This is a guest post by Hector Cuevas.
Pop Quiz: How many blogs are there on the internet?
a. 50 million
b. 160 million
c. a Gazillion
If you said C, you’re wrong. But don’t worry, I thought it was C, too 🙂
The actual number is unknown but back in 2010, there was an estimated 160 million blogs online.
So, if you said B, pat yourself on the back (cuz I can’t do it from here).
Take a second right now and think about what I just did. How did I get you to read past the first sentence?
That’s what this post is all about and today you’re going to learn 5 ways to open your blog posts, or fix your old posts openings and get people to read.
Just like first impressions matter in life, the first sentence of your articles are just as important. Your readers use them to determine whether the post is worth their time.
After reading this you’ll be able to literally “copy & paste” these techniques on your own posts – and hopefully see better results. Here are the 5 ways you can open your articles…. with examples.
Ask a question
This is by far the simplest of them all and I use it on most of my blog posts. You can’t go a day without seeing this opening, and for good reason – because it works.
Not only does it help you get started writing, it also grabs your reader’s attention which entices them to continue reading your article. Here’s an example of this opening at work:
- “Do you ever wonder if the positioning of the elements on your website are really making any sense?” – How Effective Is Your Homepage? [Infographic] by Francisco Rosales
Start with a quote
Starting with a quote might seem like something you would do on a high school grade essay, but they’re very useful when opening blog posts, too. Quotes are great because they made “quotes” for a reason.
Maybe they inspired someone or made them think differently about a particular topic.
Whatever the reason, you should use them in your openings because they will have the same effect on your readers. If it’s a really good quote, they’ll want to know who said it, and hopefully why you’re quoting them.
- “The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.” – Simon Sinek Shares the #1 Business Principle that Changes Everything by Scott Dinsmore
Lead with a story
I love stories. We all do. That’s what we do all day long. When your best friend asks you how your day was, you don’t just say fine and keep it moving.
You tell them about that dude that cut you off while you were driving. Then you tell them how the cops pulled you over for speeding when you were just trying to catch up to the guy that cut you off, to do it back to him.
We tell stories. That’s what we do, and they’re another great way to start your articles. They get your readers hooked and that’s exactly what we want. Here’s a quick example of storytelling at work:
- “Picture three men racing through a tall hedge maze. The first man runs off and begins following paths randomly, hoping to stumble upon the exit…” – Why Blind Obedience is Killing Your Business by Johnny B. Truant
Go against the norm
The shock and awe approach. Works like magic. You can start your blog posts by disagreeing with what is commonly accepted as the norm. This builds an instant sense of curiosity and bring up questions that your readers need answered.
Use this opening with caution. You don’t want to shock your audience with a strong statement, or build a ton of curiosity and not back it up. Your content needs to clearly explain your point of view.
- “A common misconception is that you can only make money blogging when you write about blogging or making money online. We disagree.” – How Sarai Mitnick Attracts 380k Pageviews a Month by Caleb Wojcik
Short and Direct
Short. Sweet. To the point. There’s nothing sexy about this blog opening, but it works just as well as the others. I don’t use this one as much as I should, but it does make starting blog posts a lot easier.
Simply think about the one thing you want your readers to get out of your article and just say it. Tell them from the very beginning and I bet they’ll be more interested in finding out more. Here’s how I used this opener:
- “The headline is everything.” – 5 Tips For Writing Great Headlines That Work by Hector Cuevas
How do you open your blog posts? Please share some tips with us in the comments.
i totally agree with u .these are very necessary points to be kept in mind for starting a new blog.. thnx for the post
Hello Hector,
I found your post very interesting, and so very helpful! Planning is very important for a writer to start with his work. I’m sure you agree that draw your readers’ attention and keep their interest undiminished are two crucial things for a successful blogger. Your advices above tend to do this, that’s why I will definitely use your approach next time I’ll write about something.
Thanks for these tips Hector.
Yo, Hector! Some time last week, I passed by your blog again and noticed that you changed your URL. I thought I was in another place, but I saw your awesome stuff there. Yeah, you really make me read past your first sentence. The stuff that you write are really good.
= Gerald Martin, Resell SEO =
I have to agree to your Post. Well in fact I have learned a lot from it too. An enticing title for your post can make your readers go for more. I will try your approaches too Hector. Thanks
I’m brand new to blogging and I’m finding it quite interesting. My training in scientific writing is now contradicting all that creative writing that I learned in college. Headlines and opening sentences definitely make a difference. In contrast to scientific writing where you pretty much have to be as boring and objective as possible. Great post Lisa.
