HIGH RECOMMENDED :)

Title: Beach Camping in Carlsbad?
Opening Line Catcher: (This Post)…shares some valuable and hard-to-come-by information about camping at South Carlsbad State Beach for those of you who are interested.

Michael

Last week I launched a small quiz using a very tempting title “Win eternal fame” which resulted in more comments as usual.

Humour’s sometimes good, I’ve found, especially when speaking about something deep or dark. I was speaking recently at a launch of my new book ‘A Painful Post Mortem’ about the effects of drugs. (The book is actually a novel, but its subject is how a family copes with watching the slow self-destruction of a loved member, the victory of recovery, and then the shocking death at someone else’s hand). My speaking slot was after a sumptuous breakfast. I stood up and congratulated the chef, then told everyone that I used to be a Weight Watcher lecturer and had been taking note of all they’d eaten. It broke the ice with a hearty laugh before I launched into the serious stuff. You’re quite right! Connecting with people like that makes them more open to what is to follow.
Mel Menzies – author of A Painful Post Mortem

” * If knowledge is power;
* If information is knowledge;
* And if Google is organizing – and, more importantly, distributing – the world’s information;

Then isn’t Google the single most powerful organization in the world?”

Excellent tips…thanks for taking the time to share.

Kidding aside, I just finished a post entitled – Are you a born blogger? in which the opening sentence is “Artists are being born, not made. No matter where you studied arts, if you are not a born artist, you will never shine”. Hope this is just fine.

And yes, we should magnetize our readers at his first glance so he will be thrilled as he is reading the whole post. He might even keep coming back for more.

For the quote, I am placing them at the end of each post but I make them bold. Mind you, I am spending time to think of one as I do not want my readers say – “Oh well, I already read that before somewhere else”

For my addition, I think it is good to try reverse psychology. As an active Entrecard member, I made a post entitled Why You Should Leave Entrecard. It made members raise eyebrows but smiled after reading the whole post.

Thanks for continuously orienting us, Darren!

Thanks for the valuable tips! Halfway through your article, I clicked back to my site to spruce up my last post with an introductory question followed by a bold statement! I am convinced that it has raised expectations and increased reader appeal.

Old intro-

Table of Contents:

1. Fast Track to Panning
2. Behind the Scenes
3. ‘Pick’ a Pan
4. Panning 101
5. He Made His Living with a Pan
6. Tools to Take into the Field

New intro-

Would you like to learn about an exhilarating hobby that is loads of fun, gets you outdoors, is undeniably healthy, introduces you to a community of friendly like-minded people, and has been known to pay for itself and even to become a stepping-stone to a new and exciting career? Welcome to the wonderful world of recreational gold panning.

Caution proceeding beyond this point has infected a high percentage of visitors with gold fever, causing them to drop everything and race for the hills!

Thanks Darren,

JQK

Along with writing post headlines, opening lines are probably the hardest for me to write.

Great tips!!! Keep up the good work. :-)

Excellent points Darren.

“‘Hi Michael, it’s nice to meet you’
These were the first words my wife spoke to me.”

It could have been worse. What if she had said that to your yesterday.

that would have rated highly in Point 4?

Robbo

I suppose the first lines of a blog post should be the same as it should engage the reader and not give them a way out.

Opening lines and grabbing reader’s attention is something I’m hard at work doing at the moment. Being able to write that great title is what counts best for a first impression if you ask me.

Second, would be the first words they see when they click on the post and go into the single post pages.

Having these two main things are essential to getting them to actually begin to read your post. Then, throughout the post, you would have to make it interesting so they won’t fall asleep, and actually finish reading the post.

Great tips Darren!

You took a simple idea, and conveyed it in a very useful way. I appreciate it. To Delicious it will go.