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How to make it easier for people to read your blog posts

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How to make it easier to read your blog

How to make it easier to read your blog

How do you make it easier for people to read your blog posts?

Making people read your blog posts can be one of the biggest challenges you face as a blogger or as a blog writer.

Whether you write for your own blog or for your clients, you want people to read what you write.

It is not blog post ideation.

It is not publishing.

It is not even promoting your blog.

It is making people read your blog posts.

Everybody is in a great hurry.

There is an onslaught of content on the Internet.

7.5 million blog posts are published every day combining all the platforms.

Not just blog posts.

Humongous amount of content is published per minute.

With all this deluge of content, people read your blog posts only when it is absolutely essential for them to read them and if they don’t read them, they won’t be able to achieve something crucial.

Go to Google and search for “blogging tips” and see how many results come up.

How do you choose which link to click?

33% people click the first three links.

Even if a majority of people click the first three links, very few have the patience to read complete blog posts.

I’m not saying you just write points and skip the main content.

There is a way you can make it easier for people to quickly go through your blog posts.

People skim through blog posts, they rarely read

It is said that within the first 30-50 seconds your visitors should be able to make out what the blog post says.

They quickly see the headline.

This skim through the subheadings.

They go through the bullet points.

They read the quotes.

They view the pictures.

And then they quickly leave your blog to visit other, similar blogs.

Even if people don’t read the entire text of your blog post, you can format your blog post in such a manner that people consume the maximum amount of content.

Here is what you can do.

Present your main proposition through the headline

The headline tells people what your blog post offers.

It tells what they’re going to gain when they read your blog post.

It attracts people to your blog post.

It gives them a reason to scroll down and read the remaining text.

If the headline is not inspiring enough, they won’t stay.

Many people leave your blog just after reading the headline because the headline doesn’t captivate them, it doesn’t hook them.

The headline of this blog post is quite straightforward: How to make it easier for people to read your blog posts.

There is no ambiguity.

You exactly know what the blog post is going to tell you.

If you want to learn how to make it easier for people to read your blog posts, you are going to stay and make some effort to read.

Otherwise, you will leave.

End of story.

Write single-sentence paragraphs

Single-sentence paragraphs are less intimidating than big chunks of text.

Just capture one thought in one sentence.

Have one sentence in one paragraph.

Use lots of white space that gives the impression that one is having to read less.

Sentences with lots of white space are also easier to read on mobile phones.

Express important points through subheadings

You may like to read: How to use subheadings to make your writing more effective

You can see that this blog post has multiple subheadings.

The subheadings are in a larger font type compared to the body text.

They immediately stand out.

They convey to you the main point of the smaller text.

By merely going through the subheadings, you can make out all the important points that I’m discussing in this blog post.

You should write the subheadings in such a manner that by merely going through them, your reader can get the complete gist of what all your covering.

Avoid covering too many topics in a single blog post

I have seen many bloggers do that to write longer blog posts.

There is an SEO rumour: the longer your post is, the better are its chances of ranking higher on Google.

Google says it is not true.

Are you writing to a particular word count because you’ve heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don’t).

Nonetheless, just to make sure that a blog post is more than 1000 words, or more than 2000 words, bloggers include many redundant topics that don’t belong to that particular blog post.

Even I have done that many times.

But now I’m going against my own advice.

Write smaller blog posts.

Stick to the main topic.

Give enough information.

Don’t needlessly extend your blog posts.

I will give you my own example: I never read complete blog posts on other blogs that run into 2000-3000 words.

I just quickly look at the information I’m searching for and then move on.

Make the most important point in the beginning itself

Just to make sure that your readers don’t miss out on the most important thing you want to convey to them, say it in the beginning itself.

If you feel that you need to create a narrative and then after you have made people read a few hundred words only then you will come to the main point, you are mistaken.

People may not go that far.

Hence, whatever you want to say, say it within the first 100 words

Use bulleted lists

Bulleted lists

  • Are easier to skim through.
  • Need little text.
  • Allow you to make pointed observations.
  • Are easier to remember.

Some bloggers use very long sentences in bulleted lists, which is not advised.

They even use complete paragraphs which, again, is not advised.

Try to keep each bullet points not more than 5-10 words.

