Warning: If you aren’t doing this one thing right, you’re losing readers faster than Frosty the Snowman melts in the summertime sun…
If your potential reader gets past your headline… you’ve got to GRAB them with your opening before they click away to all the other shiny objects competing for their attention!
So how do you craft an opening that draws your reader in?
What do you say that makes your reader think, “and then what happened next?!”
1. Ask a Question – Have you ever…?
2. Dialogue – She said I’d never succeed, but then…
3. Share a Quote – Famous person said shocking thing!
4. Start With a Sound – WHOA!… Thud!… SPLAT!…
5. Evoke a Feeling – Warning:… evokes caution, fear…
6. Get Descriptive – Thick black smoke rushed out of the kitchen as I ran to open the door in a futile attempt to silence the piercing sound of the fire alarm taunting me for my attempt at…
7. Be Humorous – Googlebot walks into a bar and…
8. Make a Bold Statement – 99% of the bloggers reading this will fail… but could succeed if they did this one thing differently starting today…
9. Quote a Fact or Statistic – 86% of people skip TV commercials *source
10. Reveal a Personal Experience – I sat on the floor holding my crying, hungry toddler, in tears myself… and made a promise that day that no matter what it took I would never be in that situation ever again.
Which of those 10 make you want to keep reading to see what comes next?