We use headings and subheadings
- in articles - both on the Internet and in paper media,
- on sites,
- in non-fiction books.
In the latter case, they also appear in the table of contents.
We write headings and subheadings not for the sake of beauty or fashion, but because they make life much easier for our readers. Thanks to them, people quickly find the information they need and do not waste time on what they do not need at the moment.
What's the difference between a good headline and a bad one?
Because it serves as a kind of road sign in a sea of information. This means that a good headline should be short, simple and informative.
A bad headline doesn't provide the necessary information and further confuses the reader. For example, the “Next” button in the website menu is a bad title. Where next? For what?
And a completely different matter is the “Books” or “Recipes” button. It’s immediately clear what lies where.
In articles, a bad headline might look like this: “Knowledge Every Writer Needs.” Yes, this knowledge is mountains! What exactly is the article talking about?
It’s much better to write something like “How to start a novel” or “The first sentence of a book.”
If we want to attract readers' attention, we need to promise them something useful and/or interesting.
To come up with a good headline, we need to decide: is this what the person is looking for? If yes, then we clearly indicate in the title: The information is here. For example:
How to cook crabs
Headlines that grab attention
If a person is simply leafing through a magazine or surfing the Internet in the hope of finding something interesting, then we can attract his attention:
- news that relates to him,
- the promise of strong emotions,
- the promise of “household benefits.”
For example, the reader didn’t even think to specifically look for 15 ways to whiten teeth at home, but since the headline already caught my eye, why not scroll through the article?
More examples:
Angelina Jolie's daughter dreams of becoming a boy.
A man fell from the 15th floor and survived.
The target audience
First of all, we must focus on the target audience. Who should read our article? Professional copywriters? Subway drivers? Mothers of children aged three to five?
If we clearly know who we are writing for, we headline what is important to our audience.
The baby has a stomach ache. What to do?
If we write for the general public, then we need to appeal to the needs common to all: health, sex, food, safety, position in society.
Headlines for the educated and the uneducated
If your audience is simple people, without education, then, most likely, their work is from the “take more, throw further” series. This means that their emotional needs will be satisfied not through creativity and climbing the career ladder, but through intra-family squabbles and other people's news.
Headlines from the series “What happened to Angelina’s lips? I'm shocked!" - this is just for this category of people.
People with education, as a rule, have ambitions (otherwise they would not receive this education), and they are more interested not in other people’s lips, but in improving own life- in all its aspects.
Conclusions:
If we need to hook the “common people”, we promise them shock, awe, intimate details and proof that the rich cry too.
If we need to hook a more educated audience, we show them that you have something VALUABLE for them.
Tricky tricks
There are a few clever tricks you can use to draw attention to your headline.
1. You promise the reader structured information. Those. From the title it is clear that you have already done the work of systematizing the information and are presenting it in a “chewed form”.
What to wear for New Year?
10 most beautiful corners of the planet
2. You promise that you will give the reader more than “just text.” Videos, instructions, etc.
How to write a novel. Step by step plan
3. You clearly indicate who your text is intended for.
What to name the book. Advice for beginning science fiction writers.
The most important thing in subheadings
You need to decide in advance what function you want your subheadings to perform. If their main task is to show the reader what lies where, then the most important part should come first:
Not “How to do French manicure at home,” but “French manicure at home.”
When the reader scans the table of contents or text, he should easily find the information he needs - literally by the first two words.
We remember that in most cases, people first glance at an article, read the headings and subheadings, and only then decide whether they will read this article or not. Therefore, in subheadings we should have phrases that either hint that something interesting is hidden in the main text, or explain in plain text what we are talking about here.
For an example of enticing subheadings, see just above. An example of an explanatory header looks like this:
Alexander - most popular male name in Moscow.
In this way, we can convey key facts to the reader, even if he does not read the entire article.
For readers who like to read books offline, that is, having previously downloaded them, I provide a link to the book in “ePUB”, “mobi” and “fb2” formats. From this link you can download the book in excellent quality, made not with a “crooked” automatic converter, but manually, taking into account all the features of these formats. Enjoy reading!
https://yadi.sk/d/QJ_S7-o23QmBoj
Nikolay Stryzhakov
HOW TO ATTRACT A READER
Chapter 1
How to attract even more readers to read your books?
There is hardly a single writer on the pages of Litera who does not want his books to attract as many readers as possible. To attract attention to your books, everything is used: sweepstakes, promotional codes, subscriptions, reading exchanges, gifts, and...