Use block quotes to highlight important points

If you scroll up a bit, I have quoted from a Google link using block quotes.

In case you want people to notice a chunk of text while quickly skimming through your blog post, enclose it within block quotes.

It immediately becomes visible and catches attention.

Use images to make important points

Very few people miss images.

Insert the images around your key points so that when people view the images, they also read your important text.

In fact, whenever you are making an important point that you don’t want people to miss, use a relevant image above or below.

People may not read your complete blog post if they really don’t want to, but the tips mentioned above will help you make them read most of your blog post.

What is the difference between blog writing and content writing?

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Difference between blog writing and content writing

Difference between blog writing and content writing

I’m answering this question because people seem to be asking it on Quora what is the difference between blog writing and content writing, otherwise, there is a very thin line between being a blog writer and a content writer.

Every content writer can be a blog writer but can a writer providing blog writing services also provide content writing?

This is a tricky question.

I don’t mean to undermine any form of writing, but in terms of increasing expertise, I would like to arrange different categories of writing as

  • Blog writing
  • Content writing
  • Copywriting

I will tell you why.

Right now, on an average I am working with 15 content writers.

Some of them are very good at blog writing.

Some do good content writing.

None can do copywriting.

Copywriting services are needed for writing the main website content.

It is different from merely writing content or blog posts.

Not a single writer has been able to satisfy my clients when it comes to writing content for websites.

But for this blog post, I’m solely focusing on blog writing and content writing.

Difference between blog writing and content writing

Blog writing can be a habit.

It can be a passion.

You can write a personal blog sharing your opinions on politics, environment, literature, philosophy, and any other topic that catches your fancy and inspires you to write regularly.

Blog writing is less formal and more conversational.

A blog can be written by a person who is not a trained writer and still make a good impact.

Blog writing is not a profession whereas, content writing is.

It doesn’t mean you can provide content writing services and not blog writing services.

I offer blog writing services to many clients.

Just like content writing, blogging can be professional too.

Almost every business that has a website also has a blog.

Businesses hire content writing services for blog writing on regular basis.

Blogging is good for maintaining buzz around your business.

It improves search engine rankings because Google prefers blogs over conventional websites.

This is because blogs have fresh content, and they are updated regularly.

Most of the content on conventional websites is static.

There is really something fresh to offer to Google from websites.

Whereas when it comes to blogs, since they are constantly being updated, there is always something new to offer.

Therefore, most of the businesses and entrepreneurs try to publish a blog regularly to improve their search engine rankings.

Blogs can be written on different topics.

Every subtopic can have its own unique blog post.

This gives people an opportunity to write and publish lots of content.

Sometimes quality of writing is compromised but still, much benefit can be derived as long as the readers find value in the writing.

To quickly wrap up, a content writer can write a blog post but not every blog writer can write content for websites.

Since I have been writing professional content for the past 17 years, I can quickly wear different hats and provide my services as a blog writer, a content writer, and a copywriter.

Compared to blog writing, content writing is formal.

When you are writing content for the main website, you also need to have copywriting skills because your writing is supposed to generate business for the website owners.

6 tips for writing meaningful blog posts

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Tips on writing a meaningful blog post

Tips on writing a meaningful blog post

This blog post talks about tips on how to write meaningful and captivating blog posts that are human-centric.

The main points covered in this blog include

  1. Write down the purpose of your current blog post
  2. Keep your title, headline and the text, aligned
  3. Do enough research to make your blog posts authoritative
  4. Write an outline first
  5. Don’t unnecessarily stretch your blog
  6. Make your blog post easily readable

In my previous post I wrote about Google’s “helpful content” algorithm update.

Once this update is active, websites that focus more on search engine rankings and less on the relevancy and quality of content, will lose their rankings.

If search engine rankings from Google matter to you, then you must write and publish content (that also includes blog posts) that is relevant to your readers.

This means writing meaningful blog posts that solve a definite purpose and deliver value to the visitors.

What is the purpose of publishing blog posts?

Search engine traffic matters.

I will be frank here: most of the clients who approach me to write their blog posts have search engine optimization as their first most priority.

Yes, as they read more about Google algorithms, they understand the importance of quality and relevance of their content and hence, they want to publish meaningful blog posts.

