Writing Porn Headlines That Sell

An adult webmaster resource...

Written by Tom from Tom's Newbie Booster

When I say headlines, it means that you're going to be writing your own ads. Sponsors do provide adverts that are ready to add to your porn pages but, if you want my advice, learn to write your own adverts too. You don't need to have EVER done any writing previously, or be some kind of marketing genius. Anyone, whether they're a new or experienced adult webmaster, can write effective text ads. I've written extensively here about their benefits. They load instantly, don't appear on anyone else's sites, and will get you clicks and sales - big time.

The most important part of any written advert is the headline - those few words at the top of the ad that make you take a second look. Look at any newspaper - those guys are the grand masters of making headlines. They know that if they get it right they'll sell a lot more papers. One word can make the difference between a record sales day, and a regular one. Porn headlines, on free sites, TGP sites - or any kind of site - are exactly the same.

I won't go into layout here, because I want to focus on headlines, but I will say this: If no-one sees an ad, then it's content is wasted. Put text ads where people can't miss them, and make sure they're loud, bright, and don't blend into the background. Check every page - are your ads reaching out to people, or just talking to themselves?

The purpose of a headline

Most surfers that come to your pages will be there for a free ride. Unless you're lucky enough to be drawing in a lot of search engine traffic, you've got a tough job ahead of you. This job gets even more difficult as you begin to work with something like the TGPs, where the surfers are taking in a lot of content each minute for free. The first thing that a porn ad headline needs to do is to throw something in front of the surfer that will, just maybe, make them read a bit more.

Before I go on, let's back-track to something else that we've talked on TNB about before: 'honesty'. You need to know exactly what it is about this Paysite that you're selling. Take a trip to the tour of the site that you are promoting. What's the tone like: sensual / dirty / humourous? What's on offer: do they REALLY have a lot of movie content? Take a few moments to find out what you're promoting. Without that info, you won't be able to write a headline that will work. These surfers are no-bullshit armoured tanks... you've got to have some powerful artillery to stop them.

Some approaches to try:

Try using some of the following in your porn headlines:

Shock 'em
Mention something they can't get for free.
Ask a question: "Want to...?", "Have you ever seen...?" and so on...
Describe something that happened: "Angela fucked 3 guys..."
State a fact: "240,000 black amateur movies..."
Describe it to the extreme, eg. "CRAZY...", "UNBELIEVABLE..."
Intrigue 'em - use a term or site title that they won't have heard of.
Challenge 'em: "FREE PICS ARE BORING..." or "YOU'RE MISSING OUT..."

There's some more help here:

Adult Advertizing Ideas Sheet
http://www.tomsnewbiebooster.com/adult-advertising-ideas-sheet.html

Keep it short and direct

I know - it's a line that's in every guide to writing ads, but I think it's important in porn headlines too. I see a lot of sites and pages, and a lot of the time people are saying great things in their ads (targeted at the right niche, great tone etc...) but the message gets lost in an endless stream of text. A headline in an ad needs to be large, snappy, and bold. It should be instantly effective and work at no more than a glance. Write and re-write your ad and lose what writers call the 'fluff'. Your ad text will be most effective if you trim away anything that isn't vital to the ad.

Remember those ads on TV for the headache pills? Porn headlines are the same - they have to work fast and give instant relief (if they click!). Keeping them cut down to a minimum is essential.

Surf TGP galleries - what grabs you?

We've talked about some basics - now it's time for your master class. Here's three good pieces of news for you:

FACT: Some people (TGPers / SE players etc...) make a LOT of money in this business.
FACT: Much of that will come from their own text ads.
FACT: Those ads are available to you to research into now - 100% free.

Regardless of which kind of line of building you're in, or even if you're not sure what direction you want to go in yet, go to the major TGPs and look at hundreds of TGP galleries. Look for the people that are using big, FAT headlines to sell their sponsors. There will be a lot of in-experienced TGP galleries too - using mainly banners with no text. Skip those. You should find some good examples of ads which follow what I've been talking about here. Look especially at the headlines. What are they doing to GRAB the people that come to their galleries? What are the principles behind each one? Shock tactics? Facts? How can you utilize the same tactics?

More headline resources:

As you can imagine, there's not going to be many URLs out there on "writing great sex headlines!" (If you know any - please post them on the board...) BUT - here's two excellent pages of help on writing headlines in general, which will relate 100% to adult ones too.

The first is this URL. Please read it in full because this page has some simply EXCELLENT advice on writing good headlines, as well as some facts figures, and advice from ad professionals:

Headlines That Sell
http://www.easy-home-business.com/headlines.html

This next article is also very worthy of printing. It breaks down some of the things I've been talking about with regards to different things you can put in the headline, as well as going in to human motivators:

Secret Formulas for Writing Headlines That Sell
http://www.web-source.net/secret_formulas.htm

Now, go write some ads that will make you some serious $$!

TOM ^"^