The Ultimate Swipe File!


I'm about to reveal to you a headline swipe file every bit as amazing, compelling, effective and thought-provoking as anything Halbert, Carlton, Ogilvy, Fortin, Bencivenga, Makepeace and any other great copywriter have ever written.

Take a look at these headlines:

MICHAEL JACKSON SLEEPS IN HYPERBARIC CHAMBER!

TIGER'S SEXY, BLONDE AMBITION!

HOUSEWIFE EXPERIENCES HALF-RAPTURE . . . & gets stuck in the dining room ceiling!

BEACH PARTY TERROR! DEADLY MANFISH EMERGES FROM THE OCEAN TO
ATTACK PARTYGOERS!

Shocking royal claim . . . CAMILLA IS A MAN!

JUDGE FIRES BAILIFF FOR USING 'MOBY DICK' INSTEAD OF BIBLE TO SWEAR WITNESSES IN!

STAREOIDS! Growth hormones cause bodybuilder's eyes to pop out of his head!

Was Dubya's granddad a grave robber? BUSH FAMILY STOLE GERONIMO'S SKULL! - says researcher

MAN RUSHED TO EMERGENCY ROOM AFTER MONEY BURNS HOLE IN HIS POCKET!

WORLD'S TINIEST EARTHQUAKE DESTROYS JUST ONE HOUSE!

The sixth sense is NOT 'intuition' — it's a unique combination of smell & touch: SMUCH!

WHAT CAR WOULD JESUS DRIVE?

PROM KING AND QUEEN SEEK U.N. RECOGNITION OF THEIR OWN COUNTRY...PROMVANIA!

HUMANS TURNING BACK INTO APES! Sports fanatics & politicians most susceptible!

Hail to the wackos: HALF OF U.S. PRESIDENTS WERE MENTALLY ILL

IT'S TRUE — AUTOPSY PROVES IT! ADOLF HITLER WAS A WOMAN!

GOOD OLD BOY TRANSLATES BIBLE INTO REDNECK — so us'n can understan' what the Good Lord wanted us to lern!

BIOLOGIST BREEDS SNAIL WITH CHEETAH TO CREATE WORLD'S FASTEST SNAIL — THE 'SNEETAH'!

ALIENS TRAVEL TO EARTH FOR CHINESE TAKEOUT!

SLEEP EXPERT CAN DESCRIBE A PERSON PERFECTLY JUST BY HEARING THEM SNORE!

LAWYER SHEDS HIS SKIN — THREE TIMES A YEAR!

NUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CHAPEL

Wanna know the origins of these amazing headlines?

Supermarket tabloids!

Laugh if you want to. But the journalists who write these headlines are responsible for selling millions and millions of tabloids every single week!

Now that would be a heckuva feather in any copywriter's cap!

"... a headline swipe file every bit as amazing, compelling, effective and thought-provoking as anything Halbert, Carlton.....have ever written."

Interesting. I first heard about this "Amazing, Compelling, Thought Provoking" swipe file from Gary Halbert and John Carlton themselves going back to 1991.

I believe Gary further advocated buying the tabloids every week and collecting the headlines on 3x5 cards. Then, when it was time to write headlines, you pull them out and sort through them to stimulate ideas.

It was this technique that led to a headline for a client of mine that pulled in $315,000 in a week and another $724,000 on the back end. That was '92 in the pre-internet age.

"Superstars Bribe Security Officers!"

(if you were on the list it made sense in the context of the industry.)

Thank you Gary!

That's all well and good. However, I started this technique on my own, without anyone's suggestion, back in the 70's!

Dale King