But by the end of the day, their primary objective of publishing blog posts is to cover enough topics to improve their search engine visibility, or SEO.

Even Google must know that websites need search engine traffic to get business.

For example, if someone needs a blog writer, he or she is going to search for “looking for a blog writer for my business” on Google.

For this person to find my link, I must publish a web page or blog post describing my blog writing services.

Therefore, to an extent, one needs to write in a manner that makes it easier for Google to make sense of the content and then rank it accordingly.

In the realistic world, there are two reasons why businesses publish blog posts:

  • To give visitors a valid reason to visit the website or the blog as often as possible and through that, become familiar with the website and what it offers.
  • Improve search engine rankings.

Google prefers blogs (or websites) that have lots of content.

When you have covered multiple topics in your niche, it gives you content depth.

It conveys to Google that you have, sort of, developed an expertise on the topic, and therefore, your content should be highlighted for related search terms.

These are the reasons why businesses publish regular blog posts.

What I often suggest to my clients is use the language that is used by the target audience.

This automatically optimizes the blog content.

Tips on writing meaningful blog posts

In the context of writing your blog posts, you first need to understand and acknowledge what “meaningful” stands for you.

Google defines meaningful content as content that provides appropriate answers to the questions people ask.

When people don’t immediately leave your blog post and they read a major portion of it, it indicates that they have found what they were looking for.

They are deriving value out of it.

They get the solution they are looking for.

They can understand and read your blog comfortably.

You genuinely mean to impart useful and relevant information through your blog posts.

Listed below are some tips you can use to write meaningful blog posts for your blog.

1. Write down the purpose of your current blog post

This is a two-pronged approach: your blog post must have a purpose from your perspective and from the perspective of your readers.

What do YOU want to achieve through publishing a blog post and making your readers read it?

What should your readers achieve or accomplish once they have gone through your blog post?

Of course, there is the obvious objective that you want the maximum number of visitors to turn your paying customers and clients.

But this isn’t how the real-world works.

Every blog post must have a singular purpose.

For example, the purpose of this blog post is to share with you my knowledge of how to write meaningful blog posts.

When you implement these tips, my purpose is that you should be able to publish your own meaningful blog posts or even if you hire me as your blog writer, you should have an idea of how I will be writing your blog posts.

Writing an introduction may help you remain focused.

In the introduction you can write why you are writing the blog post and what you want to deliver to your readers.

You may like to read: What is blog post introduction and how to write a great one?

2. Keep your title, headline and the text, aligned

Click bait headlines are frowned upon by Google, and much more after the recent update.

There is a difference between your blog title and your blog headline.

Your blog title is what appears in search results as a highlighted hypertext that people click to visit your website or blog.

The job of your blog post title is to bring people from the search engines to your blog or website.

The headline is the big text that appears at the top of your blog post.

This is the name of your current blog post.

Ideally it appears within the <h1></h1> tags.

The job of your headline is to present a compelling reason to your visitors to read your blog post further.

When I say there must be an alignment between your title, headline and the main text, what I mean is, don’t mislead people into reading something that does not exist.

I again come back to this blog post: my purpose here is to share blog writing tips with you.

I’m not promoting my services.

I’m not promoting an affiliate product (although, AdSense ads appear, they are automatic and they appear with every blog post here).

The sole purpose of this blog post is to adhere to the objective of the headline: tips on writing meaningful blog posts.

3. Do enough research to make your blog posts authoritative

If you are a big agency or an established consultant, you can conduct your own research and publish the data.

If not, there are many authoritative websites that give you authoritative data.

What I mean to say is, always use data and numbers instead of random expressions.

For example, instead of saying “millions of blog posts are publish on WordPress every month” you can say “70 million blog posts are published on WordPress every month” and then link to the source.

As of 2022, there are 600 million blogs on the Internet, worldwide.

Your readers find numbers reassuring.

They are double reassured when they find out that you have taken these numbers from authoritative websites.

It also tells your readers that you make an effort when writing an awesome blog post for them.

4. Write an outline first

An outline helps you a lot if you are working on a longer blog post of around 2000 words.

You may like to read: 6 steps to writing the perfect blog post outline

Writing an outline renders clarity to your blog post.

It makes your blog post readable.

It streamlines its flow.

