Did the headline capture your attention? Do you want to find out what the secret weapon is? Will you keep reading?

Whether you want to sell a item to a web surfer through a classified ad or sell a story idea to a reporter through a news release, you have to capture their attention first.

Web surfers are notorious for ... well ... surfing. If you do not grab their interest right away, theyre gone.

The same is true with journalists. They usually decide in five seconds if a press release goes in the trash or not.

"How may anyone build a judgment on a storys newsworthiness in five seconds?" youre asking.

Answer: the headline.

Truth is, the headline is fairly often the only thing on a release that gets read. If its not attention grabbing, the release fairly often takes a dive into the circular file.

Readers and surfers react just as quickly. You have only a few seconds and the few words of a headline to hook them and reel them in.

So, the secret weapon to capture your readers attention is a great headline.

And if you want to learn from the masters of headline writing, just turn on any of the network newscasts.

Think about it. Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather are selling to you all instant, and theyre doing it through headlines.

Only the headlines are called "teases."

In the language of the newsroom, teases are those quick and generally intriguing snippets of understanding they feed you just before they go to a break. The idea is to build you say to yourself, "Hey, I dont wanna miss that."

And because you do not want to miss that, youll keep your fingers off the remote through two minutes of commercial babble about antacids, anti-depressants and laxatives.

Teases are aptly named. Theyre planned to show you a little, but not too much. Theres always a question, stated or not, thats left unanswered. Their appeal is in their mystery.

Here are some recent examples Ive heard...

"Its a musical instrument that may kill you