What’s the point of writing if people aren’t going to read it? Or share it? Here are 15 top tips that will get people to read through your content and want to share it, today…
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Have a strong opening
This is the number one thing you can do to get people to read your content. If you don’t get their attention early on, why would they bother learning what else it is you have to say?
Use the tricks of the trade to get their attention. Make a bold statement, ask an active question. You can make promises, for example – this could be the most valuable 10 minutes you spend today!
This also works for your Title tags too! You can ensure you have a strong emotional title tag by using the #1 Headline Analyzer from Co-schedule. Its helps get more posts read and gets traffic to your blog.
You can even use repetition: transform your writing, transform your content – transform your business!
You can use exaggerated language – but don’t try to sell people snake oil. There’s no point building something up if there is no value. If you read the rest of this blog, you will see that the claims above are justified.
Oh, you can also challenge people to read on – that works too!
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Have a lot of white space
Make sure there’s a lot of white space in your article. Some blogs actually have a policy of putting each sentence on a new line. That’s not necessary, but each bit of information should have its own space to be digested by the reader.
The benefit of making sure that you write in short paragraphs is that it breaks your ideas down into short, digestible chunks. People can often skim past large chunks of text – but will read pages and pages if they only have to tackle a little bit at a time.
People are also consuming more media on mobile devices. What might seem like a short paragraph compared to a book can take up the entire real estate of a smartphone.
By having white space, you are also making it more likely that people will read what you have written, no matter which device they are using it on. Here is a complete write up on how to create white space with CSS in your wordpress site.
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Make use of lists
If you break your article down into a list, it’s another way of making it more approachable. It also gives the people reading it a clear indication of the purpose of each section.
Even if you are writing longer paragraphs, you still need to have a topic sentence and concluding sentence in each paragraph. Lists put that topic sentence in a very clear and readable way.
People also like lists. A top 10 list can contain just as much content as a long form article. Lists allow people to skim through the points and then look at the pieces that interest them. -
Use bullet points
In the body of your writing, there are times when you will want to write a list. That can be in a post, in a blog, in an article and sometimes even in an advert. They tend to be long, run on sentences. Converting that list into bullet points makes the individual points easier to digest, and refer to. It also avoid confusing comma, colon and semicolon use (and misuse).
This means people will pay more attention to your content and you can use it in all forms of writing for:
- Posts
- Blogs
- Articles
- Adverts
You can use box-outs, pictures and GIFs to break up the flow of the page and maintain interest.
Like This One…. -
Should you ask questions?
Using active questions is a great way of engaging people. If people see a question, they will want to read on to find the answer. It’s also a good way of rephrasing the focus of that section, and making people take a step back to think.
So how do you write a good question?
It has to be something that people actually want an answer to. Making the heading of every section a question isn’t likely to get people’s attention and make them read on.
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Talk directly to your audience
First person when you write as yourself, third person is when you write about someone else: he, she or they. For blogs, you should use direct address – second person, if you will. Direct address means that you use the word ‘you’ a lot. You are directly focusing on the audience, and your attention is on them – rather than yourself.