But very FEW - for some reason?!! - the thought comes to mind that all this is secondary. But what is primary is the text itself, and not even its literary components, but its quality, the very possibility of reading this text. And read not only on the Litera website in real time, sitting at a computer with the Internet, but also offline, by downloading the text of the book to your tablet, iPhone, cell phone... Yes, just in an e-book, finally!
But here, just not everything is so simple...
Everyone has seen either on their own page or on someone else’s page the following line:
Download: epub mobi fb2 (... downloads)
It would seem: here is a way to read autonomously, but...
These formats are converted automatically on Liter, without human intervention. And the quality of such files does not stand up to criticism: such files are SIMPLY not opened by many programs for reading such formats; formatting flies - chapters, subchapters and other text breakdowns may get mixed up; Hyphens may appear instead of dashes; instead of hyphens - squares; direct speech is distorted; dialogues can merge into one; Italics will disappear from poems and quotes... And a lot of other things...
No, of course, it’s still possible to read such a text - wading through the absurdities and “crackers” - but the reader certainly won’t get pleasure from reading it (and some particularly “fastidious” people simply won’t continue reading after the first ten pages). And how many unflattering words (at best - censored!) will be spoken to the author?!! And guess what: will the reader even look at the writer’s OTHER books after such a negative experience?
In order to prevent the reader from spitting when reading offline, many authors - who take their work quite seriously - post links to their books in “epub”, “mobi” and “fb2” formats on their “Literary” page. They place these files in the so-called “cloud” file storage, which can be created completely free on the Yandex resource, the so-called “Yandex disk”. (There is plenty of information about this on the Internet!).
Such files can be created using editor programs such as Adobe InDesign and FictionBook Editor - these programs can be downloaded completely free of charge on the Internet. But if the authors are not “particularly friendly” with text editing in special programs, then it is better to order them from professionals. And it’s quite inexpensive: let’s say it will cost the author 1,000-2,000 rubles (depending on the complexity of formatting by section).
And further...
By doing this, you will not only win an additional readership (and this is thousands and tens of thousands of readers!) - you will win the reader's RESPECT, and through this - at least attention to your books...
If anyone has any questions, you can discuss them in this blog, or ask me questions by email: [email protected]
I will definitely answer!
You can see how to place links on my page.
Your cherished words. You know, they have to attract the reader.
You sit over them until exhaustion, conjuring every phrase. Finally the masterpiece is ready - and what next?
No one comments, no one tweets, no one shares on Facebook.
This is quite enough to drive a writer into deep depression and deprive him of the incentive to continue creating quality content.
Do you think you just need to work more on improving your writing talents? No, don't.
In reality, everything is much simpler than you think. Spend less time writing text and more time designing. It must be easy to read - this is enough to attract and retain attention.
Impatient Readers
Jakob Nielsen's 1997 study on web usability states that 79% of web users typically skim rather than read text.Think about what you use the network for. You are looking for information. If you don't find what you need, then you go to another page.
The network is a means of actively searching for information (while television, on the contrary, emphasizes passivity).
What can you do to make the reader immersed in reading your texts, stay on your page and take advantage of the information you offer?
Make your texts attractive
In order for your texts to be successful online, you need to forget about the rules for writing essays that you were taught in your native language lessons.Accept it as a fact that visitors usually browse pages without reading them carefully. Don't try to fight it, but take it into account.
If you want to touch difficult topic, it’s better to break it up into several posts. It will also make the reader come back and stay longer. It will be easier for him to comprehend your content if you give it in small portions.
Design your note as an inverted pyramid. This means writing your conclusions first and then supporting them with subsequent text. This will help visitors skim through the main points you've made, deciding whether they should read more.
Once upon a time, we already used simple techniques to make content more attractive to the reader. It only takes a few minutes for a post to turn from a jumbled text that the eye doesn't linger on into something that will attract the reader for a long time.
1. Use a line break
There are a few simple ways make your content easier to understand. Even the most difficult content will become easier if you use the space bar. Present each idea in a separate paragraph and try to keep them short - three or four sentences maximum.Try to write some paragraphs in one sentence.
2. Break the text into subsections and write subheadings
One of the tricks taught on Copyblogger is how to write a title and subtitles.To initially attract readers, a high-quality abstract is necessary. And compelling subheadings will keep the reader engaged, forcing him to skim the rest of the text.
