If you’re wondering how to write a catchy lead for your blog post, then stay tuned.

I’ll show you how to write good opening paragraph that will keep your audience reading.

But first, let’s address the elephant in the room: if your headline sucks, what I’m about to share with you will never work.

But let’s assume your headline is strong.

To follow up, here are 13 brilliant ways to write good opening paragraph that will keep your audience reading.

1. The “If-Then” Opening

This famous opening has been used by many top copywriters such as John Carlton, Gary Halbert, and many others.

The reason why so many famous copywriters use it in advertising is because it works, provided the text targets the right audience.

“If-then” can also be used as a good opening paragraph.

For example, I used it to lure you into this post.

Although it’s a powerful opening, don’t use it on every blog post you write.

Your readers will be bored by reading the same structure again and again.

2. The “Fast and Furious” Opening

You want to be fast, you want to be furious, and you want to give your readers immediate answers.

Here’s an example:

• Want to learn how to play drums like a pro? Here are 7 drumming tricks…

Ask one question, then reveal the answers.

This is a good opening paragraph that is use mostly to introduce a list post.

3. The “Artist” Opening

Want to know how an artist creates a painting?

He will ask himself: “I have an image in my mind, but what will it look like when I paint it in real life?”

Slowly, his mind connects with his hand, and he starts to paint.

You can do that, too.

Here’s how to write good opening paragraph using the artist method:

• What if you could write without experiencing writer’s block and finish all your content in blazing-fast time?
• Imagine the day you start getting lots of traffic and comments on your blog. How will that feel?
• What would you do if you could speak multiple languages?

As you can see, all the above opening paragraphs are the end results of what the reader wants.

It’s painting the picture in his mind.

This in terms will keep the reader reading, because they’ll want to know the answer.

4. The “Shock Effect” Opening

This is a good opening paragraph to use when you want to describe shocking news or statistics.

Here are two examples:

The shocking news opening paragraph:

• Did you know Accel Partners pushed former Facebook president Sean Parker out after a cocaine-related arrest in North Carolina? Believe it or not, here’s what happened…

The shocking statistic opening paragraph:

• Did you know that 172,800 blogs are posted on the Internet every day? Here’s why you should know about it….  

5. The “Empathy” Opening

Empathy is a powerful marketing tool for writing a sales message.

Using it in the opening paragraph of a blog post can easily lure your readers, provided you’re addressing the right target audience.

Here are 2 good opening paragraphs that use empathy:

Using a single question, target the problem you address in the blog post:

• Are you tired of writing blog post after blog post and not seeing any comments? If your answer is yes, then I have important advice for you.

Using multiple questions, target the problems you address in the blog post:

• Having a hard time coming up with a blog post topic? Struggling to write a quality post every day? Are your posts boring? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’re not alone. Here’s why…

6. The “I Don’t Know How You Feel About” Opening

This opening includes a little empathy in the sentence, because it reads like you’re talking to a single person.

Here’s a good opening paragraph example:

• I don’t know how you feel about hiring SEO experts, but to me, there’s only one SEO expert out there: Google. Here’s why…

Right from the first sentence, you’re communicating to a single person, but you don’t have to guess how that person feels – you let him feel what he wants to feel.

From there, you can voice your opinion about the problem you’re addressing in a fair way.

7. The ‘’Compelling Story’’ Opening

This is the most common opening paragraph, and the most proven opening of all time.

But the fact is, most bloggers don’t have a good story to tell, because they don’t know how to connect stories to the topic or subject they’re writing about.

And even if they do connect, their opening is boring.

To use this opening paragraph, you can’t just tell a story – you need to tell a compelling story that works its way into your audience’s mind.

To tell a compelling story, you need to combine it with empathy.

Below is a good opening paragraph that tells a compelling story:

• Once upon a time, there was a blog with a fantastic search ranking. Its organic traffic had never been better. The blog owner truly believed that his blog traffic would reach a huge figure in no time. In fact, he was so confident that he believed he was incapable of making mistakes. He was sure of it. But eventually… The Google Gods waged war against the blog! And the hosting company the blog was hosted on made it even worse. Sad, isn’t it?

