The odds are against us.
As bloggers we don’t seem to have much chance.
People rarely read web pages word-by-word.
You know that, don’t you?
On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely. ~ Jakob Nielsen (source)
79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word. ~ Jakob Nielsen (source)
*Yikes*
You’re working so hard to come up with interesting ideas. You write entertaining blog posts. You tighten your text. Your content is valuable.
But how can you defy those odds? And get people to savor your blog posts – sentence-by-sentence, and word-by-word?
You may feel it’s an impossible task, but today I’m sharing 3 simple tricks to turn hurried scanners into attentive readers.
1. Be competitive and compelling
Your blog post is not simply competing with other blogs. Your blog is competing with life. With phone calls. With grocery lists. With a birthday party, the laundry, or the latest news.
Imagine your readers hurrying to catch a train … and you’re on the platform reading your post. Your headline is written on a banner behind you.
Is your headline so good that people will stop? Is your blog post so valuable that they don’t mind missing their train?
Compelling headlines give readers a specific promise. They tell them exactly what they’ll learn. For instance: How to Use the Persuasive Power of Mini-Stories in Your Sales Copy or How to Turn Bland Text into Sparkling Online Content.
Readers don’t want to waste their time with another blah-blah post.
Know exactly what your readers want to learn. Promise a specific lesson in your headline and deliver it in your blog post. That’s your first step to keep hasty people hanging on to each of your words.
2. Use the immense power of white space
Worrying about picking the right word?
Concerned about grammar?
Umming and ahhing about a semi-colon or a period?
It’s easy to worry about words and punctuation, and forget about your secret weapon: white space.
White space helps your readers glide through your post with a smile on their face. It makes reading feel effortless and enjoyable. But a lack of white space makes readers feel like they’re wading knee-deep through mud. It’s hard work. Without a chance to rest their tired eyes.
So how do you use the immense power of white space to keep people reading on?
- Use one-sentence paragraphs at the beginning of your post because you make your readers feel your post will be a quick and easy read.
- Include bullet points to increase white space – consider adding white lines in between your bullet points like I’ve done here.
- Use a maximum of 6 lines for each paragraph; and use one-sentence paragraphs to make certain statements stand out.
Before hitting publish, scroll through your blog post and review the amount of white space. Do you have enough white space to make reading pleasurable?
3. Entice wandering minds with seductive subheads
Your reader’s eyes are glazing over.
He’s thinking about his Easter weekend. A romantic meal. A good bottle of wine. What’s the weather forecast? Will he be able to get on his bike? And when’s his next vacation?
In his book Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, Daniel Goleman states:
A reader’s mind typically wanders anywhere from 20 to 40 percent of the time while perusing text.
*Ouch*
The odds ARE against bloggers.
How can we tempt wandering minds back with seductive subheads? It’s quite simple. You either need to arouse curiosity or promise a benefit to reading the next section (or do both).
Below follow a few subheads that arouse curiosity. These subhead examples are from a post about beating writer’s block:
- Curse like a sailor
- Embrace messiness
- Goof around on Facebook
- Take a cigarette break
- Read health magazines
These suggestions seem a little weird, don’t they? Do they arouse your curiosity?
Instead of writing wacky subheads, you can also promise a benefit and turn your subheads into mini-headlines. These are from a post about email marketing:
- How to create emails that are eagerly anticipated
- How to get your emails opened
- How to write engaging emails
To review your subheads, write them down on a sheet of paper. Do they arouse curiosity or promise a reward for reading on?
The truth about captivating busy readers
Time and time again blog readers are disappointed. By re-hashed blog posts. By blah-blah content. By hypey headlines and posts that don’t deliver.
You and I have to stand out by delivering valuable content. By turning up week-in week-out. By rewarding our readers with useful tips. A touch of humor. And an enjoyable read.
Above all, we need to build relationships.
Create a bond with your readers so strong that they don’t want to miss any of your words. They’re waiting for your email to tell them your next post is ready. They crave “hearing” your voice.
In a hectic world, we make time to listen to our friends. We trust them.
Be a good friend to your readers.
