💡 A non-obvious headline mistake

🧠 WELCOME TO THE PEN PIVOT

In today’s email:

• 🔧 Creator Tool Of The Day:

  • It’s not too late - 6hrs left.

• 🖱️ Get More Clicks:

  • By not doing this thing that everyone tells you to do.

• 💡 A Content Idea For You:

  • You won’t regret checking it out (sorry).

  • Headline template included 👍️ 

• 💟 Get More Engagement:

  • Possibly the easiest content “hack” I’ve ever shared in this newsletter.

• 🐰 Rabbit Holes & Resources:

  • 3 links so good I feel uncomfortable sharing them — but hey, it’s cool.

🔧 TOOL OF THE DAY

The “Look At Hooks” Headline Template Database

Access Closing In 6hrs

Tired of good content getting ignored?

Most content creators think they have a content problem…

When they’ve actually got a headline problem.

Here’s the solution:

Headline templates based on proven, high-engagement pieces of content.

They’re like gold dust.

They allow you to take any content idea in any niche and package it in a way that gets attention, clicks, and views.

Just by filling in the blanks.

Now, imagine an easy-to-use database…

A database that:

• Is regularly updated with all of the templates shared on this newsletter.

• Has a whole bunch of new headline templates that aren’t shared anywhere else.

• Includes ChatGPT prompts to instantly turn these templates into headline ideas for your niche.

This template database exists.

And for the next 6 hours, you could get lifetime access to it.

Click here to skyrocket your clicks and views with a database of 200+ psychology-driven headline templates

🖱️ GET MORE CLICKS

Don’t Overuse Power Words

• "Discover These 3 Jaw-Dropping Upper Body Workout Secrets"

• “Transform Your Garden With These Revolutionary Soil Hacks”

Let’s face it - no one talks like this.

And yet these types of headlines are littered across the internet by writers and creators because it’s what they’ve been told to do.

They’re called “power words”.

Emotionally charged words used to grab attention and evoke a strong reaction in the audience.

Examples: "Astonishing", "revolutionary", "transform", "breakthrough", "unleash", "discover", and so on.

Used tastefully, they can be very effective.

But overuse them and it’s hard to not sound like clickbait.

It’s a non-obvious headline mistake that’s seen way too often.

Put it this way…

We all know that person who exaggerates everything.

You probably don’t take them seriously or give them much attention.

More importantly, you don’t trust them.

But then you’ve got that friend who knows how to tease a story.

They hook you in by hinting at a juicy piece of info and you can’t help but smirk and utter “tell me more”.

As a content creator, be like that friend.

Tease with your headlines, but don’t overdo it.

Let’s take a random headline from the fitness niche as an example…

Instead of:

"Discover These 3 Jaw-Dropping Upper Body Workout Secrets"

You’d go for:

“3 Essential Upper Body Workouts To Tone Your Arms In 6 Weeks”

Build curiosity without having to exaggerate or overpromise.

💡 A CONTENT IDEA FOR YOU

A Piece Of Content Listing The Biggest Regrets You See In Your Niche

🔨 Your Headline Template:

🔎 The Inspiration:

🧠 Why The Headline Works:

• Loss Aversion: Yep - our favorite psychological bias. Highlighting 'regrets' taps into the audience’s desire to avoid loss — a super powerful motivator.

• Authority: Sharing from a position of expertise or authority makes the content seem more trustworthy.

🔁 How To Adapt It For Your Niche:

1. Identify Common Pitfalls: Think about frequent mistakes or oversights in your niche that you've observed.

2. Offer Solutions: Pair each regret with a lesson or a tip on how to avoid it.

💨 Speed Things Up With ChatGPT:

Not sure where to start?

Copy and paste this into ChatGPT after filling in your niche:

Hi ChatGPT, I'm a content creator in the [insert niche] niche, and I'm planning to create a piece of content following the headline template:

"[Number] Of The Biggest [Topic] Regrets I See As A [Role/Authority]"

I'm looking for inspiration to identify specific regrets or lessons learned within my niche that could benefit my audience by helping them avoid similar mistakes.

Please generate a list of potential regrets or lessons often encountered within my niche and suggest headline ideas based on the template.

For each regret or lesson, please provide:

- A brief explanation of the regret.
- How the regret can be avoided. 

🎨 Examples Using The Template:

For Creators:

• For Photography Creators: “7 Of The Biggest Gear Purchase Regrets I See As A Photographer”

• For Fitness Creators: “7 Of The Biggest Training Regrets I See Weightlifters Have”

For Businesses Doing Content Marketing (B2C):

• Wedding Planners: “8 Of The Biggest Planning Regrets I See As A Wedding Planner”

• Aesthetician: “7 Of The Biggest Regrets I See As An Aesthetician”

For Businesses Doing Content Marketing (B2B):

• HR Advisor: “5 Of The Biggest Employment Regrets I See As A HR Advisor”

• Business Strategy Consultant: “6 Of The Biggest Strategic Planning Regrets I See As A Business Consultant” 

P.S. This headline template is in the Look At Hooks database, along with many, many others.

💟 GET MORE ENGAGEMENT

Simply Ask For It

I first heard about this dead-simple tactic on the My First Million podcast.

They were struggling to get people to subscribe to their YouTube channel.

Eventually, they came up with the “Gentleman’s Agreement” — directly asking their podcast listeners to go to YouTube and subscribe.

It turned into a fun little running joke, but they eventually revealed that it had a huge impact on their subscriber growth.

I’ve found it with this newsletter too.

I usually include a poll at the bottom of every newsletter to see how you all enjoyed it.

I get more poll responses whenever I explicitly ask for them.

It’s as simple as that.

I spent a long time trying to intellectualize it and come up with fancy new ways of getting feedback.

But nope - all I really needed to do was ask for it.

🐰 RABBIT HOLES AND RESOURCES

🍫 Today’s link candy for content creators:

• The most popular free copywriting course on the internet [link]

• You’re probably thinking too small. Do this to 10x your goals and success will follow [link]

• Use Convertkit’s winning 4-month product launch timeline for creators [link]