An outline makes sure that you don’t miss anything important.

It is basically the order of your topics – one beneath the other.

An outline helps you keep your thoughts organized.

It helps you build a narrative.

It is not necessary that you write an outline of your current blog post every time, but if you build a habit of writing an outline before writing a blog post, in the long run it will benefit you a lot.

5. Don’t unnecessarily stretch your blog post

Google says there is no correlation between your search engine rankings and the number of words you use to write your blog posts (source).

Are you writing to a particular word count because you’ve heard or read that Google has a preferred word count? (No, we don’t).

Many Internet marketers advise you to write huge blog posts like containing 2000+ words.

To achieve this, many bloggers cram their blog posts with lots of additional information that is not relevant to the topic the user has searched for.

Instead, create highly focused blog posts dealing with a single topic.

Yes, you can give some background information.

But if a blog post can be written in 500 words, don’t use 2000 words.

People find so much information overwhelming.

They don’t even read such long blog posts.

They leave midway.

Isn’t it better to write just 500 words that makes it easier for people to read and derive value from your blog post?

6. Make your blog post easily readable

Divide various sections under headings and subheadings.

Write short sentences capturing one idea in one sentence.

Avoid using complex sentences.

Use bulleted points whenever you can.

If possible, use single-sentence paragraphs.

Link to other relevant sections of your blog or website instead of repeating your content.

Two types of people read your blog posts:

Those who quickly scan.

Those who read completely, even the finer text.

You format your blog post for both types of readers.

Use simple language – preferably language used by your readers.

Avoid using complex words.

Don’t use passive voice much.

Most of the people may be reading your blog posts on a mobile phone.

It is easier to read smaller sentences and words on mobile phones.

If they find it difficult to read your blog post, even if your blog post is meaningful, mentally they will get distracted and exhausted and stop reading.

They may be in a state of distraction.

They may not have enough time or patience to read your blog post completely, sentence by sentence.

They should be able to understand what you are trying to communicate by simply going through the headings and subheadings, or at the most, including the bulleted points.

These are a few tips you can use to write meaningful and relevant blog posts.

As Google rolls out its update, it will become increasingly important that you deliver real value to your human readers and focus less on “search engine optimization hacks”.

Simply focus on delivering value in the language people use, and the SEO part should be taken care of on its own.

5 ways you can make money with your blog in 2022

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5 ways to make money with your blog

5 ways to make money with your blog

Blogging has gone mainstream years ago, but people still wonder how to make money with blogging in 2022.

One of the most popular ways of making money with your blog is by publishing AdSense advertisements.

There are many alternatives but setting up AdSense is not just easy, it is also trusted more because it is offered by an organization like Google.

Do I make money with my blog in 2022?

If yes, how, and how much?

Right now, at this moment, my primary source of income is writing content for my clients.

I’m not directly making money from my blog in 2022.

I’m planning to change that in near future, but as of now, I use my blog to get more work.

On an average my blog gets me work worth $3000 every month, but as I just said, in the coming months I plan to turn my blog as my main source of income.

I’m outsourcing my work to, on an average, 15 content writers these days but to make this proposition financially viable, I need to generate more work.

No, these 15 content writers are not working at the same time.

I work with whomever is available for the ongoing assignment.

My primary reason for outsourcing to other writers is that I want to have enough time to devote to my blog.

I haven’t been sufficiently able to grow my blog because most of my time is spent working on client assignments.

The problem with working on my own is that there is only up to a certain amount of work I can do and after that, I reach my limit.

For many years I have known how to make money with my blog, it is just that, I have been caught in a vicious loop.

Fortunately, now I have a few writers I can rely on.

Although in terms of quality I still need to be cautious and I need to carefully revise and go through the documents before I forward them to my clients, nonetheless, it saves me lots of time that I can then put into my blog.

Can any blog be used to make lots of money?

How much money you make with your blog depends on your topic.

Technology and digital marketing blogs make more advertising money than gardening and sewing blogs simply because the ads that are published are published on technology and digital marketing blogs are expensive per click.

I have read that blogs on highly focused medical conditions also make lots of money.

But as you will discover, publishing advertisements isn’t the only option to make money from your blog.

You can promote events.

You can sell books.

You can build your personal brand which in turn gets you speaking and networking opportunities.