8. The ‘’Address Your Reader’s Question’’ Opening

If your readers ask you questions in your comment area or email you, you can use their queries to write a good opening paragraph.

For example, a comment such as this:

“I opened your blog in Office and quickly scrolled down to the content… can you give example of your goal… becz all i know ppl blog for just money…”

You can write a post about this.

Here’s how you can use this opening paragraph:

• A commentator recently observed that people blog only for money. He’s right, and I’m going to tell you why.

It’s short and simple, but it does a good job as an opening paragraph and addresses the reader’s problem and lets the audience know you’re willing to help and answer their most pressing questions.

9. The “Personal Emotional Story’’ Opening

Do you have a story that might tap into your readers’ emotions?

If you do, you could use it in an opening paragraph, but the story will need to relate to the topic or subject you talk about in the post.

I don’t recommend getting too personal, but if your story can connect with readers and help them and solve their problems, you might as well use it.

Here’s a good opening paragraph I’ve written:

• He told me I couldn’t even arrange my store probably. That I would never amount to anything. She told me not to think that my father was the founder of this business, so I could do anything I wanted. She told my mum I shouldn’t pursue my music dream because I hadn’t started playing at an early age. I was despised and discouraged by my own family members! But I never gave up. Over the years, I had been fighting for an answer. An answer that could change my life and…

10. The ‘’Quotation’’ Opening

This is by far the easiest opening paragraph for a blog post.

Just repeat a famous person’s quote that somehow relates to your subject.

You can get a huge list of quotations here:

Famous Quotes at BrainyQuote

11. The ‘’Joker’’ Opening

Have you seen the Batman movies?

You know who the Joker is, right?

He always said, “Why so serious?”

Well, in blogging, your opening paragraph doesn’t always have to be so serious – and the best way to do that is to use jokes.

Jokes are fun and interesting, and keep readers engaged from the get-go.

As always, the joke must connect with your topic or subject.

Here’s a good opening paragraph using a joke:

• A husband and wife are trying to set up a new password for their computer. The husband writes, “Mypenis”. The wife falls on the floor laughing, because the screen reads: “Error. Not long enough.” Are your passwords long enough? Here are 7 ways to create a password long enough for you to remember.

You can find all kinds of jokes here:

Laugh Factory

12. The ‘’Benefit’’ Opening

You have a great idea for a blog post that could help lots of people.

Why not extol its benefits and results up front?

This will ensure your readers will get what they expect by the end of the post, as long as your content delivers the benefits you promised in the opening.

Here’s a good opening paragraph that uses benefits:

• Today, I’m going to share 13 ways to write a lead sentence that will keep your audience reading. I’ll ensure that you’ll never again struggle to write an opening for a blog post.

13. The “Sexy and Dirty” Opening

This opening paragraph can lure almost every reader.

It should be used only when you know how to connect it to your topic.

Here’s an example:

• Has any girl told you this before? “I wish we could just leave this party and go somewhere private. I am just too horny!” Look, it doesn’t matter if the answer is yes or no, if you have as much passion for blogging as the girl has the passion to make love with you, you can be damn sure you’ll succeed in blogging. Here are 7 steps to…

Usually, I don’t recommend using this one – but if you can connect it to your topic, use it at your own risk.

There are dozens of other good opening paragraphs, and getting your audience to continue reading is just the first part of a quality content.

To create engaging content that your readers will devour, you need to understand the process.

And the process includes choosing the right keywords, content structure and ending your content in a way that will make your reader take a specific action.

You can learn all about the content-creation process in Wealthy Affiliate.

Here’s what You Can Learn in Wealthy Affiliate

Creating Keyword Rich Content

Understanding Keywords: The Start of Your Content

And Many More…

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• How to create socially engaging content
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• How to create content with the intent to sell
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• How to integrate site content into Gutenberg
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• How to get your content indexed in Google
• How to create a clickable table of contents
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So, Are You Convinced Yet?

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