An important lesson in how to start a blog post

I learned an important lesson today when looking through a few Blog catalogues.

It's a simple lesson to learn, and there are many wider points on writing blogs beyond this, but in short, you need to make sure that the very start of the blog article includes something to intrigue people and draw them in, or else they won't click through.

So how do you do that, exactly?

There are a number of ways, including the use of exciting blog headlines to draw people in (see http://franklinbishop.net/blog-headlines-that-kick-ass/), and there are various well known ways to structure a compelling blog post (e.g. http://franklinbishop.net/5-types-of-blog-posts-for-more-traffic/) - but the key thing is to make sure the first couple of paragraphs allude to the contents of the rest of the article in an interesting way, possibly listing the contents or summarising the key points you will reveal - but not giving anything too much away, so people feel the urge to click and read more.

This is clearly something people get better at the more they write, but the best way to improve more quickly is to read up on how other people do it and practice! I always do a quick search when I find a subject of interest or think of something I want to find more about, and blogging is one of those things where there is a vast community of people, all at different stages (including the same stage as me and you, at whatever stage we are at).

One site that had a few articles that were really useful on this subject is here: http://www.problogger.net/how-to-write-great-blog-content. If I find any other great ones I will post them.