I don’t know if you knew this about me, but I have a degree in journalism.
Yesiree, that’s where my pro writing days started.
Where I learned how to design & layout newspaper pages and write real-deal, hard-hitting newspaper articles.
And the thing I learned as a journalism student that still helps me THE MOST as a copywriter today was to go for the nuts.
WHY “GOING FOR THE NUTS” IS THE BEST BLOGGING ADVICE EVER
In journalism, the “nut” of the story is the most interesting piece.
And if you’re a good journalist, you never, ever, ever hide the nut anywhere.
You put it on display in the first sentence of the first paragraph for all the world to see.
Because the thing is, the nut of the story is THE most interesting thing about it.
The thing that makes you do a double-take and want more. That you can’t stop looking at, want to get your hands on, and really explore what’s going on, um, around the nut.
(Going too far?)
But you get what I’m saying, right?!?
When you start with THE MOST INTERESTING part of your blog post… and don’t “hide it” somewhere in the middle like your 9th grade English teacher taught you… your writing becomes SOOOO much more interesting.
HERE’S AN EXAMPLE:
(If you haven’t already, turn on images for this email so you can see what I’m talking about.)
Here’s an INTERESTING blog post introduction:
And here’s a boring one, on the exact same topic:
The first one went for the nut.
But the second one just started out with generic, boring facts that LITERALLY EVERYONE knows already.
The thing is, though, if you dig into the second blog post, you find some information that is actually interesting.
Good “nuts” like blowing her grocery budget on fancy $8 oregano.
And can you just see how the second article would be SO MUCH MORE interesting if the writer had started with one of THOSE as the intro?!?
SO THAT’S MY #1 PIECE OF ADVICE FOR WRITING BETTER BLOG POSTS:
Grab the nut & bring it up to the top.
Re-work it a little bit if you need to, but I GUARANTEE you it’ll be exactly one million and eleven times more interesting than if you start with some generic statement of obvious statistical fact that your ninth grade teacher taught you to start with.