That’s because Google hasn’t made known how many factors they use to produce its organic rankings. Back then what I did was so new, there were no templates, rules, or standards to follow. HubSpot Training Day: Early-bird pricing ends in 0D 00H 00M 00S Register today, © 2020 IMPACT, All Rights Reserved Whatever you do, don’t use that short url that they create for you. Don’t just rush your blog post introductions – you could lose them at this delicate point. You also know that Twitter can help you build your online business, in terms of lead generation. Sure, it’s a great way to build. For a great blog you need great blog posts, and great blog posts come from understanding what your readers want. (i.e., “youth is better than old age”), The spy is a ghost. When I’ve used it, I’ve had similar results, too. They’re actually sharing the good experiences that you’ve delivered to them in the past. Why does that happen? Of course, some of these great blogs have the potential to get noticed if only the blogger could craft powerful titles and blog post introductions for the content. Simply surround your text in the h3 tags and you’ll be set. Figure it out.". But before I can teach you how (and why) it's so insanely powerful, I need to explain what problem is solves for. However, your blogging success isn’t in the quantity of blog posts you publish, but the quality. Worse, if you’re using an autoresponder service that doesn’t make segmentation easy, it can be an almost insurmountable challenge. isn’t easy. What is the perfect blog post… and how can you create it? Now as you’ll notice that I use the soundbite inside of a yellow box. It’s your first impression on readers. on August 25th, 2020, By Whether you’re using controversy in your title, introduction, or body of the blog post, be careful not to hurt your loyal audience and remember to stay loyal to your personal brand. Sometimes, a controversial topic might be one that bloggers apparently just don’t want to talk about. Are they feeling any sort of pressure at all? It generated over 300 social shares and more than 40 comments. Now you could place any kind of call to action here… like a link to a landing page… or what I prefer to do (as you can see here on DIYthemes and on Social Triggers) is add an opt-in form because it converts well. That is, how many subscribers do you need before you can succeed at email marketing? Don’t use the ClicktoTweet url. As an example, in the email marketing industry, here are just a few of the controversial topics: Why are these controversial topics for blog posts? Comparisons of different types of solutions to the same problem. So close your eyes — literally close your eyes. You’d have to do it manually and that can take months, depending on the size of your list. Those are the blog topics you can most authoritatively write about in your content and persuade readers to share with their friends. When I'm ready to write the conclusion, I'll pause and ask myself, HubSpot Training Day: Early-bird pricing ends in, Assignment selling and content as your greatest sales tool, 6 blog content topics guaranteed to drive revenue, How to build a content strategy in the digital age. on September 23rd, 2020, By They use it more often than beginners who still struggle. You’ll find yourself agreeing with Jon’s statements throughout the post. It’s not about one story OR the fact that he’s ever been the person asking this question, but rather a summary of experiences wherein he’s found himself addressing this question a lot because he is a subject matter expert. Open with a personal story, the way I did with my. So, as a quick refresher, a sub-head is a sub-heading. But you need to use caution with this tactic. He’s offering you reasons “why” you should read his blog entry, instead of a competitor’s article. on September 9th, 2020, By Tell them what they already know and you’ll instantly establish rapport with your readers. As bloggers and consumers, we get excited when experts offer us their help. Instead, add that short url into your URL bar and grab the link to the twitter url that it redirects you to. It boils down to bridging the gap between people’s perception and reality. I can’t afford to put them off my good blog posts with a weak, generic, or boring intro. This is how you lead people through your blog entry. Anytime you ask people a question in your introduction, human nature will compel them to keep reading for the answer. Professor Jonah Ledger of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his colleague conducted a study about virality, and then wrote a book about that study titled Contagious: Why Things Catch On. on September 9th, 2020, By Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. on September 23rd, 2020, By In journalism, the introduction is referred to as a lead or “lede,” which simply means the opening paragraph of a news story, essay, or article. Is a list of 500 loyal and responsive. According to Charles Kurasky of Selling Power. This is what a perfect blog post looks like. After all, that’s enough potentially great blogs to fill TIME magazine issues for 770 years. Yes, I’m an expert in content strategy and creation, but this is a very personal topic for me because I have been in the exact same shoes as my audience. According to FactBrowser, “B2B marketers who create great blogs generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not.” Great introductions help you accomplish that goal. Writing a synopsis is nothing so big that a post graduate student cannot do during thesis … Focus solely on what it is they would say to you. If you don’t want the yellow box, you can use class="note" for a gray box. There are numerous success stories attesting to that fact. The best advice I can give you is to write a post or create blog content about topics you know well and in which you have first-hand experience. But I want to take it a step further, and show you a 3-step formula that can triple your Twitter marketing results in just 90 days. Marie Forleo does that all the time. In my experience, I’ve found that each time I begin a blog post introduction with a question, the number of comments I get within 24 hours is usually high, compared to when I use other introduction techniques. According to the, , “57% of what makes content compelling is storytelling.”