5 Opening Lines to Avoid In Your Blog Posts
Posted by Spyros Panagiotopoulos in Writing Content, tags: bad opening lines, better blog posts, great headlines, great opening lines, opening sentence, write better opening sentences
So you want to avoid bad opening lines for your blog posts ? Well, you have already encountered one..
As with most qualities, writing attractive content has its own techniques. The first thing that you should really put some effort into is your post title. That is certainly the most important part of your post. Luckily, copyblogger has given great tips upon that with his proven headline formulas that work and more that you can find at his great website.
The great thing with headlines is that after you learn the basics you can quite efficiently create pretty nice ones that capture the reader’s attention. The real challenge comes when the opening paragraph begins. You’re now at your second consecutive challenge of convincing the reader to read on. At that point you should be certain not to make the mistakes most people do that eventually drive people away from their writings.
1. Do Not Repeat The Headline
Notice this post. While, the headline is catchy enough (hopefully), i blew it away with repeating it. The reader already knows what they are going to read about and they have decided to go on. When they see that you set the same question again, they will most probably feel that you try to gain some time and that you do not really know what you are talking about. At the very first words of your posts, you need to provide new information in order to keep the visitor interested.
2. Negative Stance Attracts but Positive Stance Attracts More
How could this headline possibly attract more people ? Positive Stance. Rephrasing to something like “5 Opening Lines That Will Get You 67% More Visitors” is a much better headline and it’s the one that you should use. You may be asking why i’ve not used it at first place. Well, i wanted to test your reflexes to be sincere and then ask your opinion about it (you may comment below if you like). The same occurs with the opening sentence. If you decide to stress out a fact, always present it in a positive manner if possible.
3. Know When to Proceed
An opening sentence should be an opening sentence. Do not stretch it out. Once you have established a nice one, stop writing. Do not get carried away and go on with writing more about it. Many people fall for that including myself, to soon discover my mistake and most times backspace faster than Carl Lewis runs 
4. A Story is Nice But We Are Not in a Cinema
While it’s a pretty nice idea to present your visitors to an interesting plot, remember the true nature of your post. Your story should be a hint of what will follow and you should be quite firm in quickly bridging it with your real content. Failure to do so would bore and distract your readers and this will most probably cause them to abandon the reading of your post.
5. Do Not Use Casual Phrases
By that statement i do not mean using fancy phrases. Not at all. On the contrary, your writing style should always be friendly and cozy and not patronizing. You should take the chance and provide your visitor with interesting pieces of information that will cause them emotions. You can do this by adding metaphors, statistical data, scientific facts or even picture brain images for your visitors in order to stimulate their senses and make them feel more comfortable with the rest of your post.
Have you heard of the idea that it’s a nice technique to finish your writing the same way you started it ? Well, that is true if you did that correctly, else do not even bother.
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I actually would not have clicked on the link in your tweet if you used the headline “5 Opening Lines That Will Get You 67% More Visitors” mainly because those posts seem to always be about selling me something.
Yes, Jay you’re very correct in that indeed. However, don’t judge by yourself only. Most people would be mostly impressed with that 67% headline, even if the information presented is not so much of a truth.
I also tend to kinda like “avoiding like” headlines. This is mainly because these kind of tips work in helping somebody not to make already known mistakes and people like not having to reinvent the wheel.
But, whatever the case is, thanx for reading anyway