How to Get Your Readers to Keep Reading

Sometimes you see an article or blog post that grabs you and holds you by the throat. Other times you pass them by with very little interest at all. What’s the difference between a hit and a flop?

It doesn’t matter how brilliant or thoughtful your work is if your readers aren’t interested in sticking around to see what you have to say.

Hooking your readers from the very first line isn’t difficult if you consider the following factors that I used in my recent post job:

Start with a great headline

Brian Clark of Copyblogger knows all about the psychology behind magnetic headlines.

The same principle goes for blog posts, magazine articles, and non-fiction books. If the title doesn’t grab readers right off the bat, they’re gone.

Consider the difference between these two titles:

The Readability of Articles
How to Get Your Readers to Keep Reading

Which headline piques your interest?
Promise your readers something important

Some examples of recent headlines that have caught my attention are:

  • Can You Write A Publishable First Novel? 8 Dos and Don’ts to Increase Your Chances. I loved this headline because (a) yes, I’d love to write a publishable first novel, and (b) I want to know what to do and what not to do in order to make that happen.
  • 5 Ways to Make Your Novel Helplessly Addictive. If you can teach me how to make my novel helplessly addictive, I’m definitely going to be sticking around to find out more.

Headlines won’t capture readers’ attention if they don’t tell you what the content is about, or if they don’t promise the reader something they need/want to know.

Make your article scannable

List posts attract readers because they can be scanned for major points, and readers can then choose to read more about points they’re interested in. Use a different font for subtitles or list items to help make your articles scannable.

White space is also really important. No one likes to read huge blocks of text, especially on the internet. It’s hard on the eyes and makes you look wordy. Instead, break up paragraphs into smaller chunks.

No one’s perfect. We all write pieces that don’t quite hit the mark, but we’re more likely to hold our readers’ attention if we keep these guidelines in mind.

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