11 Guilt-Free Tips to Making Your Blog Posts Sexy
For some reason, sex sells…and real estate agents get way up in arms over it.
Seth Godin says objectifying women is a short cut to cash [one only has to look to Hugh Hefner]…a short-cut people are tiring of.
Of course, ten, fifteen years ago [or was it thirty?] Gary Halbert, crudely and crassly…but classical in form…said the quickest ways to boost sales for a product was to put a photograph of a woman in a bikini in the ad.
Keep in mind, this will not work for all products.
Ogilvy points out in his book Ogilvy on Advertising that sex has has to be pertinent to the product.
Read: will work for Viagra. Will not work for a rotor rooter.
I lean towards the view point that sex in ads degrades women and is not a healthy strategy. I certainly wouldn’t want my daughter nor my wife posing half naked on a magazine spread or website. Or billboard.
Or a blog.
But that’s neither here nor there…
My real point about this post is how to format your blog posts so that it is attractive to your readers…
So that it captures their attention and forces them to review what you wrote.
With that in mind, here are 11 tips to help you write with flair and make your posts appealing, approachable and seductive.
1. Use short sentences. People crave brevity. Especially on the web. And like it or not, people read best at about a fourth grade comprehension. So short sentences are key. Especially on the web: in fact, people scan. Short sentences makes it easier.
2. Write short paragraphs. Copywriting is in my blood. So everything I write flows from that. Thus you’ll constantly see tiny paragraphs…sometimes only one sentence long.
This is also a trick newspapers like. Just look at USA Today.
People can scan short paragraphs. And scanning is the presiding world view for most online readers today.
3. Bold important thoughts. As the eye scans your post, it is looking for important information. Make important information abundantly by bolding it.
Also, look to have your bolded sentences and phrases tell a story in themselves. As best as you can.
4. Use Bullets and Numbers. Any lists you provide should be bullets or numbers. Think a litany or a grocery list: easy to remember.
5. Strike hard with action verbs. Start sentences, lists with verbs. And not just any verbs. Verbs that resonate, thunder, strive, yearn, force. Verbs that work hard. Verbs that will manhandle people into slowing down and reading what you wrote.
Arresting attention is what you want.
6. Confuse people. “Rub a chicken against your ear. Now go buy my book.”
Joe Vitale, the so-called hypnotic copywriter, uses this technique because “confusion will arrest people. It will cause them to stop and scratch their head. That’s why after the confusing phrase you insert the most important piece of information…and that point you know people are paying attention.”
7. Pepper your post with ellipsis. This is an ellipsis …. It’s a suggestion of a pause in speech. It’s a suggestion that there is more to come. Something you can’t do with out…
It naturally leads the eye along the path of the sentence…
And encourages the eye to clamber down to the next line. Which brings me to my next point…
8. Mimic conversations. In other words, ignore the rules of grammar. Start sentences with verbs. Rely on the implicit “you.” Abuse punctuation! Kick off sentences with the words “and” and “but” and “also.” However…
Remain within the boundaries. Otherwise it will back fire on you.
If what you write is obscure or artsy, people will turn their noses up at you.
Your best course of action is to listen to conversations. Don’t always be the person who dominates at the dinner table. Let others speak. And spy on other conversations.
9. Employ sub headlines. Sub headlines work like the sentences you bold…easy to scan and tells a story.
A reader should be able to scroll down your post and gather the important points immediately.
From the important points they’ll then decided if they want to read the post carefully.
10. Publish provocative photographs. Tech geek blogger Robert Scoble once shared his method to work effortlessly through 600 blogs in about 10 minutes…
One of the things that caused him to slow down as he jogged through his RSS reader where photographs.
The eye naturally sees something visually stimulating and tells the hand to stop. If the headline is compelling, Scoble looks for more clues to whether he wants to read more of the post or not.
What are those other clues? Read on…
11. Embed links in your posts. Greg Swann once nailed me on the absence of links in one of my posts. He said I was “inaudible to the conversation,” meaning, in essence, not sharing my sources…
And sharing your sources adds credibility.
Robert Scoble also said “It shows that someone took time to write the post. Demonstrates he did his homework.”
Links demonstrate your post was thoughtful and planned. That it is worth the time to read and not just some random brain dump.
Calculation and research, oddly enough, seduces people, my friend. Gets them to pay attention.
Final Thoughts and One Suggestion
As is shown in the Scoble video, not one single element here will make your blog posts sexy to readers.
In truth, it will be a combination. Employ more of these elements and the better you will do.
And finally, if you write and have not read The Elements of Style, read it this weekend. It’s the single greatest book on writing that you’ll ever read. And it will take you less than four hours.
Enjoy!