How not to begin a blog post

Stand up if you’re busy. [Image credit]

You’re busy, I’m busy. Most of us who run a blog are flat out living complicated lives.

But please don’t open your blog or newsletter with the line “I haven’t blogged for a while, because I’ve been so busy,” or “Sorry I haven’t sent you a newsletter for two months, but I’ve had important things to do.”

There’s a good chance you’ll lose your reader.

I’m not saying you should avoid blogging or sending out an update in this situation. My point is: the fact you haven’t blogged for a while is not the right aspect of your work and life to highlight.

It’s what you’ve actually been doing. The amazing projects you’ve been involved in. The event you coordinated, and why it was so wonderful. Useful things you learned from a recent conference. Or even some great photos you took during a weekend off at the beach.

The opening line or paragraph that captures an audience’s attention is known as the “lede” (sometimes spelled “lead”). Another term used to describe vital opening information is the “nutgraf”. This is a concise paragraph that gives the audience an intriguing snapshot of what they’re about to read, but does not reveal all the details.

If you get the lede or nutgraf right, the reader will be engaged.

For example:

Nature, you are drunk.

The southern marsupial mole is the animal version of getting dressed in the dark. It’s the no eyes. The comically large claws. The barely-there tail. The luxurious golden coat. It looks like a half-finished Beanie Baby that someone pulled out of the trash and weaponised. A Jim Henson puppet gone wrong.

This fantastic nutgraf comes from a Bec Crew article published today: The southern marsupial mole is preposterous, even by Australian standards. It certainly grabbed my attention. Damned right I read on.

Here’s another effective lede:

In the past couple of months I’ve spoken to a number of travel writers and editors and several of them have said a curious thing. That yes, it’s tough being in the publication game in the current climate, and yes, budgets for writers haven’t increased in years.

But despite this, these high profile editors and well established writers all told me the same thing. There has never been a better time to be a travel writer.

And this is why.

This paragraph came to me as a newsletter from freelancer Lindy Alexander. Those few words surprised me, and I was keen to click on to the full article This is why there's never been a better time to be a travel writer to find out more.

In both examples the reader is given an enticing, fact-rich snapshot of the full piece. Readers who are keen to find out more will scroll down or click to find further details.

Grab your reader. Help the relevant audience immediately see why they should hang around.

The fact that you’ve been busy should be clear through displaying the amazing stuff you’ve been doing. Not through you explicitly outlining it.

Show, don’t tell.