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Cosmopolitan Link Karma

written by Brian Clark
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Cosmopolitan Link Karma

Two weeks ago I wrote a post about how re-purposing headlines from the magazine Cosmopolitan can help you come up with ideas for blog posts and articles. I invited readers to try it for themselves, and plenty did.

So, let’s take a look at what people came up with. The really cool part is that several readers let me know that the articles they wrote using this technique brought in tons of traffic. One even revealed that her Cosmo attempt became the most popular post she’s ever written.

Not too shabby.

Now, on to the links.

The 22 Best Newsletter Tips Ever

Talk Like an Online Marketing Pro- 10 Terms You Have to Know

Ten Paper Tigers Scaring You Away from Your Creative Ideas

Teaching Sells: 12 Weeks To A Brighter Future On The Internet

Tweet Better: 9 Unconventional (and Slightly Badass) Ways to use Twitter

Your Mental Health as a Writer: Crucial Facts Copyblogger Forgot to Mention

12 Effective (and Slightly Badass) Ways to be the Sexiest Guy in the Room

My 17 Best Business Tips for Real Estate Agents

Shocking: 68% of Bloggers Do This in Bed

7 Reasons Florida is Better Than North Carolina

Home Schooling Mom Spills Secret: “I don’t record grades until high school!”

The 22 Best Writing Tips Ever

5 traits of successful people and how to apply them in your life

7 Motivational Quotes To Start Your Day, Everyday!

My 22 Best Design Tips Ever

A Crucial Tip ‘Copyblogger’ Forgot to Mention About the Long Tail

The 22 Best Winter Meeting Tips Ever

Your Back Pain: Crucial Facts Your Doc Forgot To Tell You

Your Business’s Health: Crucial Facts Your Ad Agency Forgot to Mention

10 Things Beaders Want for Christmas

Blog designers revealed: the little white lies we tell clients (and what we really mean)

My 22 Best On-Camera Interviewing Tips Ever

Book More Shows: The 10 Best Music Gig Books Ever

The 22 Best Study Tips Ever

Pull Ahead Faster: 7 Simple (And Cheap) Ways To Market Your Small Business Online

Consumers Spill: White Lies They Tell Businesses/Business Owners All the Time

How to be a total reader magnet: pulling the readers that you want

Six Ways To Keep Your Lover And Blog Readers Clamoring For More

My 10 Best Web Marketing Tips Ever

3 Must Have Social Networks … You Are Behind the 8 Ball Without Them

Top Secrets for Overcoming Your Obstacles

Debt Collectors Revealed: 5 Lies We Tell Consumers (And How to Stop Them)

A special shout-out to BlogGrrl for telling her readers to swipe trashy headlines months ago.

P.S. If I missed your post, let me know.

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Reader Comments (30)

  4. Brian I read about half of them and need to take a break. There is so much information here it is hard to take it all in in one sitting. Thanks for another great post. I already have some great ideas for some awesome headlines to my upcoming posts.

  5. Oooh ! I like those headlines with ‘Crucial’ in them.

    I’ll have to try that next, along with a few ‘Talk Like…’ and a couple of ‘Must Have…’ and maybe a reference to ‘Bed’.

    Thanks for the effort you put into this and for the link leak you gave unto me this Holiday Season.

  6. I guess a lot of people really did find writing with headlines much more inspiring than just sitting around and waiting for an idea to drop on their heads. Recently, I found out that I write better when I already have a title in mind. Granted, it’s not a Cosmo-like headline and I don’t have to enumerate anything but it narrows down the article to a specific direction. I had to check out the 22 best writing tips ever article. Very helpful, indeed.

  7. One thing I noticed is that there is almost always a superlative and a number. Ten best…top ten…5 crucial…8 awesome…22 Energizing…12 Crucial.

    And they sell all the time! 🙂

    And I never noticed that until now! Thanks a lot for the tip, Brian.

  9. In addition to the headline of mine you’ve featured here, I tried others – and even used headlines from other magazine covers (at Magazines.com) to model some headlines… and ALL of them pulled more readers in than the usual ‘lame’ ones I’d come up with myself!

    What an elegantly simple way to boost blog readership – for FREE!

    Strange enough, I’ve known of and used this technique while writing headline copy for sales letters – but hadn’t thought of it for blog titles! Thanks, Brian, for the copywriting gem 🙂

    All success
    Dr.Mani

  12. Brian, thanks for the link karma and the inspiration to write this piece. It was one of my most successful pieces to date too.

    I found lots of headline possibilities in Cosmo and will be using it again in the new year… Also borrowed elements of their article style too – going for a “dos” and “don’ts” list which isn’t my normal style but people seemed to like.

    The bit I found hardest was making the transition from the headline to the body of the article – until I came back and rummaged through the Copyblogger archive that is, and found your advice on carving out the opening paragraph.

    I’d say for me that made a bigger difference in constructing the piece than the headline itself. So double thanks.

    Joanna

  13. Thanks for the link, Brian. I loved the fact that having someone toss out a challenge to me made for a better post, better writing and better content. (Ahh, free inspiration…!) It was a great idea and a lot of fun to work on.

  15. This list of article links was a creative way to make a great point, Brian.

    I would have liked the article list better if the article titles were sorted by “Cosmo title” instead of the apparently random order. e.g.

    From the “22 Best Relationship Tips Ever”:
    – The 22 Best Newsletter Tips Ever
    – The 22 Best Writing Tips Ever
    – My 22 Best Design Tips Ever
    – The 22 Best Winter Meeting Tips Ever
    – My 22 Best On-Camera Interviewing Tips Ever
    – The 22 Best Study Tips Ever

    From “A Shocking Thing 68% of Chicks do in bed”:
    …

  20. I think a few journalists need to learn this skill. With so much content on the web, titles often make the difference between success and failure.

    This is just not for bloggers, but for every writer.

  21. Now I have an excuse for looking at those magazines in the checkout aisle!

    I really love this advice, and I find that in post writing, writing the headline first really does help me deliver better copy.

  25. I’m a little late with this – I only found the cosmo article yesterday, but it got me inspired so I used it to write a post for Living by Design

    “Learn Faster: 12 Effective (and super easy) Ways to Do It”

    thanks for a great tip

    with best wishes
    Ananga

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