Are you up for a little social experiment?
Do you blog?
Are you cool on the inside but a little stoic on the outer?
Do you wish the world saw things your way but know you’d be out of a job if it did?

If you answered ‘yes‘ out loud to all of these questions, then have I got a deal for you!

Inspired by amazing headlines such as:

- 16 Usable CSS Graph and Bar Chart Tutorials and Techniques (you temptress!)
- 200+ Beautiful Seamless Patterns Perfect for Web Design (there are more than 50!?)
- 17 Stimulating Flickr Groups to get You Typographically Inspired (over-stimulating, methinks!)
- the 11 most unnecessary guides on the internet (so unnecessary they’re necessary to look at!)
- 25 Ways to Tell if Your Social Media Expert Is a Carpetbagger (I don’t even know what a carpetbagger is!)

… I invite you to play online with each other in
THE BATTLE OF THE RIDICULOUS HEADLINE.

How it works
1. I unveil the secret headline-winning formula (below)
2. You pick a topic and write a headline in the guaranteed-to-bait formula
3. You blog yourself silly
4. You ‘share’ your post around
5. Winners win stuff – as all winners should

The headline-winning formula unveiled
After much analysis, I’ve unlocked the hidden secret of online success.
All you have to do is write headlines using this structure:

Number + Adverb + Adjective + Topic + Focus + Benefit/Effect

Just look at the fortuitously incredible headline for this very post:
5 stupendously hyperbolic blogging headlines that will make you click fast
A surefire classic in the making!

BTW big thanks to the Twitter brains trust for letting me know that a modifier of an adjective is called an adverb (I had it twisted): @ingvoldSTAR @Afficionados_HH @nakedbearmedia @hamishstewart @davewhittle

What you will win
I’m so convinced that awesomely generous sponsors will join the fray by the weekend that I’m in a position to offer prizes that don’t even exist yet.
And those prizes will be awarded for:
1. Headline re-tweeted the most on the tweeting sensation Twitter
2. Most traffic driven from Twitter to your blog post (stat showage required)
3. Highest number of unique visitors (stat showage required)

If you are an awesome sponsor, email me quickly because I know there’ll be a queue out the door to get on board with this holy-crapoli-this-is-a-good-idea idea.

There must be no half-stepping:
1. You must tell people how they will feel and/or benefit from your post in the headline (this is blogosphere meets FMCG TV commercial type stuff)
2. You must be hyperbolic
3. You cannot suck

Timings
Start stoking the headline fires now… hopefully over the weekend I’ll release the astounding prizes and full timelines. Maybe with a sneaky Gant chart in the mix as well. Sexy!

Specific challenge to the media types:
Adnews, B&T, ABC, Fairfax, News, Ninemsn… the lot of you. You know change is coming. Be a part of it. You can dooo eeet! Don’t let Mumbrella eat your breakfast – because he will!

If you don’t have a blog, email me your idea and if it’s steak knife-worthy you can post it here. Or maybe we’ll create a site for the battle instead.

If you enjoyed the read, please leave a comment. Feel free to follow me on Twitter