Write in the active voice. Select a strong active verb and center your headline around it. The point of your headline is to show the reader what has happened -- what the action is -- in clear, concise, and above all arresting language. Establish a clear relationship between the your subject and verb, for example "Stocks Struggle; Gold Plunges."
Express the main idea of the story, but avoid borrowing overtly from the body of the story itself. This is not only unfair to the writer of the story, it is also bad for the paper, as a reader who learns everything he needs to know from a headline may decide not to buy the paper and read the rest of the story. For example, for a story about Moammar Gadaffi's escape from Libya, use a catchy headline like "Street fighting rages in Tripoli as Gaddafi loyalists fight rearguard action."
Eliminate articles and unnecessary punctuation. Many newspaper editors consider the use of articles ("a," "an" and "the") in headlines superfluous. Retain them, however, if they clarify a noun that would otherwise read ambiguously. Use minimal punctuation to make your meaning clear to readers. Punctuate only at the end of your headline or at the end of the line in a two-line head. Change a sentence like "North Korea ready to impose nuclear moratorium, declares Kim Jong-il" to "Kim Jong-il declares North Korea ready to impose nuclear moratorium," to eliminate the unnecessary comma.
Read your completed headline aloud to yourself and listen to it's rhythm. Ask yourself if it sounds pleasing read aloud and if not, revise it to make it more appealing. Notice how the "New York Times" headline "Sell Big or Die Fast" consists of five words, two commanding verbs ("Sell" and "Die"), two simple adverbs ("Big" and "Fast") and the conjunction "or." Try creating your own headlines using this structure (verb adverb conjunction verb adverb), like "Win Little and Lose Much."