I have a blog mentioned above. Google Disable my account. How i survive with adsense. I have only 5000 unique visitors on my blog per month. How i improve my visitors. Or I planned to convert this blog into website. can you make it for me. Please send your quotation in my mail.
Sorry Hector, I hit the enter key too fast 🙂 Most of the time I focus so much on creating the right titles for my posts, that I don’t really think as much about the openings as I should. I do like to put questions at the end and very often I include a quote somewhere in the middle. Thanks for these examples, time for me to mix things up so I’ll give these a try.
Hi Hector, it’s great to see you doing a guest post here on Lisa’s blog!
These are brilliant ideas..Starting a good question is a good conversation…just like what you did in your blog more people are interested to read…
Fixing old blog posts may sometimes help anyone get a spike in search engine rankings, as well as tap hidden revenue that was not fully stimulated to come out of the blog post in the past. College of Content has also learned that at times, it is in fact OK to ask a question, as part of a blog title. It’s all about staying unique & thinking “outside of the blogging box.”
Thanks Hector for the insight. I would like to add that we should bullet point the main points in a post, use topic related picture with Alt Text & the keyword density should not be more than 12 in a 400 words post/article.
Yep, I think starting with a question is good way to begin talking about some thing. Sometimes I also start a blog post with a story, as you said, we all love story, well it’s powerful way to take people to where we want they going to. Thanks for the awesome post.
Hey Lisa.. I have been searching your blog and mabybe I am missing it. But I am trying to form a static webpage and I would like to order from your webpalace, just not sure how. Could you please do a walk through of this for beginners or if you have already touched on this please point me in the right direction.
Thanks,
EQM
Since this question is not related to this post, please email me at the contact form here so I can help.
Hector, thank you for the insightful article! I fully agree with you that the author should use interesting cliffhangers to catch readers’ attention, the most successful are quotes or in other words sound bites, that users can repeat or quote in their comments or which is even more cool in their further articles. I just want to add that not only the opening of the text has to be short, but the whole post’s paragraphs should be also not long, so the reader doesn’t be scared by its big size when they open the article. Once again thank you for the important tips!
I like the idea of going against the norm, today I really learn a lot.
Well I have share your blog to my 4k twitter followers.
These are really good thanks. Starting a blog post off on the right foot is sometimes the hardest thing for me to do. This gives me a few more starting points.
yes i agree with your points but the main problem is blog visibility as you mentioned above there are 160 million blogs. So what should we do to increase blog visibility.
I prefer doing new blogs because fixing old ones maybe so time consuming.
Lisa you make some great points. I am just starting out creating my sites and all of your information has been very helpful. Thanks for all your hardwork. -EQM
I think its time for me to check my old posts specially which are not getting too much traffic.
I’m working on a new blog post today so I am going to employ your idea of asking a question in the first sentence and see how it works.
Great stuff Matt. Taking action right away – that’s the way to do it.
Lisa, I like another prospect. I am trying a little different approach. I am writing uplifting short words for self-improvement. My readers are responding quite well. I think people are bombarded with the internet as a whole and they need a break.
Thanks for this amazing article. Sometimes we write long articles for nothing . I’ll keep in mind the Short, Sweet, To the point everything i post something on my blog.
Hi Hector,
Good post.I would also probably add , make sure your post have superb headlines. Afterall, 4 out 5 people will just scan your healines and decide whether to stay or leave your site.
Thanks for the great advice. Having a catchy title on blog posts is very important!
Definitely.. post titles (or headlines) are a entirely different animal but some of these tips can apply as well..
hey lisa, how are u? lisa can you help me? yesterday I instal plugin seo, why my page error now?
Nice post Hector – thank you for sharing.
How about opening up with Social Proof? I suppose that can fit into the “story” category, but a picture can sometimes be more than a thousand words as we’ve all heard.
That said, there is obviously a fine line with this approach. You don’t want to come off as always bragging about your wallet/or another valuable possession. Also, it goes w/o saying that the use of this approach will highly vary with the niche you are in.
Fits in with your short and direct category as well 🙂
Never thought about that one. A short and direct social proof statement.. try it out, I’m sure it’ll work out great.
I completely agree that first impression lasts when we are talking ’bout blogs or any writings. But, the really essence of a powerful blogging is putting passion into your blogs and the rest of the openers will surely follow. Then, the result will be great!
Interesting topic for discussion!
My posts open with many different ways, dependign on the topic. Yes, I love quotes, so often they either start with a quote or are added in-between. And yes, I often start by asking a question to get the readers interested in the rest of the post, or sometimes it goes against the norms and I love trying something different then.
All that matters at the end of the day is that you are able to hold onto your readers, and want them read your post further 🙂
Thanks for sharing 🙂
5 good tips, I’ve found that my blogging tends to be a ramble about whatever comes into my mind. Having that type of structure will certainly add coherence to future writings.
