11 Creative Strategies for Linking Your Readers

My wife’s first word is …

‘Hi Michael, happy to meet you’

… the funny and memorable since then My name is Darren, not Michael!

Ever wondered how some posts make you addicted while others don’t attract your attention?

Everything is in the opening. The first word you say or write can set the tone for any relationship or conversation …

Just like in real life, the opening line of your blog post can create or destroy the involvement of your reader.

In my last post in the ‘How To Craft a Blog Post’ series, I identify your blog’s title/header as the most important words that you will write in the blog post and I say that the purpose of the title is to make people read your opening line.

The second most important word in your blog post is the one who follows your opening line. Their goal is to make people read the next line – to attract people deep in your post. This is the way you can make an interesting opening sentence to attract your reader from the start.

11 Effective Strategies for Blog Post Opening

So how does someone make the opening sentence for posts that effectively involve the reader and stimulate enough interest to make them read your blog posts? Here are some tips that I think are useful.

1. Identification of needs

Kick off your exactly the problem or the needs of the reader.

Sounds familiar? I should have talked about the needs and problems of the reader in my post about choosing a topic and making your post title.

If you haven’t got it now, you should start seeing that I put many important things to identify the needs of the reader and solve it as a key to writing a successful blog post. You don’t need to complete the needs or problems in the opening line but an effective way to make the reader read far into your post where you solve it is to tell them that you will be in the opening line.

2. Ask questions one answer

Involve the reader immediately by asking questions that encourage them to say “yes”. This is a technique that has been used by copywriters for a long time and function. I did it in the first row of this post: “Ever wondered how some posts make you addicted while the others don’t attract your attention?”.

Asking this type of question doing several things. For starters, you communicate about the post and the needs that will be met by the reader; But second (and more importantly) you draw responses to your reader and who put the need that your post will be solved precisely in their minds. Anyone who reads and answers ‘yes’ for my question above into this post after just saying that they want to find an interesting opening sentence – this ‘buy’ helps in the communication process that follows.

Asking the question ‘yes’ can actually be something you use more than once in a post. Ask their series of scattered through your posts and you can really bring your reader on a journey that takes them to your invitation to act.

3. Asking an interesting question

Trigger curiosity with questions that promise interesting revelations and make the reader want the answer.

Questions like:

• “What is the similarity of Bill Gates and Martha Stewart?”
• “How do I take my customer number from 0 to 51,346?”
• “Is the Nikon D700 the best digital SLR camera ever found?”

All of these questions will be interesting differently for different audiences – but all readers go to ask questions what are the answers and give them a reason to read further into a post.

4. Offer surprises

Use unexpected facts or personal anecdotes to attract attention. Sharing something unusual or personal, like I do with a mixture of greetings my wife, can make your posts more fun and interesting.

The opening story that I included in this post tried to do something a little ‘different’ or ‘surprising’ to attract the attention of the reader by sharing something personal and at the first glance of ‘off topic’. I don’t often talk about my family in the problogger – so this opening sentence is designed to solve the pattern and encourage the reader to see the two. I found that when I did this it seemed to be ‘clamping’ the reader out of the way they usually approach your blog and pay attention to one or two times (which can be enough to associate it to read your post).

Of course – an unexpected opening sentence must be related to the topic of your post at a certain level.

5. Tell me a story or share analogy

Stories or analogy can turn worldly topics into an interesting narrative. Whether it’s a short anecdote or a detailed account, stories often make your content more fun and absorbing.

I found that telling a ‘story’ to open a post can be one way to snap people from ‘ho hum’, ‘their sparkling eyes’ state that many of us are surfing the web. This is especially true on a more serious or formal blog – to share stories means you switch genre for a moment or two that can be enough to attract the attention of your reader to at least one or two moments. The story can be short (one liner like I did above) or longer (even though you might not want to go too long). They can be your personal story or other people’s stories. They can be right or even fiction.

I often open posts here in the problogger with ‘tanges’ – analogies or stories from my life that are slightly outside the topic – but that continue to help describe the principle. I found that this type of opening often attracts new types of readers and get more involvement of readers with others. Maybe it’s just a refreshing change from the type of normal post or maybe it shows a more personal side that attracts some people.

For example (title and opening line):

6. Make a brave claim

Start with a strong statement or promise to solve a significant problem. This approach determines high and attractive expectations for readers to dive deeper into your post to find out more.

• “Today I will teach you how to stop smoking”
• “In this post you will find the secret to taking the perfect portrait”

This kind of opening only tells your reader what they will get if they read. They are short, sharp, to points and effective.

Or you can make claims about your own achievements. I still remember the impact of this post on building a problogger as an authority site. The opening line is:

“It just crashed into me – like a truck – that I just became a six -point blogger”

The only thing I say is that you should be able to support the claim or promise in the post itself or you can have some angry readers in your hands.

7. Controversial killing

There is nothing like a little controversy to attract people’s attention and cause them to stop in their path and record what is happening.

Very expressing your opinion about the company, product, or even other people and you will find people want to read to see why you say it and tell you if they agree.

8. Paint a clear picture

Encourage the reader to visualize the scenario by involving their senses. This method is very effective for making abstract concepts become real.

I have used this technique several times in public speaking and can be translated into writing effective blog posts. The basis is to make your reader use their imagination to imagine a kind of scenario.

This can be used in a positive or negative way:

• Positive – For them to imagine a scenario when they achieve some success or overcome some problems.
• Negative – or make them imagine the consequences of unreasonable problems or failures they might fear.

Involving your reader’s imagination is a strong thing that can arouse emotions, helping them to relate to fear and needs but also give them real motivation to make changes.

9. Shocking statistics

Using statistics that pack the blow can effectively communicate the needs and attract attention.

Example – 10 Techniques To Get More comments on Your Blog – Line Opening – “Only 1 of every 100 readers comment on your blog”

10. Start with a strong quote

The well -chosen quote can provide authority for your post and resonate with your reader, set a wise tone from the start.

Example with an opening line:

11. Lead with an impact image

Sometimes, striking images can speak harder than words. Opened with relevant and strong images can attract readers into textual content, especially in visual media such as blogs.

I have used images combined with words in almost every post on my photography site for some time now and have long noticed that when I open with pictures, it tends to attract more readers into a post and can cause more comments. I even have readers telling me that they are just the reason they read a post is as a result of seeing images in their RSS readers.

The key is to find images on the topic, which is striking and that the reader finds interesting or interesting.

Will you share your best opening line with us?

11 The technique above to open the blog post line only scratch the surface of the way you can attract attention and attract readers into your blog post. You cannot use more than two or three of them in certain posts and most likely want to not use the same on each post that you write (Ted’s loyal reader becomes numb if you do it).

What other techniques do you use to open a blog post?

Read the full series

This post is part of the series on how to create a blog post. This will become stronger if taken in the context of the full series that sees 10 points in the posting process to stop and try extra. Start reading this series here.