The Opening
Once you've grabbed their attention with your killer headline, you must have a powerful opening sentence to keep them reading.
Why?
Because readers have short attention spans and it's the job of your opening sentence to compel them to read your article.
Many times I'll use a question. Here are some examples from my articles.
What is success?
What's in a name?
Are you ready to take your business to the next level, or looking for excuses to cash in your chips?
I've hooked the reader with the question and they're going to keep reading to find my answer.
Another method I use is to make a bold statement in my opening sentence.
The reader is compelled to keep reading and find out if I deliver.
Some bold openings I've used are:
Our minds are like high performance race engines.
Sometimes I'm so dumb it amazes me.
This article might get me shot, but I have to get this off my chest.