How do you choose your blogging niche?

My personal advice would be, choose something that you love and you have got lots to talk about.

Don’t choose a niche simply because you think it will be profitable unless you have lots of money and you can hire writers who would be interested in the topic.

Keep in mind that unless you have lots of money, you will be working on your blog mostly by yourself.

Although blogging can be rewarding in the long run, for a few months or even for a year, you may need to work non-stop, really hard, before you can see some money coming in.

If you are not interested in the topic, you will very soon get discouraged.

You may see no traffic building for the first 4-5 months.

People give up.

Unless you are truly interested in sharing your knowledge and thoughts on a topic, it is practically impossible for you to continue publishing a blog on your own for a long time.

Therefore, carefully choose a topic.

Something on which you can write non-stop for months.

5 ways you can make money with your blog in 2022

When blogging started in early 2000’s it was mostly a hobby.

In the beginning people were not using their blogs to make money.

People mostly promoted their business websites through publishing articles on article directories.

Though I was not aware of the concept of blogging, I knew that if I published lots of web pages under my domain it would help me generate traffic, so I did, and actually generated good traffic for my business.

Gradually people realized that Google ranked blog posts faster than it ranked the conventional pages.

The primary reason was that compared to the usual website, a blog is updated with a greater frequency.

Which means, there is more content to crawl, index and rank.

Also a blog is thematic – some blogs may have scores of, and hundreds of blog posts on the same or the similar topics.

This gives a blog topical depth, which is preferred by Google.

When traffic began to build, people began to see a moneymaking opportunity.

Most of the ways people were using to make money with their blogs are still valid in 2022.

This is because the companies (for example AdSense) that were used to make money also grew on the backs of many big blogs.

If you think that the opportunity of making money with your blog has come and gone, and by 2022, there is too much competition and too little interest, you may like to reconsider.

For example, when researching for this particular blog post, most of the blog posts and articles that come up on Google on the first or the second page, have been written in 2022.

I used my blog to generate traffic for my business website in 2008, and I am still using it.

Most of my work comes through my blog.

Hence, if you want to make money with your blog, the opportunity still awaits you.

Below I’m listing 5 ways you can make money with your blog in 2022.

On other blogs you may find 20 ways or even 50 ways, but they have simply inflated single topics into multiple subtopics.

The methods that I have listed below can help any blog make money provided you have chosen the right niche and you stick to your guns for a sufficient amount of time.

Generating traffic for business website

This is how I make money with my blog.

As of now I don’t make advertising or affiliate money.

If you see advertisements on this blog, it is a recent development.

I use my blog to generate traffic for my main website and then my main website generates work for me.

So far my blog has helped me maintain my search engine rankings.

Since my blog is under my main website domain, when it improves its search engine rankings, it also has a trickle-down effect on my main website.

Through improved search engine rankings of my blog, the SEO of my business web pages also improves.

Most of my clients for whom I write blog posts use their blogs to build targeted traffic or to simply have a blogging section because most contemporary websites have them these days.

Is this a good way of making money from your blog in 2022?

Surely, if you prefer that.

As I have mentioned above, most of my clients use their blogs to improve their search engine rankings.

In this sense, I have been using my blog to make money for the past 14 years.

Building a personal brand to make money with your blog in 2022

You can make money with your blog in 2022 by building your personal brand through it.

One of the best examples that comes to my mind is that of Seth Godin.

He is a bestselling author and a speaker.

He goes to conferences.

He gets many paid gigs for speaking in front of audiences.

He has published multiple books.

He has built his personal brand by sharing intelligent insights about doing business from his blog.

He posts a blog post every day, or at least, he was posting a blog post every day when I was regularly following him.

He was so particular that he never missed publishing a blog post even on Christmas eve.

To make money with your blog by building a personal brand requires immense thought leadership.

Therefore, if you are a consultant, speaker, or a coach, you can use your blog to build your personal brand which will generate unlimited moneymaking opportunities for you.

Publishing advertisements to make money from your blog

This is the commonest way of making money with your blog and people are still making lots of money through publishing advertisements.

The caveat is that you need lots of traffic.

You make decent money from programs like AdSense only if your blog gets more than 20,000 visitors every day.

