Please critique (+ vote on) my headlines -- Thanks!...

[Ankesh]

Originally Posted by -TW

I'm not understanding your fine distinction.

A) Bad headline... causes fewer people to read further.

B) Sales letter not written in understandable English ("martian" -- requires de-crypting)... causes fewer people to read further.

Result (in both cases), decreased results.

-- TW

A) Bad headline = fewer readers. But not all of these fewer readers are the right audience for your offer.

B) Polarized headline / salesletter = fewer readers. But almost all of these fewer readers are the right audience. Only those who connect with you will read on. So response rates actually increase.

That is the difference.

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I'm in no way advocating you to copy Glenn's style. Or to even polarize your audience (I'm not much of a polarizer myself). I was just trying to explain:

I see your ebay auction descriptions -- which force me to say, "HUH?!?!" or sometimes "Who in the WORLD is taking this seriously?!?!" -- Then I see dozens of bids, rising to tremendous amounts -- AND getting 100% RAVE REVIEWS -- thus forcing me to say, "DOUBLE HUH!?!? -- CAN'T BE -- but it *IS*!!"