. But uh... what am I supposed to do? The point of this blog post is to encourage people to read the blog post in its entirety while also encouraging people to share it on social media and subscribe to a newsletter. Liz Moorehead Liz Moorehead What changed? Citing a Blog Post. “Statistics” aren’t just the data from experiments you conducted yourself, by the way. For example, if you want to write a blog topic on something that most people are familiar with, such as “Twitter marketing,” you could start your blog post introduction by stating the obvious like this: Twitter is a powerful social marketing tool. Well, I have some good news for you! (Example), Yesterday vs. today #1, "What solutions worked X years/decades ago but don't work today? But how am I supposed to write about our competitors? For my business? Because this post will give you a wake-up call and the right tools to help you achieve that goal. with integrity. As a fellow academic writer, I agree wholly with the points covered in this post. It boils down to bridging the gap between people’s perception and reality. If you do a great job at the transition stage, the thesis will likely fall into place and make a great blog post. According to FactBrowser, “B2B marketers who create great blogs generate. It can be a single sentence, a phrase, or even a word. However, it’s better to ask questions with answers that are absurdly obvious. This is why good blog posts make for a good business. Sounds pretty sweet, right? It doesn’t matter what you’re writing – a title, introductions, copy, product benefits, reviews, email copy, or whatever: as long as you truly understand what your audience is going through and answer their questions without being boring or coming across like one of those marketers, your content will be shared. Chris Marr Do you know exactly how they feel right now? The issue of quitting a job to start a business has been a hard nut to crack. 3. Use short sentences and short paragraphs (sorry Dr. It’s the same thing with buying cars. Liz Moorehead In the same vein, you can engage readers by offering the “why” of your content. Contrary to what many people believe, stating the obvious doesn’t mean that you’re weak or lack creativity. Your answer to WHY will likely fall into one of those two buckets and will help you know what (if any) stories you need to bring in, as well as how you may want to weave personal storytelling into your blog article. According to the LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community, “57% of what makes content compelling is storytelling.”. Liz Moorehead Whenever you find a confusing topic that most bloggers haven’t been willing to create a blog entry about, quite possible you’ve found a winning card. From the screenshot above, you’ll notice how. What follow-up questions will they have? Ending with one of those garbage, attention-seeking, "Hey, comment with your answer to this poorly-masked cry for help question! Then, link to that url. However, I recommend you don’t use any other symbols in your tweet text to make this as easy as possible). Infusing your personality in the form of a story can work a little magic when building a great blog. And beyond the powerful introduction, the content is useful and interesting and makes for a great blog post. That’s because Google hasn’t made known how many factors they use to produce its organic rankings. Brian Dean knows how to craft an irresistible blog post introduction, and it’s helped him build a loyal blog audience who want to read his blog topics and share these great blogs on their social networks: I’ve received several emails from my clients and readers who’ve seen plenty of great content about headlines – they now want to learn how to craft great blog post introductions. If you’re not sure how to produce useful content out of a controversial topic, you can at least open your introductions with it. Aaron Orendorff used analogy to introduce his blog post at Unbounce. No wonder the post generated over 220 valuable comments. In short, the bottom line here is he’s saying: "I am the expert who has helped tons of people just like you. Well, guess what? Here’s the image (if you can’t see it, see the full version of “the perfect blog post.”): As you can see, the specific sections of this blog post that require some “technical know-how” are as follows: Some of this is as easy as including some html in your blog post, whereas the final piece, the call to action at the bottom of the blog post, will require you to mess with some code (but don’t worry, it’s easy and we’ve got a tutorial for it). It can even harm your online reputation, which is your most precious asset as a blogger and should be protected at all costs. How? Frustration, despair, and lack of motivation. Unfortunately, there is such a thing as answering a question with a bad answer. You want to define and document very explicitly how they are feeling as they ask the question. on September 17th, 2020, By So back to our context: opening your blog post introductions with controversy. on September 25th, 2020, By “Statistics” aren’t just the data from experiments you conducted yourself, by the way. Moreover, no matter what you're writing about, remember that the best blog articles are: Thoroughness is one area where people get a little tripped up on, so I always recommend making sure to include as many visual examples as possible. It’s a way to bridge the gap between your topic and your audience and is worth considering when creating blog post ideas. on September 29th, 2020, By The topic sometimes puts people off balance – even knowledgeable SEOs. Liz Moorehead At a high level, the Content Compass will empower you to quickly develop a deep understanding of WHO is asking the question and WHAT exactly what they need from you... ...which will enable you to know exactly WHY you’re #1 teacher on that specific topic (as well as what exactly from your background you need to share with them), as well as HOW exactly you’re going to help them. . OK, the blog content planning (or outlining) process I'm about to teach you will