I have to say as others have said its the title then has brought me to the blog, so i read the opening lines and learnt a few interesting facts but did not feel that opening was really relevant to the post (other than it was about blogs) just seemed a waste of time to me.
I thought that answer to your pop quiz is C too.. 🙂 I stand corrected! Thank you for that!
I totally agree with you. This is a mind blowing tips and I’ll make sure i apply them and make it a priority.
Glad you liked them Henry
It’s funny how your title brought me in, but then your opening totally engaged me to the point that I forgot for a moment why I was there. Instead of skimming to gloss over “5 points” I ended up reading the post. You made your point – thanks for the tips.
I was waiting for this comment.. Thanks Lowell – I’m glad the opening actually worked :0)
That’s it Lowell. When I’ve had to do actual direct sales copywriting in the past I spend a ton of time thinking through every part of the copy, including the opener. I just have never really thought that hard about it for my regular blog posts.
The best ways to open a post all also seem to be the best way to wrap one up. Nice little bookends to encourage meaningful comments.
Thanks for running my guest post Lisa… :0)
Hi Hector! This is such a great advice. I never thought that putting quotes would be perfect! Thanks to you, I will try to do this on my next blog…
I think it is too many blogs sometimes. There are good ways to open up a blog artcle. I like the question method as well.
Hi Lisa,
I just found your site and wanted to thank you for the great tips you’ve shared here. Funnily enough my latest post begins with a few questions and does peak interest right away. Have taken notes and will be implementing these in my posts from now onwards. Now I need to revive my old posts LOL.
Hey, glad you liked the post. It’s funny you said that you need to revive your old blog posts because my last guest post on Lisa’s blog was all about: 8 ways to revive your old blog posts..
https://blog.2createawebsite.com/2011/06/30/8-ways-to-revive-your-old-posts/
Hope that helps :0)
Thanks Hector for these great tips and the link. Will definitely read up on it.
I use a combination of all of these for my blog posts. I like them all, but don’t want to run the risk of overusing one in particular.
Another great way of starting a post is to tell your readers what they’re getting out of the post. For example you may say, today you’ll learn how to write a professional press release for your new blog
That’s the idea Anne. You hit the nail on the head. There are many more ways to open up your blog posts and you should experiment with them to see what works best for you – and keep switching them up as to not overuse them like you said.
I usually open most of my blog posts with an opinion of mine or I open using facts from my life and that works okay, but I think that opening with a question or a quote would interest my readers a lot more. Thanks for the tips, Hector.
Kevin.. glad you liked the ideas. Opinions and facts are great too – especially if those opinions and facts shock the heck outta them.
Appreciate the comment
Hi Hector
That is some great advice. I often end my posts with a question, but maybe I should try to put the question in the beginning of my posts.
Ending with a question is something I often do. It sparks conversation, but definitely try using one in the beginning – I’m sure it’ll help. 😉
These are great ideas for creating good blog post headers to draw people into reading your content. Thank you for sharing.
Glad you liked it Kay.. thanks for your comment
Asking questions to oneself is the best. Also giving the fresh stuffs to reader’s is an added delight 🙂
I have to try that on my next post..thank you Lisa
I always struggle with these, sometimes I get it, sometimes I don’t, but I am moving this post to my Evernote for FOREVER reference. Great work, Hector, and I am sure there are gazillion of them in 2012, lol
Yea.. in two years that number might of gotten really close to a GAZILLION.. :0)
Anyway.. thanks for the comment, I’m glad you found it useful.
I need to apply these strategies for my YouTube videos! Great stuff!
These will definitely work great for videos as well. The better you get at grabbing your viewers attention, the more of them will stick to the end of the video.
Hmm. I love the idea of putting the questions in the videos – in fact maybe even putting them throughout video longer than 2 or 3 minutes might get people watching longer and also keep the on page longer for videos embedded on ones blog.
Lisa
there are a gazillion blogs o the internet. A question is a nice way to spark up a nice conversation on the comment section.
That’s a great point Kenny. Questions don’t only work well for opening blog posts, they’re great for closing them as well.
That killer one. I always modify the old articles after traffic from them become least. And you points are too good. 🙂
Brilliant advise,and I will take these into account. Starting with a quote is a good one, cheers.
Glad you liked the post Stephen. Let me know how it goes in your next blog post
Yes, I agree. I have found myself usually start asking a question. Sometimes there will be situations that apply to my article. I will sometimes start with that story.
Hey Betty.. I’ve used all of these openings at one point of another. Yea, the trick is looking for ways to incorporate it to the rest of the article.