5 ways to open your blog post with a bang

Brian Clark’s 5 Ways to open your blog post with a bang has got me thinking. Here’s the five bullets.

• Ask a question
• Share an anecdote or quote
• Invoke the mind’s eye by producing a mental image
• Use an analogy, metaphor or simile
• Cite a shocking statistic

I’m always trying to get the the point of my post in the first sentence or two. That way RSS readers getting an excerpt of the post only get the gist of the post and can decide whether to read on.

Secondly, web usability experts like Jacon Nielsen suggest a summary of the post up front is what users are looking for. Internet readers, like those of newspapers scan content. The inverted pyramid style of leading with the substantial, interesting, and important information lends itself well to this.

For these reasons I have stayed away from Brain’s suggestions. But Brian is a heck of a writer drawing a large audience to his blog so he must have a point.

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