Readers know what the copy is going to say.

Every copywriter knows what it is to struggle with a copy for hours, for days - fixing it, polishing it, rearranging it. We have all been quilty of leaving the headline until the last and the spending half and hour on it - or perhaps only ten minutes.

Now I spend hours on headlines - days if necessary. And when I get a good headline, I know that my task is nearly finished.

Remember that the headline and the appeals are ONE AND THE SAME. In successful ads, the appeal is almost always expressed in the headline.

Even today you can look through almost any consumer or professional publication and find headlines that possess not a single one of the necessary qualities, such as self-interest, news, or curiosity.

The best headlines are those that appeal to the reader's self-interest, that is, headlines based on reader benefits. They offer readers something they want - and get from you.

If you are going to emphasize certain words in the headline, be sure that they are the words that say something.