{"id":680,"date":"2026-10-26T04:58:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T04:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/?p=680"},"modified":"2026-10-26T04:58:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T04:58:45","slug":"what-do-you-do-when-the-copywriting-greats-disagree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/what-do-you-do-when-the-copywriting-greats-disagree\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do You Do When the Copywriting Greats Disagree?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cDo not use more than 17 words in a headline. Why? Based on my tests, I\u2019ve never been able to make a headline work that is longer than this!\u201d<\/em> –Ted Nicholas<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Pretty much all the rules about headlines are nonsense. There\u2019s a rule that says a headline should never be longer than X number of words. And some of my most successful headlines are more god-awful long than they should be, and I also had ones that made a lot of money that are one-word headlines. It\u2019s not how long they are; it\u2019s what they say.\u201d<\/em> –Dan S. Kennedy<\/strong><\/p>\n

We’re constantly told to study the greats.<\/p>\n

Okay, but what happens when the greats disagree about something as fundamental as headline length?<\/p>\n

Ted Nicholas draws a firm line at 17 words. Dan Kennedy says he’s made money with headlines ranging from a single word to ridiculously long sentences.<\/p>\n

Which one should you believe?<\/p>\n

The disagreement becomes more interesting when you examine how each man reached his conclusion.<\/p>\n

Nicholas noticed that headlines longer than 17 words failed in his tests. He converted that observation into a rule.<\/p>\n

Kennedy saw successful headlines of wildly different lengths. He concluded that what a headline communicates matters more than its word count.<\/p>\n

Both men learned from experience. But experience always comes with boundaries: particular audiences, offers, media, and circumstances.<\/p>\n

What kinds of products was Nicholas selling? Where did his headlines appear? Did longer headlines actually lose because of their length, or because they tried to say too much?<\/p>\n

And when Kennedy’s long headlines succeeded, did the extra words supply crucial information, sharpen curiosity, or make a promise more believable?<\/p>\n

The answers could reveal when a short headline has an advantage and when a longer one earns its space.<\/p>\n

This is a better way to study experts than collecting their rules like commandments.<\/p>\n

\ud835\udde7\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddee\ud835\ude01 \ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddf0\ud835\uddf5 \ud835\uddff\ud835\ude02\ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddf2 \ud835\uddee\ud835\ude00 \ud835\uddee \ud835\uddfa\ud835\uddee\ud835\uddfd \ud835\uddf1\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddee\ud835\ude04\ud835\uddfb \ud835\uddf3\ud835\uddff\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddfa \ud835\uddf9\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfa\ud835\uddf6\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddf1 \ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddef\ud835\ude00\ud835\uddf2\ud835\uddff\ud835\ude03\ud835\uddee\ud835\ude01\ud835\uddf6\ud835\uddfc\ud835\uddfb\ud835\ude00. Find the territory where it works. Look for the boundary where it stops working.<\/p>\n

RW<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cDo not use more than 17 words in a headline. Why? Based on my tests, I\u2019ve never been able to make a headline work that is longer than this!\u201d –Ted Nicholas “Pretty much all the rules about headlines are nonsense. There\u2019s a rule that says a headline should never be longer than X number of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":682,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions\/682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/richardwinser.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}