The real money is made by blogs who get millions of visitors every month.

Again, it also depends on your topic.

Some years back I was publishing a technology blog and even with a traffic of 300-400 visitors per day, my blog was making $2-$3 dollars every day.

Sometimes, a single click on an AdSense advertisement can get you $1 and sometimes, it gets you just $0.01.

Hence, how much money you make through advertisement depends on your niche as well as the amount of traffic you can generate.

The easiest way of publishing advertisements is joining the AdSense program.

It also has a WordPress plugin that allows you to publish ads on your blog within a few hours.

Why I say within a few hours is that when you sign up and activate the ads, the AdSense algorithm analyzes existing content.

This blog post lists some AdSense alternatives that you can use on your blog to make more money.

Advertisements don’t have to be from third-party companies like AdSense.

Recently I was approached by a company to place their advertisement directly on my blog.

I’m not posting direct ads right now because I don’t have enough traffic to charge them decently.

Promoting affiliate products to make money from your blog

Affiliate links are unique links given to you by various merchant websites like Amazon.com.

You use the link on your website and when someone clicks the link, he or she goes to the merchant website, and buys the product represented by that link, you get a commission.

The commission is normally 10%-30%, depending on the affiliate scheme.

You can sell various items through your affiliate links such as subscription-based services, digital products, books, movie tickets, and conventional products from websites like Amazon.com and Shopify.

For example, if you have a blog on arthritis, you can have affiliate links for various arthritis-related products from Amazon.

Among bloggers, this is the second most favorite way of making money after publishing AdSense ads.

Some bloggers claim that promoting affiliate links makes them more money than publishing AdSense ads because affiliate links are better targeted.

Sponsored blog content to make money

This is another option I will be considering in near future.

When your blog builds up a decent traffic there are many businesses who would like to publish a sponsored blog post on your blog.

As the name goes, since it is a sponsored blog post, they are ready to pay you for publishing it.

Why do businesses want to publish sponsored posts?

They want exposure.

They want to associate their brand with a blog that is growing in popularity, or is already popular.

They want to improve their search engine rankings.

Why I’m more excited about this way of making money from my blog is that whereas advertising still doesn’t make me money, I already get proposals for sponsored blog posts.

But I’m going to wait.

You need to provide the screenshots of statistics of your traffic before you can tell people how much you are going to charge for publishing sponsored content.

My traffic isn’t much right now and I don’t want to charge too low for publishing sponsored content.

Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to such an opportunity.

If you write your own blog posts it means you are a prolific writer and you can charge additionally by writing the sponsored posts on your own instead of getting them written from other businesses.

These are the most prevalent ways of making money from your blog, in 2022, and beyond.

I must admit that publishing a successful blog isn’t as easy as it was when the blogging was just starting.

The competition is tough.

Almost every niche is already covered.

Top rankings have already been taken by big websites and blogs.

But then, almost every month I see a new blog emerging and becoming successful, despite tough competition.

Therefore, don’t let other successful blogs dissuade you from starting your own blog or using your existing blog to make money.

 

What is blog post introduction and how to write a great one?

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How to write a great blog post introduction

How to write a great blog post introduction

Just imagine: you have written a great blog post and it can help thousands of your readers.

But your introduction fails to capture the imagination of your readers and after reading the introductory sentences, your readers move on, missing on a great opportunity to learn what you have captured in your blog post.

When you visit some blogs you come across a very strong introduction.

The introduction is the first couple of sentences that are supposed to hook you and make you read the rest of the blog post.

Your opening sentences or your single opening sentence is the introduction of your blog post.

After your blog post main headline, it is the introduction that sells the idea of your blog post to your readers.

If your introduction fails to impress them, there is little chance they are going to read the rest of the blog post.

The 4 main ingredients of a blog post introduction are

  1. Grab the reader’s attention.
  2. Introduce the main points or the main proposition.
  3. Convey what to expect from the blog post.
  4. Address the concerns of the readers who are about to read the blog post.

In a blog post on the same topic (writing compelling intros for your blog posts) Brian Clark mentions copywriter Eugene Schwartz: he often spent an entire week on the first 50 words of his sales copy.

The headline and the opening paragraph.

Of course, as a professional content writer or copywriter it might be impractical for you to spend that much time on an introduction, but the moot point is, take your introduction seriously.

