Here’s The Second Most Important Part Of Any Blog Post

Photo by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash

The first?

The headline.

If you’ve read me before, you probably saw that coming.

But what is the second most important part of a blog post?

The sub-headline? The cover photo? A nice juicy call-to-action?

To me, it’s none of the above — although there could be arguments made for them.

Personally, I believe that the introduction is the second most important part of any blog post.

Here’s why..

Here’s A Free Lesson In Copywriting

I read a copywriting book way back in 2016. Why? Well, I wanted to be a copywriter. I heard they made a lot of money. Stop judging me.

Anyways I was reading some book I don’t remember the name to and the author shared some extremely insightful writing advice..

He said the purpose of the headline was to get you to read the sub-headline. The sub-headline’s purpose was to get you to read the first sentence of the body paragraph.

The first sentence of the body paragraph’s purpose was to get you to read the second sentence of the body paragraph.

You see where this is going.

To this author, substance took a backseat to style. At the beginning of his copy, it was more about being exciting, provocative, and emotional instead of, well, informational.

You gotta do that to keep people reading.

According to this unnamed author (sorry), the headline is the most important part of copywriting. Second is whatever sentence comes after the headline. Third is whatever comes after that, and so on.

So start putting a lot more effort into your introduction.. particularly the first and second paragraphs. Every time you edit, read the first two paragraphs and think about whether a complete stranger who doesn’t give a fuck about you would continue reading.

If the answer is not a HELL YES, then it’s not good enough.

Rewrite it until it is. I’ll give you some introduction-writing tips at the end of this article, so please continue.

1 Tip To Write A Good Introduction

I’ll give you one solid piece of industry advice..

Start your intro with a quote.

Then tell a story.

Preferably it will be a personal story + quote.

“Tom, I’m done with you!’

There, that’s a great introduction starter. Don’t you want to hear the rest of that story? Too bad, there is none. I made it up.

I think you can never go wrong with a personal story as an introduction. You need to actually be good at storytelling, though.

If you can master the art of storytelling, then you’ll write the best introductions on the internet. For me all good stories have good problems. Tell us the problem immediately. Present conflict immediately. Or you can present an emotional moment. A triumph.

Your wedding day. That time you got in a car crash. Try to dramatize the most emotional experiences of your life, and you’ll start writing amazing headlines.

That’s all you need to know. Do that, and you’ll have taken care of the second most important part of every blog post.

Now for the next question.. what’s the third?

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