Keep your headlines intriguing and informative at the same time. But don't forget that readers can sense falseness very well, so don't exaggerate, or you'll lose trust. "Exciting" doesn't mean "flashy."
After writing the subsections, review them. You need to make sure that every part of the text conveys some idea. The reader must understand it. This will keep his attention.
3. Use bulleted lists
- Your readers won't be able to resist them.
- With their help, it is so easy to make numerous points easy to read.
- You stand out in the text, so you can easily attract the reader's eye.
4. Label illustrations.
Studies show that captions under illustrations are the most readable part of the text. Try to combine a high-quality picture and a thoughtful signature.The signature should contain two or three sentences. This is enough to intrigue the reader and make him start reading the entire article carefully.
5. Add links that are meaningful to the text
Internal links return to the main content, to the best materials, which should keep the visitor on your site.IN quality text both links are used. In order for the reader to better understand the meaning and in order to make the text more useful.
Another advantage of internal links is that it won’t be so offensive if some dirty trick steals your text and places it on their website without specifying the author.
6. Use document formatting
Add expressiveness to the text highlighting in bold important points . The reader should be able to find out what's most important just by looking at the text.There is no need to select everything (the effect will be the same as if you do not select anything). Instead, focus on the key points so they can be seen during a quick glance.
7. Don't forget about numbering
Do you think that numbering makes you sad? Think again. The numbers are extraordinary effective method simultaneously attract the reader's attention and not let him get lost.You do not believe me? Look at "Popular Articles" in the right column. There you can learn a lot about how to use numbers (and some other tricks) to make your article attractive to the reader.
You can often make a post more engaging by simply numbering the main points. Try this.
So, you've used everything - subparagraphs, numbering, bolding and other formatting options, highlighting all the key points. Now read your post - paying attention only to the text to which you so wanted to draw attention.Will the reader get the point? Have you used all the appropriate words that should convert your visitor into a reader?
What do you think of it? How do you attract readers to your content? Let's discuss this in the comments.
A good subject line is the key to grabbing your readers' attention. The more subscribers who open your emails, the more sales of your products and services you will make.
How successful are your email campaigns? Do they regularly bring you new leads and sales?
If your emails aren't getting opened and you're sending them to people who have signed up for your mailing lists, then your subject lines may be the problem.
What topics will make your readers open emails? Here some recommendations to make your topics more catchy:
Know your reader's desires
Although there are many conditions for mailing success, the most important is that the topic should address primarily the personal interest of the recipient, not yours. In other words, the topic should address the goal the reader wants to achieve, not what YOU want them to do.
For example, let's say you are a hosting company and you have a list of web page developers. You have launched a new program where you will pay an affiliate commission for new clients of your web hosting, and you want to notify the developers about this new program through your newsletter. If you send a newsletter with the subject: “Become a partner of YOUR COMPANY and prosper!”, the open rate of the letters will probably be quite low. Reason: Even though you include the word "thrive" at the end of the topic, the main idea of the topic topic is what YOU want to get - new partners for your hosting company.
Change the topic to something like, “Earn the best hosting commissions,” or better yet, “Earn up to 30% on every hosting payment.” And your email open rate will increase dramatically because you will be focusing on what your readers want - more money. (The body of the email should support this idea, and include a call to action that will entice readers to call you or fill out a web form to become your affiliate.)
Make your subject line interesting
To get your email opened, the subject line must make recipients think, “This is something I want to know more about right now.” To achieve this, the subject line must hint at the content of the letter and do so in a way that piques the reader's curiosity.
Soft subject lines don't work well these days. There are too many emails constantly competing for the reader's attention.
“COMPANY NEWS, issue No. 10” - not the most interesting and attractive letter header. even if readers subscribed to just such a newsletter.
“Free seminar...” or “How to relax longer for the same money” or “what kills your tomato seedlings” will attract readers much more strongly. And it is more likely to lead to the opening of the letter.
And you can put the name of your company in the “FROM” column of your letter. This way you will strengthen the connection in the reader’s head with your business and brand.
Appeal to their emotions
Although most people like to think that their decisions are made logically, emotion usually plays an important role. This is especially true when deciding which emails to open in your inbox and which to immediately delete. When time is an issue (and it almost always is, especially online), email subject lines that evoke emotion are more likely to be opened than those that are unemotional.
