Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - 6 Ways to Increase Your Signal to Noise Ratio

JohnPlace · 06-12-2007, 10:10 PM

This response is probably better suited for the business forum, but I'll post it here because it's relevant to this particular thread.

I have just learned how important it is to write a solid intro for every article, and I want to share my experience with you. I've been waiting a few days to post this because I wanted to make sure I had collected enough data to validate my point.

We Internet surfers are impatient -- if something doesn't catch our eye within a few seconds, we bolt.

When I first posted my "8 Ways" article, a lot of people followed the link, but very few people actually read the article. The average reader hung around for 17 seconds.

So after 2 days, I re-wrote the beginning of the article to include a personal anectdote involving my experience with business solicitation, and my time-on-page figures jumped through the roof.

The average person now sticks around long enough to read the entire article, and about 75% go on to read other articles on my blog.

So what's the moral of this story? If you're writing blog articles, make sure you lead with a solid introduction or nobody's going to read all the good things you have to say.

Just thought I'd share this tip. Hopefully it helps somebody.

06-12-2007, 10:10 PM	#9 (permalink)
JohnPlace Senior Member Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 332	This response is probably better suited for the business forum, but I'll post it here because it's relevant to this particular thread. I have just learned how important it is to write a solid intro for every article, and I want to share my experience with you. I've been waiting a few days to post this because I wanted to make sure I had collected enough data to validate my point. We Internet surfers are impatient -- if something doesn't catch our eye within a few seconds, we bolt. When I first posted my "8 Ways" article, a lot of people followed the link, but very few people actually read the article. The average reader hung around for 17 seconds. So after 2 days, I re-wrote the beginning of the article to include a personal anectdote involving my experience with business solicitation, and my time-on-page figures jumped through the roof. The average person now sticks around long enough to read the entire article, and about 75% go on to read other articles on my blog. So what's the moral of this story? If you're writing blog articles, make sure you lead with a solid introduction or nobody's going to read all the good things you have to say. Just thought I'd share this tip. Hopefully it helps somebody. Last edited by JohnPlace; 06-13-2007 at 09:26 PM.