Sex, Drugs and Bloggers
By Bill Riddell on Mar 25, 2008 in Better Blogging
Have you ever heard about the secret parties top bloggers have at conferences and underground strategy sessions? The decadent soiree with big name celebrity guests, gorgeous models and unbelievable shenanigans.
No I’m not writing a post about the secret life of rock star bloggers. There will be no further mention of Cristal and cocaine fueled orgies of wordpress wizards, I just wanted to get your attention and teach you how to do the same thing.
It worked didn’t it!
We all have minute attention spans. Our mind quickly decides if what it is looking at is interesting or not.
In order to get your post read, particularly by people visiting your blog for the first time via a link from another blog or StumbleUpon, you must hook the readers interest with an attention grabbing headline and then a captivating first paragraph.
Your content, the meat of your post, must still be good to keep that attention but once you have kept their focus after the first 5 or 10 seconds your well on your way to ensuring your message gets across.
One of the simplest ways to grab peoples attention is to appeal to their primal urges and needs, those desires that are hard wired into our brain.
Heres a few ideas and sample headlines:
Make it sexy - we all know that sex sells. “Blogger attracts hits and supermodels”
Make it famous - the power of celebrity or the chance for the reader to become famous is very powerful. “Lonleygirl15 uses wordpress and so should you”
Make it valuable/make me rich - its all about money, make us rich, offer us value, give us something for free. “Strike it rich with new blogging system”
Make it secret/exclusive - everyone loves to feel like they are one of the lucky ones to be let in on a secret. “Never before revealed secrets reveal how to drive thousands to your blog each day” or “Black Hat Guru gives exclusive tips on SEO”
If your stuck for ideas, take a look at Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Every marketer and advertiser knows of these needs and they simply press those magic buttons inside us to convince us we simply MUST buy there product.
As well as Mr Maslow I quite like a simple little acronym, WIIFM. All of us, whether we like to admit it or not, are rather selfish and we all subconsciously ask ourselves ‘Whats In It For Me’. Why should I read this post? Why should I buy this product? Basically you need to answer that question nice and easily for your readers .
Go and read that second paragraph again, I told you exactly what this post was about.
Use your opening paragraph or two to keep the readers attention and tell them why they should stick around and read your post. It’s really pretty simple, but often neglected.
So lets recap. Grab your readers attention, appeal to their primal needs and urges, tell them why they should read and your going to have more readers following your story to the end and looking for more.
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14 Comment(s)
By Adam Hyman on Mar 26, 2008 | Reply
“secret parties top bloggers have at conferences and underground strategy sessions”
You’re kidding right?
By Nick on Mar 26, 2008 | Reply
It does amaze me that so many people fail to do this. I assume that most bloggers have graduated from high school. Every english teacher in America stressed the point of hooking your reader in the first sentence, instead you see so many poeple giving leads. These aren’t newspaper articles, they are more like columns. Your job is to entertain, not just inform.
By Bryan Clark on Mar 26, 2008 | Reply
What amazes me is that people like Adam ask… “Are You Kidding Me”. If he’d read past the first paragraph, he would have got the point of the message.
By Michelle on Mar 26, 2008 | Reply
Good one about Adam asking “are you kidding me”. It’s a great post clarifying the “must-have” of keeping the reader’s attention when writing your article. These are great tips to help me with my article writing. Thanks!
By Emz on Mar 26, 2008 | Reply
It’s a great way to get peoples attention definately. I’ve started writing interesting titles (or at least tried) to grab peoples attention too.
By Ryan on Mar 26, 2008 | Reply
I thought he was talking about our secret conference, Bryan!
DCC!
By Bill Riddell on Mar 26, 2008 | Reply
Nick - your right, sadly too many people are consistently overlooking such basic an integral things. Some Headlines I see out there are cringe worthy. I like your distinction that bloggers are there not only to inform but also to entertain. The example of a column writer I think is perfect.It’s about creating a relationship through personable and entertaining writing as well as presenting valuable advice.
Michelle and Emz - thank you and all the best with your writing.
By mr nice guy on Mar 26, 2008 | Reply
Good research Bill of the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Sounds very interesting to review psychology as well to read more about Maslow.
By Agent 001 on Mar 27, 2008 | Reply
Well I did not know about that secret party.I have heard of blogger conferences.Are you luring us?
By Self Storage Portland on Mar 28, 2008 | Reply
Found your site on digital point forums.
Cool post.
By Bill Riddell on Mar 28, 2008 | Reply
mr nice guy - top marketers place a great importance on psychology, in order to maximise our results as writers and internet markets we must harness an understanding of the psychology of buying and influence.
Agent 001 - not luring anyone, I’m not particularly aware of any secret parties. Having said that there a number of small groups out there ‘brains trusts’ or ‘mastermind groups’ they often call themselves who meet from time to time in secret. I’ll have a post about them soon with an example of a rather powerful groups of internet marketers who pool together their power to get amazing results and I’ll show how how you can do the same.
By Chauncy on Mar 29, 2008 | Reply
“The decadent soiree with big name celebrity guests, gorgeous models and unbelievable shenanigans…”
This is what blogging is all about!
By Marni Dean on Apr 5, 2008 | Reply
It’s all marketing tactics. Tell them/sell them what they want, right? Nail on the head, Bill!
By Marc on Apr 6, 2008 | Reply
I want to send out a big thank you for everyone who is commenting on this blog. I clicked all your links and stumbled your sites. Have a great day.