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Do You Know The Importance of The First Five Sentences of A Blog Post?

Do you know the importance of the first five sentences of a blog post? If not, I'll share it..in most instances whether it be the ActiveRain real estate network or Word press...the first five sentences are the description of the blog post or some would call an excerpt..

Take ActiveRain for instance..the first five sentences are displayed on the dashboard..if these first 5 sentences are interesting and appealing there is a good chance someone will click through and actually read your post compared to the thousands that appear on the dashboard everyday.

Just like widget box..creating a widget of your blog..you have the option of the way you want each post to be displayed..if its interesting enough..people from around the globe may very well read and sometimes for the very first time...a great way to gain subscribers.

Let's talk about feedburner...add the code to your website..you have options...20 words...50 words or the whole post. I try to make my post interesting within the first 20 words...I like a wide variety of post displayed on my website.

If you automatically post your links to Facebook...same thing..its a little intro and an opportunity for more click thrus...more readers and hopefully more sales!

So if you are not happy with the number of readers..subscribers...and sales that you should be generating from your blogs..consider the first five sentences...make them exciting...interesting and compelling but most of all make the worthy of reading! If you found this useful please subscribe! :)

About the Author: Midori Miller is licensed in the State of Florida, BK645709 and currently hangs her real estate license with CENTURY 21 Sundance Realty. Midori is also a real estate trainer and an ActiveRain Ambassador and specializes in short sales for Daytona Beach real estate sellers. If you are in the market to buy or sell real estate in Daytona Beach, Florida..please contact us!

Posted by Florida Real Estate Trainer | Daytona Beach After School Training | Midori on 08/09/2009 09:37 PM

Comments (50)

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Originally posted at: Daytona Real Estate Training: Do You Know The Importance of The First Five Sentences of A Blog Post?

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50 Comments on Do You Know The Importance of The First Five Sentences of A Blog Post?

AUG

You are right Midori and those 5 sentences stop someone and send them onto the next blog or keep 'em reading...

Maybe I should have stated five lines..either or..five lines...five sentences depends on how wordy you are..and I admit..I can be wordy.

But! But! I already subcribe! I decided a long time ago that your blog was subscribe-worthy!

I hear ya loud and clear. You are so right!

Thanks for the advice.

Patricia-right back at you...I may not always comment but I am a subscriber and a loyal reader! :)

Loreena- :)

I would agree after the header, the first few sentences need to maintain interest. Some of us will continue to read because it is a subject we are interested in, but most will not take the time to look past those first few sentences if they are not relevant or interesting.

More good advice, thanks for posting!

Great advice. I have only recently starting paying more attention to the very beginning of my posts. It makes sense, though.

Hi Midori -- Great advice. I need to consider this and take note! Thanks!

Thank you for the great advice.

Midori,

Great advice. I'm going to mke my first five sentences more compelling from now on.

hi Midori, excellent point/observation. Call it an excerpt or teaser copy, both for SEO and grabbing attention, the first few sentences, even words are curcial for so many reasons like you've listed in your post.

Midori - As always, you always make me think and take a second glance at my blogs before I publish. I've managed to adopt some of the recommendations Brad gave in his last few posts, but I hadn't given much thought to the excerpt (first 50 words).

Thanks again for giving me something to think about and another challenge to make my blog even better. Love it!

Hi Midori, Thanks for the good blogging advice. Have a great week!

Midori - Thanks for the tip. I'll have to pay more attention to my first five sentences.

Midori, great point about making it count in the first five lines. Those are the ones we can see before we even click the article.

Ohh nice point M&M !!! I have thought that about the first couple of sentences on the Dashboard before, but this was a good reminder :o)

Cheers Midori !

Sheldon

Great information Midori. I'm sure there are many not aware of this

AUG

Thanks Midori. I will put more thought into those first five sentences. Then maybe I will get more comments. Good advice. Congratulations on getting a featured post.

I forget the stats, but people "lose" interest, starting with your title, then synopsis, then body. So, while the first five sentences are key - they are actually step 2. Make sure you get the title right. Having shared that, thank you for the post and I will try to pay more attention to my own posts as well as to go through the links you provided.

Thank you.

Thanks for the post..very good stuff..

Thanks,

Brian

Hi Midori - Based on your advise in this posting, I am going to change the style of my monthly market statistics reports since the first few sentences are essentially unchanged from month to month.

Essentially blog posts are no different than newpaper articles. The title draws the reader to the article and the first couple of paragraphs need to be very interesting in order for the reader to read the entire article.

Thanks Midori!! The beginning is crucial if you want more readers - don't save the good stuff for last!! And this comment pushes me over 100k points, so YAY - you get to have my milestone comment!!!

Very good point. I often wonder why bloggers start off talking and I have no clue what their point is or where they're going - so I move on fast. I need to take my own advice too. Thanks!

I'm working on it, and I can see improvement in all areas because if it. Thanks for the reminder.

Midori - great post and thanks for the information here. The idea is to grab their attention.

I usually only worry about the first couple of sentences. You are right places like FB show more than a couple of them.

Ditto Patricia on the subscription - I did that along time ago. But, I'm quite sure I can use some work on my first few lines for all of my blog posts...

Thanks Midori, great points I need to link to Facebook, now how do you do that again?

Midori, you always bring thought to the obvious! If we aren't grabbing with title we better quickly within the first couple lines...

Thanks for the tips... they are always so useful

Midori, I always try to say in my <h1> tag what I said in my title tag.

It also tells the search engines what the post is about.

Good advice for folks needing to tweak their blogs to get more subscribers.

Midori, I've really been working on this to make my posts better. Tell me what Missy meant about the <h1> tag and the title tag??

Those first five sentences are crucial. So are the keywords throughout. These are the kinds of things that get us that good Google juice!

Connie-title tag its pretty much repeating your title..and your title should be in the first portion of your post. There are <h1> through <h6>...these are defined as headings...<h1> being the biggest...and <h6> being the smallest. I hope this helps.

Although I didn't touch on google...it matters with google...but more importantly it matters with gaining readers...subscribers...and hopefully $$$$$. If you are not interesting you might not be read. As far as SEO..there are many SEO experts out there..I'm just not one of them! :)

Thanks for the info. I've tried to be pointed and yet creative with my titles and keywords, but I haven't given as much thought as I need to for the first five sentences.

So true Midori! Thanks for the reminder.

Nice reminder, Midori. Congratson the feature, too.

Midori --- I am a loyal reader of your blog --- you have the best post -- always something new, something exciting, inspirational and great reminders like this post. Thanks for sharing.

Mama Liz's Signature

Great advise, Midori, as usual. I'll take all the readers / subscribers / juice I can get. Those things definitely translate to $$$$!

Midori - I do try to repeat my title in the first few sentences of my posts. You have given us a lot of good reasons to ay particular attention to the first few sentences of our posts.

AUG

Great post Midori! And I'd like to add that if you "are" using WordPress Thesis theme, it allows you to do your metatags, so make sure the description follows this same theory except just do a few sentences - that's what the viewers see in Google - so make catchy so they choose your site or blog over the other 9 websites on page 1!!!!!

Sounds like you are teaching Journalism 101...if you don't grab 'em at the headline...they are allll gone !

Hi Midori - so true on all points and this is why you are such a great trainer - always sharing and wanting everyone to improve - love it! ~Anne Marie

AUG

Midori - I guess I was not aware of this, or at least did not think much about it. I do try to make the early part of my posts attention grabbers, something I learned in English classes. makes sense to me.

Jeff