices start at $20 and vary from registrar to registrar just as they do with other domain name extensions.

“When a good domain name extension like .CO comes to market, you see how strong the Internet really is and how powerful its growth is going to be for years to come,” said Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons. “Let’s face it, domain names are 21st century real estate.” Expect .CO rivals over the next few years as we’re likely to see more and more dot “who’s,” this’s” and dot “that’s” popping up.

If you are a web master or just started with your online career, perhaps just like any of us you started with a free web hosting service and at some point you realized that if you want to take your business further, and there is no way to proceed without upgrading to a fast, professional server. However, like most web masters, you probably don’t have the ability yet to go with your own dedicated server, so how do you choose a website hosting that will supply all your needs yet will not hurt your pocket?

Do a web site hosting comparison, that’s absolutely essential if you want to make sure you are making money and not losing it, while paying for an overpriced host.

Start off by determining your needs. If you are not sure what exactly is it that you want, ask a friend, or a perhaps someone with good knowledge in the forums, explain what kind of website you are going to host and what’s your current specs. Always beware of those “advisors” who actually advice to pay for an unknown host that most likely they own themselves. Go with a well branded webhosting, that has been online for years and by now can brag with loads of testimonials from happy clients.

It’s true that there will always be unhappy clients posting negative feedback, but look how many are satisfied clients are there as well, for each hosting company.

We at toptut.com recommend using webhostingrating.com as an easy to use comparison site, where you will find not only top rated and well known hosting companies, but also feedback from users, articles, web hosting guide and a lot more.  With over 80 registered companies listed and even more web hosting offers available for you with special prices and even discount, I am pretty sure you will have a nice variety of opportunities to choose from. Good luck, and always remember to do a good homework before signing up — never rely on the company that simply advertises itself the most!

While many webmasters are still seeking a way to get a quality backlink and get listed in a low quality directory, many savvy SEO experts and web designers already created their very own PiePage. Just imagine if someone told you — you could have your own fully customized page, where you can have full control over the link and the look of the page, which will lead to your website, from a popular search engine site — the Aglepie search engine.

Main advantage?
I guess the biggest and the undeniable advantage is that you control the way people find you on the Internet. You basically “own” the page where you are listed, so you can add, remove and modify content at any time (who else will give you that much control?). Unlike other big and well known SE’s, which literally give you no control over your listing in their index, and the way your website appears in search results, Aglepie comes along with a simple philosophy: “give more control to website owners and you’ll get a search engine that is more alive”. And this is exactly what Aglepie managed to put together, a vivid SE. You can add videos, tweets, graphics, and text, customizing the page anyhow you want it to be.

Moreover, imagine your website is badly indexed in other SE’s, so when people are looking you up, Aglepie (as being a very well indexed site) will show up first, and that page will lead to your site… are you following? Because that is a huge plus if you have a hard time getting listed or indexed.

Great, but how much does it cost us?
That’s the best part, as Aglepie search engine is a FREE service that will list anyone, including myself and YOU! There is a limited number of PiePages you can create within your account, and each account is associated with your website (that is the default setting), however, as obvious as it may sound, you can purchase additional “pies”, buy links inside other pages and create PieAds. You can also advertise on the front page for maximum exposure, so if you have a paypal — the options are unlimited.

The bottom line is, you may ask if it’s worth the hassle. In my opinion — definitely.  From my experience, such services never remain free forever, and I am ready to bet that with time, when Aglepie will grow really huge, listing will come for a fee, and at that point, you will regret not getting there earlier. After all, if creating an account and adding your website is free, why not grab this opportunity, since you will have full control over the page and can make changes any time you want. Check them out and get listed while we are still talking about freebies!