Here are some of the most common emotional triggers:
- Prevention
- Affiliation
- Competitiveness/Advantage
- Convenience / simplicity
- Curiosity
- Improvement
- Exceptionality
- Fear
- Financial benefit
- Monetary losses
- Indulgence/personal satisfaction
- Power
- Needs
- Peace of mind
- Shortage
- Self improvement
- Social influence (social proof)
- Voltage reduction
- Save time
- Confidence
Find a way to include words that evoke emotions associated with your business, and the effectiveness of your emails will increase.
Keep topics short
Topics rarely appear in their entirety in your recipient's inbox. The smaller screen a person uses to read their mail, the less words. So, if the topic you write is long: “Our new therapy for back pain reduces patients' need for drugs,” then the reader will only see part of it. And the most important thing (reducing the need for drugs) will remain off the screen. Those. beyond the reader's attention.
So put important words at the beginning of your topic.
To read or not to read? A person makes a decision in the first 5-7 seconds, skimming the beginning of the article. Will you be able to capture his attention in these moments? Copywriter Daniil Shardakov spoke about 11 ways to interest the reader literally from the first seconds of reading.
This is unthinkable! So that I, the man with higher education, fell for such a cheap trick. To tell the truth, right now I am overwhelmed with ambivalent feelings. On the one hand, there is righteous anger: “How could I fall for this?!” On the other hand, admiration: I was “treated” so purely and masterfully that if I were an outside observer, I would probably have given a standing ovation. But no, I found myself a victim and at the very epicenter of events. I learned a valuable lesson from this situation. And now you will understand what I am talking about...
My friend works at an alternative medicine center. Or rather, I would say, semi-traditional. In general, they use hypnosis, homeopathy, acupuncture techniques and other methods that are not widely used in official health institutions...
Are you still reading? May it be for you! Everything written above is nothing more than a sham. Here is the real beginning of the article. Here. And, by the way, it is about the beginning that we will talk today. Ready? Then make yourself comfortable, today we will use real examples to look at how to start an article in order to involve the reader in reading and not let go until the very end!
Beginning of the article: what is lead and what is it eaten with?
According to statistics, a person determines the usefulness of a material within the first 5-7 seconds. A big role in this is played by the first paragraph, which is also called “lead” (from the English lead - lead). Its main task is to captivate the reader so much that he cannot stop and “swallow” your text from beginning to end. If the lead is dull and boring, the copy usually fails. And if for an informational article this is not so critical, then for an advertising text it can mean a waste advertising budget with all the ensuing consequences.
A very important principle is associated with the concept of a lead - the principle of the inverted pyramid, which states that the most interesting, most important information should be placed in the first paragraph. However, this is not a dogma. There are many ways to make a lead catchy, and we will look at many of these methods today.
Yes, but you remember that starting publication is the second step. The first thing you need to do is create interest with a headline.
Before starting the article
The main thing is that your material has a clear structure, and the beginning emphasizes its value, and not vice versa. However, there are things that completely kill this value, and which should be avoided at all costs. Here are some of them.
Broken clichés. Save yourself from imitating thousands of unimaginative authors who have no idea how to start an article so that it immediately arouses the reader's interest.
Start in style:
Mobile technologies have made life much easier for modern people.
Today, new technologies are developing at lightning speed.
Movement is life.
have already become so hackneyed that they cause nothing but a touch of boredom.
Banality. Another leader among typical mistakes. The difference from the previous point is comprehensive evidence.
There are no identical people in the world.
Each of us takes care of our health.
Women are different from men.
In a word, thank you, Cap! As a rule, such trivial phrases are often found in cheap texts for satellites. Naturally, they are not suitable for serious publications.
Complex intricacies. Another common mistake is making the first sentence too difficult to understand.
In the light of total globalization it becomes topical issue rationality of sharing information resources, which, in turn, are increasingly valuable to the international information community every day.
All these things bore the reader and force him to stop reading (otherwise he will die of boredom). They are also called water, since they do not carry any information value as such. If you need to increase volume without water, read this article. To test the tenacity of a lead, ask your friends and acquaintances for their opinions. Finally, put yourself in the reader's shoes. Would you be interested in reading such a beginning?
How to Start an Article: 11 Proven Approaches
Anyone can point out shortcomings and what not to do. Let's look at several ways to start an article that are more than 90% likely to interest your reader.