cut the amount of time you spend creating content in half. If you’re worried that you’re not getting organic traffic, this post will help you. Zach Basner Whether you accept it or not, you can only go far when it comes to SEO purpose, email marketing, social media marketing, and so on – at some point you will need to start a blog and bring your A game. ", "Look, what you're saying sounds great, in theory. Tell a hypothetical story that paints the picture for the person who is reading the article. But you need to use caution with this tactic. Nobody wants to listen to amateurs. on September 29th, 2020, By Keeping tracking of all of these different moving pieces is tough. Ramona Sukhraj "The X Problems with Y You're Likely to Miss", "Why Is X Not Working & What Can I Do About It?". That's really all you need to do to get those right. Are they asking because they’re likely stressed or there’s some sort of external factor that’s creating a fear or pain that they’re trying to remove? You have two options. The catalog should have brief titling for every table but not caption as the whole. at Moz, Aaron Friedman touched a controversial topic (Google’s ranking factors). What are the specific-to-you stories, anecdotes, and experiences that relate to the question you’re answering? on September 29th, 2020, By So, your first step is to choose what you're writing about. You’ll find yourself agreeing with Jon’s statements throughout the post. by approaching every element of your content with an open mind. on September 16th, 2020, By This is how you lead people through your blog entry. The last element of an introduction is the thesis. Most marketers use it, and I know you do too. Instead of starting your blog post introduction with boring words, phrases or sentences, why not cite statistics and give credit accordingly? On the surface, there’s no correlation. When you start to infuse personality via storytelling into your content, you’re making room for content amplification. For example: Out of these 3 important writing techniques, the analogy is probably the most commonly used in blog post titles, introductions, and body of the content. Aware of the customer’s short attention span, Visa created a short video, consisting of only six words: The campaign ran across all of the company’s social channels. To create that image, you’ve got to use an image editing program (or the WordPress image editor). There are 3 important elements of a good blog post introduction. Sure, articles, videos, and other types of content can entertain, but the ultimate goal is to get results from reading any piece of content. Going back to Dan's example, here's what he put down for his: From here, you can go straight to writing, or you can use this loose table of contents as the start of your outline! But the truth is that you can still build a business without quitting your job. He is the co-founder of NP Digital and Subscribers. Remember, one of the best ways to build your business AND blog is by building your email list. on September 16th, 2020, © 2020 IMPACT, All Rights Reserved. When you click the click to tweet link, here’s what the URL will look like in your URL bar: https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=You+dont+need+to+be+interesting+to+not+be+boring+-+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FGDZG3w, As you can see, constructing this URL is quite easy. If you find there’s a missing link between your content and what the reader truly wants to see, try opening your next blog post by “stating the obvious.”. study by UffindellWest on Employee Loyalty. Liz Moorehead If you sell different services and products, provide candid analysis specifically of the problems with each product type that someone might experience. This is what pulls the reader into your blog entry. In short, the bottom line is that I’m saying with my WHY: "I am not only an expert, I have been you. 38 Content Marketing Statistics Every Marketer Needs to Know. You quickly drive your message deeper into the user’s mind. Worse, if you’re using an autoresponder service that doesn’t make segmentation easy, it can be an almost insurmountable challenge. But sometimes you may not realize what that bad answer looks like. on September 28th, 2020, By For bloggers, the introduction is basically the first paragraph that appears right below the blog post title. One recent study found that 42% of B2B marketers feel somewhat effective at content marketing. So, beyond the basics, ask yourself: Why do they care about this topic right now? Free course: Assignment selling and content as your greatest sales tool. Once I get to the end of my last paragraph, when I'm ready to wow you with all that my brain has to offer, I imagine the reader sitting across from me, and I wait for them to ask me one of the following three questions: "Why should I care about this? Let's take a look at two examples from two different articles — Dan's Google Ads cost article and my content manager problems article — of how you might answer this question, as your answer will fall into one of two buckets: In Dan’s case, his WHY is pretty straightforward. Do you know why most people buy Seth Godin’s books? They’re afraid to raise these topics, because they’re worried about how people will perceive them. But take a look at a few thoughts I shared that helped my readers derive value from the post: Use analogy when writing your blog post introductions. It looks a lot more complicated than it really is, trust me ;-). Here are my top tips for formatting a blog post that users will actually want to read (or at least skim all the way through). The expectations you set with your thesis either lock the reader in to finish reading your post, and maybe subscribe to your blog, or cause them to bail from your site out of apathy about your subject. In the same way storytelling works in ads, commercials, and visual content, it can work in blog posts – especially when you use it to craft your hook in the introduction. They’ll instantly feel that you truly understand what they’re going through. Whenever I coach people on how to answer this question, I tell them you are NOT creating an outline. That’s the job of the introduction. When