Whether your blog post is going to be read or not depends a lot on your introduction.

Again, what’s introduction?

Your blog post introduction is the first sentence or the first couple of sentences that draw people to your entire blog post.

Is your blog post introduction same as meta description?

Meta description is different.

Although, in terms of traffic from search engines, your meta description is as important as your blog post description.

Just as people read your introduction and then decide if you want to read the remaining blog post, the meta description appears in your search engine listings.

Meta description screenshot

Meta description screenshot

Your title along with the meta description compels people to click your link on search results and visit your website or blog.

The meta description appears in the source code of your blog post.

It is not visible when people visit your blog post.

People can only see your meta description either in search results, or if they view the source code of your blog post.

They can also see the meta description when you post your link on one of the social networking websites because this information is automatically extracted from your URL.

The blog post introduction on the other hand is the first sentence or the first paragraph.

It is a text that appears just beneath your headline.

In the screenshot below, the highlighted portion is the introduction of one of my blog posts.

Blog post introduction screenshot

Blog post introduction screenshot

Writing an effective blog post introduction that makes people read your entire blog post

Here are a few formats you can follow when writing an intro to your blog post.

Ask a question in the introduction

  • Want to write a great blog post introduction that your readers won’t be able to resist?
  • Want to write a sensational blog post introduction?
  • We want to learn how to write an irresistible blog post introduction?

These are a few examples of asking questions in the beginning of a blog post.

When people are reading your blog posts, they rarely answer a “no” to such a question.

For example, if you have been drawn to this blog post, you obviously want to write killer blog post introductions.

You want to learn how to write highly successful intros.

So, if I ask such a question in the beginning, there is a 99% chance you are going to say “yes” unless you are unsure of what you are trying to achieve here.

State a problem in the blog post introduction

  • Not many people are reading your blog posts? The problem might be in your introduction.
  • You might be losing a ton of readers because you’re not paying much attention to your blog post intro.
  • Just because not many people are reading your blog post, your search engine rankings might be tanking because they’re both related to each other.

In the intros mentioned above, I have stated some problems and you certainly want to find their solutions.

Most of the people who come to consume your content have problems to solve.

When in the into itself you mention the problem, it immediately gets the attention of your readers.

Their anticipation increases.

They expect to get answers from your blog post.

Start with a story narrative

Everybody loves to read a story.

Especially when people can relate to the story.

Here is a small example:

Peter had started his business with great anticipation.

He had built an awesome mobile app that enables people to publish microblog posts from mobile phone.

But nobody seems to want to download the mobile app?

In 6 months, only 30 people downloaded the mobile app and among them, 20 uninstalled it.

It has been a heartbreaking experience for Peter.

Then he realized something that would change the course of his entire marketing.

Soon, thousands of people would download his mobile app within a month.

Want to know how?

Read on.

You definitely want to read what happened next.

This is the story format of writing an introduction for your blog post.

Use statistics and numbers in your blog post introduction

  • WordPress users post around 70 million blog posts every month.
  • 71% WordPress blog posts are written in English.
  • There were 31.7 million bloggers in the United States in 2020.
  • A professional blogger spends on an average 6 hours on each post.

People love new data.

The data should be relevant and useful.

For example, the above-mentioned data would be relevant to a blog post promoting the advantages of blogging.

In the introduction itself they have learned something valuable.

Begin your blog post with a controversial statement

  • SEO might not be right for your business.
  • I love firing my clients.
  • I don’t care much about lead generation.

These can be controversial statements because almost everyone wants to improve his or her search engine rankings, and people obviously want new leads.

Hence, people would like to read why you are making such controversial statements.

Somewhere in their minds, they know that you are being ironic and within the blog post, you are going to prove yourself wrong.

Aside from these, you can use your introduction to take a stand.

You can use a quotation from a famous personality or a historic figure.

Many writers suggest that you should write your blog post introduction after writing the complete blog post.

By the time you have completed your blog post, you have a clear understanding of what your blog post represents and what it delivers.

You can sum up the essence of your blog post in the introduction.

You can create curiosity.

You can create controversy.

Whatever catches your fancy.

Otherwise, it depends on you whether you want to write the intro first or after you have written your blog post.