1. The Golden Way – “Sugerman’s Slippery Slide”
This way of starting an article was invented by the famous American copywriter Joe Sugarman. This approach is called the “slippery slide.” It is universal and suitable for starting both regular publications and selling texts.
Slippery Slide Principles:
The first sentence is kept as short and unspoken as possible. It should create intrigue and question, enticing the reader to read the second sentence for the answer. The second sentence increases the suspense, leading the reader to the third sentence, and so on. You get the idea.
Do you see? After the first sentence, the question arises: “But?” After the second sentence, this question intensifies: “Yes, but?” After the third sentence, the question “How?” arises. and after the fourth, the reader can no longer be stopped.
I used a similar technique to start this article, adding a little emotion. After the first sentence, the question arose: “What is unthinkable?” then this question was intensified by a flared intrigue, which intensified with each proposal.
At this point there is a possibility that you are thinking, “It was clear as day, the beginning is banal and boring, damn it, I’ve already seen this!”
Great! This means you have mastered this method and can successfully apply it in your own practice so that it is really cool. :)
2. Facts or statistics
Nothing grabs people's attention at the beginning of an article like something interesting. Provide statistics or some interesting fact, and people will read your text.
In the United States, about 20 billion diapers are disposed of annually.
Scientists have found that people cannot dream when they snore.
According to statistics, 1.5% of people on the planet have red hair.
3. Question
Questions are good because people answer them on a subconscious level, and this draws them into reading. It’s doubly good if the question is intriguing.
Did you know that Einstein could not speak until he was 4 years old and was considered a retarded child?
Do you want your life to be provided by passive income?
How long does it take you to bathe?
This technique can be used in conjunction with the Socratic method for strengthening.
4. Provocative phrase
One of my favorite techniques. It consists in the fact that you begin the article with a provocative phrase that evokes certain emotions (most often negative) in certain groups readers. However, remember that if you cause negativity, you must then reduce it to zero.
Beyonce fans are idiots.
If you are not an alien, you will read the following sentence.
It's stupid to work for someone.
5. History or parable
People love stories. Firstly, because we all grew up with stories, and secondly, because we are used to learning some kind of lesson from each story. This is why most people are predisposed to stories and read them willingly. Look at the second paragraph of this article. It is written exactly in the format of a story.
6. Hypno-insert
Not a typical start for traditional articles. However, this technique is often used in selling texts. The essence of this technique is to use phrases such as “Imagine...”, “Imagine...”, “Remember...”, etc.
Imagine that you are the captain of a spaceship.
Imagine that you find yourself in a jungle full of cannibals.
Remember how you ran around naked as a child?
7. Quote
Practice shows that another good way to start an article is to use a clever quote. Only if you use this technique, remember that:
The reader should understand the meaning of this quote.
The quotation must be directly related to the article.
8. Test
Another great way to start publishing is to do a little test. People love to experiment and learn about themselves something new or old, but known only to them.
Check which psychotype you belong to.
If you answer five simple questions, you will find out what your greatest strength is.
Before you continue reading, take a short test that will show you whether you make common mistakes in English.
9. Personal experience
People love it when an author shares his or her observations or experiences (especially if those experiences are personal). In principle, this way of starting an article is similar to a story, the only difference being that the narration comes from the first person and can be overly emotional.
I want to tell you a story that happened to me two months ago.
I wasn't the most handsome guy at school, but I had something that made girls literally hang around my neck.
Well, that's it, we've arrived! Get a tractor, village! I stepped on the same rake again!
10. Focus on the problem or solution
Everything is simple here. You immediately pose a problem that is relevant to the reader and promise a solution to it in the article.
If you have tried everything, and dandruff continues to appear, then there is one sure way that will get rid of it once and for all.
Despite the fact that website promotion is a rather labor-intensive and expensive process, there is a way to reduce costs by up to 80%. And here's how.
11. News
News has always aroused, arouses and will continue to arouse intense interest and heated debate. So why not use this human weakness to start your article with a bang? “Yellow” news, so to speak, scandals, intrigues, investigations, causes a special stir.
A pensioner from the outback stole a top model from under the nose of a millionaire.
Found a way to make money while lying on the couch and doing nothing!
Exhibitionists staged an orgy on Red Square!
Summary of the beginning of the article
The above techniques are more than enough to start an article effectively. Not all of them are universal: some techniques can only be used in the right case. Although, to be honest, the first method is enough for a good start. You just need to use curiosity and generate questions that interest a person, the answer to which he expects to find in the article.