I published the post, “, How Spending $162,301.42 on Clothes Made Me $692,500, ,” one thought consumed me – “how are my readers going to reach to this?”, Use analogy when writing your blog post introductions. The thesis might reiterate the title, like this: Let me show you the 6 strategies that can help you nail the introduction for creating great blog posts: One of the key purposes of  creating great blogs is to build an audience that trusts, believes, and buys from you. Data from DemandGen Report found that 67% of B2B customers rely more on content to research and make purchasing decisions than they did the previous year. The average consumer processes 100,500 digital words per day. You need to catch the user’s attention, or something else will. The Wall Street Journal calls him a top influencer on the web, Forbes says he is one of the top 10 marketers, and Entrepreneur Magazine says he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies. Neil is a New York Times bestselling author and was recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations. It’ll still fail. Chris Marr Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner, understands how to deliver the benefits of content in the introduction. That’s because they want to see whether their answer matches yours. You can also take an old topic and breathe life into it with your creativity. Make it specific, brief, and interesting. There’s a website called ClicktoTweet.com that makes creating these links MUCH easier, but the problem is, it creates a short URL. As bloggers and consumers, we get excited when experts offer us their help. Moreover, he’s answered this question a thousand times, and has some form of that conversation every single day. My only question is, will it be yours? Liz Moorehead Liz Moorehead However, the title doesn’t keep them reading through your blog content. Visa, one of the most widely used credit cards in the world, identified an emotional distance between its customers and their loyalty. and sell your products, while features highlights the makeup of the product. Do not let the thesis become more important than it is. If readers don’t read the post eventually, then you know it’s got nothing to do with the introduction! Before I give you a blanket list of thesis statement examples, let’s run through what makes for a good thesis statement. Parts of a thesis. on September 25th, 2020, By If you truly know what your target audience is struggling with on a daily basis, you’re already a few steps ahead of your competitors who don’t know, and you can use that information to your advantage by using them as your blog post ideas. This article is going to lay out, step-by-step, how to write a blog article, so you can say goodbye to writer's block forever. In the screenshot above, Friedman demonstrates his understanding that most people don’t think Google in essence pre-judges them (i.e., their web pages) to determine where their web pages should rank in the organic listings. Most bloggers and writers would rather ignore it and write about a popular blog topic (e.g., personal development), instead of meddling with issues of the heart. John Becker I didn’t want to write about controversy, because I didn’t want to hurt someone or piss off my readers. According to, As a blogger, it’s easy to introduce your blog post idea by offering the “why.”. Well, not all internet marketers believe that email segmentation (that is, dividing your list into groups or segments based on where they are in the buying journey) is necessary. 470 James Street, Suite 10, When it comes to content creation, there are several challenges. There could be lots of reasons why people buy a certain product, but the most compelling reason is because of the benefits. In his latest post, he quoted a shocking statistic right in the introduction, in order to hook readers and draw them inside this blog entry. So back to our context: opening your blog post introductions with controversy. Sure, it’s a great way to build blog engagement, but what if your readers are offended? What objections or resistance might they express to you and in what order? Liz Moorehead Because the amount of vital information you’ve collected about your audience, and how well you use that information, will determine what kind of impact your content will make in their lives. Brian Dean highlighted. Pro course: Cure writer's block FOREVER in under 90 minutes with the subject matter expert's guide to content. It could be what inspired you to come up with this blog post idea. Instead the goal here is to create a super loose table of contents. You can and should be selective and strategic. Can’t you get these benefits without segmenting your list? You can put this to work immediately. In fact, most PhD thesis are usually more than 5 chapters(RE: write a thesis or writing a thesis). Or barriers to success that might prevent them from seeing the results they expect. It’s the same thing with buying cars. In a nutshell, what you’re looking for isn’t really the well-written words of the post or the production values of the video (although both are important), but the results, benefits, and purpose that come with the content. are types of speech, either written or oral, that make reference to one particular thing in order to explain another thing. The transition is usually a sentence that connects the hook to the body of the post and clarifies the title. Your hook could be a question (. Then, you’d simply create a normal link in your WordPress editor, and link to the above URL as you just constructed. 2. If you’re not sure when you should use a frame, read about when you should use a frame on your images. As an example, take a look at this link here: http://clicktotweet.com/2T1A0. Kathleen Booth One way to hook readers correctly after you’ve captured their attention with your title is to leverage a controversial topic in your blog introduction. Did you notice how obvious this introduction is? It breaks it down into simpler forms, causing the reason to put the instruction to work. on September 9th, 2020, By promotion is the ultimate ingredient for growing a blog. You can open your blog post introduction with it in a mild way.