Have you ever seen a rookie hit a home run during his first at-bat? It’s always an exciting thing to watch, and it makes such a great first impression on fans!

The next time they step up to the plate, the audience will already be cheering the player on and waiting anxiously to see what happens next.

It’s almost like a drug in a way. We get a taste of something new, we love it, and we can’t wait to get our next fix.

For any fan, a strong first impression builds want and anticipation for more. Come out of the dugout hitting home runs, and you’ll soon start filling seats.

And the same is true for blog posts.

If you’re building a blog, you want your first post to be something that immediately reels in an audience and leaves them waiting for what’s next. They shouldn’t want to miss your next move, so they bookmark your site, or join your mailing list, or sign up for your RSS feed.

The point is they come back because they want to come back. They can’t even imagine what it would be like to not follow you.

How To Write A Killer First Post

Your first post is your first chance to get people hooked. For some visitors, it may be your only chance. That is why it is so important that every one of your posts delivers to the best of your ability. And hopefully you keep on improving from there.

Your headline is a weapon.

A headline is the first part of your post people will see. A good vs. bad headline can make all the difference between someone checking out your article or not. This makes your headline a very powerful weapon. Use it wisely.

Think of your headline as a promise. When people click your link they are going to have expectations about what the article will deliver. Don’t let those people down.

Have your headline set the bar high. Make it a big promise. Make it something catchy that people will have to click because they don’t want to miss out. But, keep in mind, the bigger your headline the more work you will have to do to meet those demands.

Avoid ambiguity. Just like the first point, you want your headline to deliver a clear message before the reader opens up your link. If your headline is too ambiguous this might send a bunch of fluff traffic, meaning visitors who come to your site expecting one thing but instead get something completely different. Make sure your intentions are clear.

Well, there it is. The beginning of my first post (the one you are reading right now). I think it is a pretty decent headline but all that white space underneath makes me nervous. Can I make a good enough post to match the title? We’ll see…

Cut up your content into digestible pieces.

Oddly enough, most readers don’t actually read all the content in each post. Instead, they are skimmers. They do a quick 10 second glance up and down the page and try to guess if it is worth diving into or not.

Maybe they find a section they want to learn more about, then they’ll read on. But only a rare few will actually read every single word in a post. I know, it’s a sad truth, because you put so much work into every sentence – but this is the game we have to play in our fast-paced ADHD world.

Here are some tips to make your content more digestible:

Use subtitles and subheadings. This makes skimming over posts easy, so readers can quickly determine what the article is about and if it interests them.

Use bold and highlighted text. Another easy eye-catcher. Your bold text should help summarize the main points of your post.

Use images, videos, graphs, charts, quotes, and bullet-points. Same as above. These are elements of your post that are going to be immediately called to attention. Make sure they scream value so people will want to dig deeper.

Don’t hide your personality.

Whether you are writing a post that is informative or something just for fun, you have to inject some personality into it. Anything too dry and you will be easily passed over.

Of course this is easier said than done. Some of you reading this probably don’t write too often. You might be just starting out and you haven’t yet found your writer’s voice. Don’t worry. This is something that gradually becomes easier with practice.

Here are some tips to help you start:

• Focus on what you know.
• Write in a simple and down-to-earth language. Too many big words confuse people.
• Share personal stories when they are relevant.
• Be silly if you are silly, kind if you are kind, and crass if you are crass.
• There’s an audience for anything so long as it is genuine.

With time you will find it is harder not to be yourself, so you might as well practice letting your personality shine through.

Keep in mind, I am no expert writer. I personally have only been writing steadily for about a year and a half, and I’m still evolving with every new post. I try to treat it as a never-ending process and I certainly don’t expect to become Kurt Vonnegut overnight.

Never underestimate the power of editing.

In the past, I’ve wasted a lot of time writing articles only to see them fall into the abyss due to poor editing.

Don’t let this happen to you. Re-read everything at least twice before publishing and be certain you have done your best. Some small tips to help you out include:

Read your post out loud. There seems to be something magical about reading your sentences out-loud. It often helps you discover errors that you wouldn’t otherwise find.

