Trick to Grab Readers at the Start of Your Post and Engage Them at the End

Do you ever feel like you’re writing good posts but no-one’s reading them?

Maybe you’re coming up with powerful headlines. You’re making sure your posts are easy to follow. You’re writing in a friendly, conversational way.

But it just doesn’t seem to be working.

Even when you can see from Google Analytics that your posts are getting read, no-one’s sticking around to comment.

Some bloggers give up at this stage – which is a real shame. They might have a great topic, or a great writing style: they just need to pay more attention to the two most important parts of their posts.

The introduction and conclusion of a post are vital.

The introduction should grab readers’ attention and get them engaged from the very first sentence.

The conclusion should prompt them to do something – don’t just leave it to chance that they’ll do what you want after reading.

Where Bloggers Often Go Wrong (Are You Making These Mistakes?)

I’ve read a quite probably embarrassing number of blog posts over the years, and I’ve reviewed blog posts for dozens of bloggers and writers.

Time and time again, I see the same mistakes cropping up with introductions and conclusions.

Introductions typically go wrong because bloggers:

• Spend too long getting into the post. They write about the inspiration behind the post, or they apologise for not blogging for so long.
• Don’t explain why something matters. If readers don’t understand why what you’re teaching them is important, they won’t stick around.

Conclusions typically go wrong because bloggers:

• Miss them out altogether (e.g. if they’ve written a list post, it ends with the final item on the list). This is an easy mistake to make – but a huge wasted opportunity.
• Only sum up the post, without providing any call to action.