During my almost ten years in the newspaper industry, I typed the same first sentence for every story: PUT AWESOME HEADLINE HERE.

I tried to convince myself, and the few editors who picked on me about it, this technique helped keep my options open.  “The best stuff is written last,” I’d often chirp out as they walked past my desk trying to kill my focus.

The truth was I just didn’t want to fool with it.  When it came to writing headlines, I felt like a keyboard with no space bar — completely_useless.

I also didn’t try to learn the art of headline writing, at least when I worked for print.  I didn’t see the value of this skill until I started writing for the Web.  The newspaper culture is very different than the Web 2.0 society.  When publishing in print, the readers are first drawn to the visuals (as confirmed by the very first Eyetrack study by the Poynter Institute).  Although don’t get me wrong, headlines are still important.

The Web, however, rarely gives the luxury of visuals to draw in readers.  Headlines are often the only copy seen by prospective readers as they surf search engines, social sites and external links.  Less than a quarter of Web users are reading past the headlines, which means 80 percent of readers are making the decision to not read your copy without EVEN going to your site.

So what’s the trick to grab to the attention of Web 2.0 surfers?

Well Brian Clark, from Copyblogger, has a lot of offer on this subject.  He’s quickly becoming my favorite person on the Web.  His first piece of advice: “Craft a killer headline before you write one single word of the body content.”

Maybe that’s why my headlines were so awful during my print days.

“Your headline is a promise to prospective readers,” Clark writes. “Its job is to clearly communicate the benefit that you will deliver to the reader in exchange for their valuable time.”

It also helps you stay on task and deliver whatever promise you made in your headline.  An awesome headline turns into awesome copy.  The reverse however, does not pan out the same results.

In his series Magnetic Headlines, he covers the importance of keywords in post titles, how to write killer “how to” posts and the headline formulas that work.  Definitely worth your time checking these out!

If you want some data to back up Clark’s know-how, check out Site Headlines Tested.

Now go write those catchy headlines and put the INSERT TITLE HERE mentality behind you!  I know I am.