Recommended reading on writing for busy people:
9 simple tips for writing persuasive web content
A no-nonsense guide to online headlines and subheads
How to write heroic bullet points
Good Day Henneke,
As always I read, and save every post. Your recommendations are truly enchanting, and extremely helpful.
For Jon Pietz, April 15 comment regarding your typing. I would highly recommend Mavis Beacon typing courses. Just search on her name, she is all over the web. Happy typing.
Anne
I’ll make sure Jon sees your recommendation.
Thank you so much, Anne 🙂
So what you’re saying is that as bloggers, the odds are NEVER in our favor, unless we make a big splash like Katniss and Peeta? 🙂
Well yeah, if you have a huge budget, it’s easy to make a big splash. Otherwise, we just have to work hard to build relationships with our own community and become friends 🙂
These are some great tips, Henneke. The use of white space is overlooked by far too many people! They seem to think white space should be reserved for designing home pages but that blog posts can be giant walls of text 🙂
Oh yes, and who wants to read a giant wall of text?
You make an interesting point – I wonder why people understand that they need white space on a home page, but don’t apply the same rules to their blog posts …?
Don’t think I’m going to be able to compete with the poetry you’ve been getting, but just wanted to say thanks for this post, Henneke.
I liked your point at the end about building relationships. Makes sense. You probably wouldn’t take 20 minutes out of your busy day to chat with a telemarketer, but you’d find time for a quick call with a friend.
Exactly. That’s a good point. Who wants to talk to marketers???
Henneke,
BRAVO. Your blog is always “To the Point.”
Thank you, Hanna 🙂
You can write of tea cups,
anchor ocean’s floor.
No matter the depth
just make them want more.
Glide from raw air
to inner most heart,
Begin where most end,
end before you start.
‘Tis London makes words
roll from the web
takes the tide as it wakes,
makes the ride in the ebb.
I miss my dear home
would come back to roost
but instead ‘cross the pond
Enchant gives the boost.
The oldest owners, of my green isle
claim this poet, by and by, wile and while.
C A Hall
It’s like London buses. You wait for ages, and then two arrive at the same time. Thank you, Carol 🙂
Love the idea of keeping the top half very brief but rich, to keep interest going down the page before adding more meaty parts. It’s like eating dessert first because life is short.
I must try hard to remember that, especially after my latest guest post. Ha!
Congrats on your guest post, Katharine.
I’m not really a dessert-girl. I don’t have a sweet tooth. When one day we have dinner together, you can have my dessert as your starter 🙂
That’s a deal! 🙂
Henneke,
I really love your suggestion about white space. Worrying more about words and punctuation – ahem – guilty as charged 😉
I’ve been working to keep paragraphs short (and unlearn university/corporate writing styles), but you provide a great rule of thumb that I’m most definitely going to implement!! 1 sentence openers are absolutely genius! Thank you 🙂
I worry a lot about words, too. Punctuation probably less so. I love swapping one word for another and see which I like best.
Thank you for stopping by, Kristy 🙂
This is a great post to make blog’s more readable, but I have to ask, what is wrong with skimming. I think whenever you create content it should be top notch, but if you know your readers would rather skim through and get the main points why don’t we make the article easy to skim and get all the information they need. After all we are writing so that we can give value to the reader, not so the reader will read every word of our post.
Just a thought!
Great article!
Yes, that’s true. You need to write content for both skimmers and readers. I’ve written about how to write for scanners in an earlier post: 9 Simple Tips for Writing Persuasive Web Content
Don’t you think it’s nice if people feel so enchanted by your writing, that they want to read each word?
Yes I would like everybody to read each word, so I should write content that makes people do that!
H – there’s something just so..umm.. enchanting about your posts.
You are def in my top 5 Blogs to read and just for the record I read all of this post! 😉
Glad to hear you weren’t skimming this post 😉
Always good to see you here, Caroline.
I love this post, Henneke. So many great points (and things to learn). “Know exactly what your readers want to learn.” ~ That’s the one that stood out for me, so I’ll be working on that one a bit more. 😉
I’m reading your book right now, and it truly is awesome. So, thank you for being so helpful, and writing in that unique way that you do!