Have a family member or friend read it over. By introducing another mind in the equation you increase your chances of finding other mistakes that you are unaware of.

If you’re writing in a non-native language, have it read by someone who is a native. This is crucial for many of those who aren’t native English speakers but have an English-written blog. Sometimes it is painfully obvious that a blogger isn’t a native of the language and it can be a huge turn-off. Don’t stick out like a sore thumb!

Again, I am by no means an expert writer. I am sure some of the more advanced writers reading this have already spotted a few mistakes. That’s fine, the point is to not let your writing get so disastrous that it turns people away from the content.

Always keep aesthetics in mind.

How your post is presented is sometimes just as important as the content itself. If something looks messy, with huge blocks of text and no space between sections, or Google Adsense spread across the top of the page, then people are going to quickly X out of the window.

Your goal should be to make your post as easy on the eyes as possible. Something with a sense of “professionalism” but also user-friendliness.

To me, this means having some variety in your text (bold, italics, underlines, font sizes, and font colors).

I also try to make good use of white space. This means knowing when to end your paragraphs and sections, and also giving your pictures and graphs some space to breathe and be noticed.

Remember, when visitors come to your site, you want to treat them as though they are a guest in your home. You want them to be as comfortable as possible.

For most of you, good design will mean finding a nice-looking WordPress Theme. The other big part will involve some HTML that you will use within posts and pages.

Here is some basic HTML that all beginners should start to familiarize themselves with. This list covers just about everything I used to create this post.

Common HTML for text:

<h1>,<h2>, <h3> = headers

<br> = line break (I use these for extra space between headlines, etc.)

<strong> = bold

<em> = italics

<u> = underline

<font color> = color (list of color codes)

<font size= “#”> = size, size, size

<a href= “URL”> = insert URL

<img src= “URL”> = insert image

<center> = center text

<ul> = indent text

Occasionally you will need to find other html code to get what you want. You can search through W3Schools.com for all of the basics. Or you can always just google “embed image html” (or whatever), and usually you will find an answer quickly.

This site is only going to cover html on a need-to-know basis. I am not a programmer of any sort, and some of this stuff took a bit of a learning curve for me to get used to. Don’t worry if things start off slow.

Exercise your first call to action

What’s the point of writing your post? Is it to get someone to listen to your opinion, join your newsletter, or buy your products?

Everyone has something to sell, even if it is only a viewpoint. The goal of your blog, presumably, if you want to be noticed and build a fan base, is to get others to trust your opinion and act on it.

It helps to get others to act when you tell them explicitly what you want them to do. For example:

Want to learn more about health and fitness? Join my newsletter for free tips!

Is insomnia ruining your life? Buy my product – satisfaction guaranteed or your money back!

These calls to act are a way of improving your conversion rate for your mailing list, or RSS feed, or sales page. To many, they are the main purpose of writing excellent content and winning over readers.

It is important that you exercise your call to action somewhere in the middle or end of your post, after you have already built some trust with your reader.

A call to action right at the beginning, before you have established a relationship with the reader, probably won’t convert very well. People will be like, “Who is this guy? No way am I subscribing to his feed before I learn more!”

You should start calling people to action at the end of everyone of your posts, including your first, even if it is just something as simple as joining your RSS feed or bookmarking your site.

As I mentioned in the beginning, these are the kinds of things readers use to become aware of future content. Over time, these are the people who you will start solidifying a relationship with.

Follow me.

Thank you for reading my first post, I hope you got a lot of value from it. I plan to be writing more content at least once every week. Some of the best ways to follow me in the future are by:

Joining my RSS.

Following me on Twitter.

Liking my Facebook page.

I also highly recommend you join my mailing list. After you subscribe, you will get an e-mail with a free gift, a 30+ page PDF called “Non-verbal Website Intelligence: The 5 Invisible Forces Behind Effective Online Marketing.”

You can sign up for this by filling out the form below:

If you want to know more about what this blog will cover in the future, please visit my mission page.