“On average, 8 out of 10 people will read a headline, but only 2 out of 10 will go on to read the content.” ” Brian Clark
The article layout formula is completely bullet proof. Your content will be perfect after following such as simple guide…
80% of the visitors that load your blog posts leave without processing the first word in their brain. How can you stop this nonsense? Easy, improve the conversion rate.
What does improving the conversion ratio accomplish? You already have the visitor, so why go the extra distance to get him to read your article?
Have you noticed that every time you comment, tweet, or like a post it’s because you’ve read it. You never do anything to promote the post if you don’t read it!
How can you have your reader’s eating up content as if it was their first jaw-dropping article in months? Do your visitors get that special connection when reading an article written by you? If not we need to fix that.
Gluing each of your readers faces to their computer screens and opening your blog is not the brightest idea, even if it makes your blog “sticky”. Instead work on the proven successful article layout below…
[QUESTION or BOLD CLAIM or “DIRECT QUOTE”]
[FIRST PARAGRAPH]
[PICTURE]
[BODY]
[CONCLUSION]
[ABOUT THE AUTHOR]
Don’t be confused I’ll explain everything in great detail.
HEADLINE
8:10 ” the ratio of the amount of visitors who will read the headline of your article. Using some common sense if the visitors are not interested in the headline, they have a greatly reduced chance to lay their eyes on the body your article.
Why should you make your headlines appealing? Crafting a perfect headline will play a huge role in the amount of your article’s success, plus it will boost the amount of visitors who actually read your article. Improving the ratio to around 9:10 doesn’t do much, but that small amount might be all it takes to create a viral article.
How in the world do you craft headlines like a professional copy writer? Nobody ever said you can’t look at other popular article headlines and use them to your own advantage. Take a look at these examples…
How to Get 6,312 Subscribers to Your Business Blog in One Day
8 Bad Habits that Crush Your Creativity And Stifle Your Success
Why No One Links to Your Best Posts (And What to Do About It)
Is Your Tribe Holding You Down?
The 4 Words That Will Get Your Email Opened
These headlines were obviously irresistible to every Copy Blogger reader. Slightly changing any of these to fit your niche is all it takes for your first viral article!
FIRST SENTENCE
The first line in every post is always short. It must be only one sentence. The first line needs to be either a question in italics, a bold claim in bold, or a “direct quote” surrounded by “” in italics. Here are some great examples…Building a popular blog has become increasingly difficult.To listen to some people, you’d think marketing were a battle or blood sport.I won’t even begin to act like I’m some sort of SEO ninja, because I’m not.Are 1,000,000 visitors impossible?Would you rather have 1,000,000 untargeted visitors or 1 hot subscriber?
Notice how all of the examples are really short. Plus, they always are never completely written in plain text. Each opening should add a special spice that catches the reader’s attention using bold or italics.
One thing you need to remember is the first sentence should attract the reader’s attention. The first sentence should also always be related to what you’re trying to say in your article or a point you’re trying to prove.THE PICTURE
Adding a picture to your article makes a bigger difference than you can ever imagine! A picture is worth 1,000 words. That saying is always true.
Pictures are easy to find especially here… Free Images
It’s really easy to add pictures to a WordPress post. If you need help just Google it! WordPress also gives you a chance to add an alt-text, and a caption. These two features give advantages to most importantly your readers and also the search engines.
The alt text should basically explain what a picture is in words, not sentences (It’ s basically a long-tail keyword for the search engines). For example if the picture is a golf ball teed up, then the alt text should be something like, “teed up golf ball.”
The caption is more fun to come up with! For the same picture the caption could be something funny like, “You’ll be at the top in no time…” While that specific caption is short, it is good to have captions that are 2-3 sentences too.FIRST PARAGRAPH
While the first sentence brings in the reader’s attention, the first paragraph brings in the idea of the article a little more. It states the point of the article too. The first paragraph is again rather short. It should be 2-3 sentences. Here are a few examples to help you get started…
The moment you open the door to your doctor’s office, she takes one quick look at you, thrusts a prescription into your hands, and slams the door in your face.
Just imagine how disappointed you’d be after crafting a killer headline for your post, only to lose readers with an opening that failed to carry the momentum. A great headline mixed with a lame opening is like inviting someone into your house, only to slam the door in their face as they approach.
Those two examples were taken directly from Copy Blogger. They both start to bring in the idea or attempt to make some sort of point with the reader.
BODY
The body is the easiest to write, but it is the longest. The body is the whole article. I really hope you know what the body of an article is. The body should be a good amount of length, as it is the main reason the reader is reading this article.
The body section of your article should be at least three paragraphs, but the more the better. Have you noticed all how long this article is? The body to this article is already near 20 paragraphs and it’s not even done!
How long is a paragraph? A paragraph can be anywhere from 2-6 sentences. I do recommend sticking on the shorter end though. It will improve the ratio by a mile because people don’t like reading 500 words not broken up into paragraphs.CONCLUSION
The conclusion is another important part of every article you write. The conclusion should be one paragraph. Normally 2-4 sentences is how long your conclusion should be. The conclusion should sum up the article, similar to the first paragraph. Another characteristic of the conclusion encourages the reader to leave a comment below. Here are a few examples of conclusions…
While guest blogging can cause unbelievably amazing results, it takes time, effort, and a whole lot of talent. The work is tough, but is definitely worth it! (This conclusion did exclude the characteristic of encouraging the reader to comment.)
Today is all you’ve been given. You can build everything you need with it. What are you going to do today? Say it in the comments …
While you can’t use any of these conclusions in any of your own posts (articles) they are pretty good to model after.
AUTHOR BIO
The author bio is not something that you will be using once you get started. The author bio is only used when guest blogging, which you’ll learn more about later. The author bio gives information about you. It should also contain two links back to your own blog. Here are a few quick examples…Joe Burnett uses the all in one guest blogging strategy to drive thousands of visitors to his website and blogs. He shares even more of his secrets at his Guest Blogging Secrets blog.
Notice how it is more focused on my websites and blogs than anything else. The author bio is what gives you traffic from your guest posts. Without the author bio, guest blogging is almost worthless.
If you go back to your WordPress dashboard sit there waiting for a comment on your latest post and nothing comes, don’t give up! Your next post is sure to be a hit if you follow the article layout above. How do you plan to use this layout? Explain in the comments below.