Thank you, Dar. I’m so glad to hear you’re enjoying the book! 🙂
And there I was having sleepless nights over grammar…lol. I have had the misfortune of getting a comment from a reader who loved my post but was appalled by my grammar. I am still attending therapy over that comment. After reading this post though, something just clicked. While there’s a calculated science behing writing blog posts, but it helps also to embrace a bad ass attitude, sprinkling that touch of humour never hurts. Thanks Henneke for yet another epic post.
The odd grammar mistake doesn’t matter. But too many grammar mistakes may distract and irritate your readers.
But perfect grammar doesn’t make a post enchanting. 🙂
To skim a post
on skimming posts
defies the writing gods
and damns the ghosts!
Relying on readers is like
keeping promises to a child
your heart must be stable
though the colt is wild
Let not this loss
define your fate
words are eternal
though attention ain’t
C A Hall
Oh wow. That’s the first poem I’ve ever received as a comment. Wonderful.
I do hope you didn’t defy the gods by skimming my post? 😉
Henneke, you’re one of the people who has made me much more aware of the importance of things like white space, subheads and creating a non-monotone rhythm through combining short and longer sentences.
To think there was a time I took pride in writing paragraphs of texts that were all about the same size because I felt it was more pleasing to the eye 🙁
What I’m taking away from this post is the insight that it’s not other blogs I’m competing with, but rather life itself and all the distractions it brings. Amazing how that really changes your perspective!
Now I’m even more motivated to try and be a good friend to my readers. Because as you said, we make time to listen to our friends (or we should anyway).
Thank you once more for sharing your wisdom, sensei 🙂
Yep, a blog post is not a spreadsheet with each block of text having an equal size. 😉
Thank you for stopping, Bart. I don’t think anyone has called me sensei before 🙂
Thanks Henneke, you succeeded in getting me to read every word. For a second there, though, I was thinking about a bike ride.
Just curious: what’s your process for researching facts, figures and quotes for your blog posts. And how do you decide how much of it to include? What’s the sweet spot for the number of links? Have you found there’s an ideal range?
And one last pesky question: Where’s a good course online to improve my awful typing?
Cheers, Jon
Are you into cycling?
I don’t have a fixed process for researching facts, figures, and quotes. I try to read a lot of books and highlight interesting info using my Kindle. I want to put all these snippets into Evernote some time.
When I’m writing a post, and I think of something I think might be useful, then I find the quote using the Kindle app. It’s not a very structured process. I don’t use quotes in each post and I try to ensure that if I use them they logically fit into the flow.
Thinking about the maximum number of quotes I use – it’s probably 3. Enough to add some extra credibility, but not too much so it doesn’t distract from my voice.
I know With links I work more or less the same – if I think people would find it useful to read another blog post that’s more in-depth on a particular topic, then I include a link. And I always try to include links when I quote someone.
Not sure about a good course on typing – but becoming a fast touch typist is really useful to speed up the writing process 🙂
Thanks Henneke,
I used to have a nice road bike, but these days I just meander for fun. My hardest riding comes in a spin class. Nice weather can distract me from just about anything.
Thanks for the insight on your process—gotta work on that typing! The worst part is when your thoughts disappear before you can get them down.
Happy riding, J
Yes, fast typing really helps with getting thoughts down before they disappear. I can usually just keep up.
Thanks!
Hi Henneke,
I love reading your posts.
Loved this from heart – “Your blog post is not simply competing with other blogs. Your blog is competing with life. With phone calls. With grocery lists. With a birthday party, the laundry, or the latest news.”
Breaking through the noise is not only a bloggers challenge but also a marketer like me 🙂
Yep, that’s so true. We all have to find ways to break through the noise.
Thank you for stopping by, Nikhil 🙂
Hi Henneke,
Thanks for your idea of writing down subheads on a sheet of paper to see if they arouse curiosity or make a promise. So simple. It’s going straight onto my list of ideas to steal 😉
I stumbled upon that trick by accident recently. I wanted to analyze a series of subheads, so I wrote them down and then I immediately noticed that some of my subheads were a little boring. Oops. Now I know what to do to avoid that.
I’m delighted when people are stealing my tips. 😉
Thank you, Jack.
And you have been a good friend to us, Henneke. Thank you.
And I’m lucky to have so many great readers. Thank you!