Hello again and welcome to part three of how to begin your blog post. Now we've talked about classic opening strategies, we have talked about less conventional openings. And now it's time for one of my favorite sets of openings, hated practices that actually work. At the end of this lesson, I'll take you through an exercise to help you choose the perfect opening to your blog post. Let's get started. It's time for part three of how to actually start writing your blog post.

These are hated opening tactics that actually work. So by the end of this lesson, you will be ready to pick from four controversial methods to start a good blog post. I love these techniques because they demand the attention of your audience right away and they don't show a lot of respect for decorum or politeness. Let's dive right in. So these are the hated opening tactics that actually work. You have general statement on life beat up the straw man referred to a public Post or just jump right in.

So general statement on life, this is the kind of thing that your high school English teacher told you was not a very good way to begin because it was boring. However, this was the beginning of the Declaration of Independence. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them, etc, etc. So general statements can be boring, but they can also be really elegant and they can be very relatable because they are general. They are the kind of things that appeal to lots and lots of people. If Thomas Jefferson can use this approach, then you can do but you have to write a really beautiful one.

They need to be written well and they need to avoid cliche. It's challenging, but if you have a good general statement about life, people will respond to your blog. Number two, beat up the straw man. Now a straw man argument is when you introduce the simplest, most obvious thing If people don't like and use that as your primary example. Now it works for beginning of blog posts like as follows. After 30 minutes of being on hold with Comcast, I realized customer service meant nothing to them.

Here's how not to value customers. So beating up a straw man, it's not a sophisticated way to win win over a reader. But if you choose a universally scorned evil like cable companies telemarketers or the NSA, the reader will so often identify with your criticism by having this blinding hate for the thing that you bring up, but they're going to forget to be critical. You're overshadowing the readers reason by appealing to the emotions of anger or fear and hate and hate is powerful, you can use it. Now when you do this, you have to choose the right villain you have to choose something that you know your reader is going to despise because your need your reader to relate to the thing that you're inviting them to hate right away. Before your reader can see through the ploy and realize that you've manipulated his hate to get him to engage with your argument, he is already halfway through reading your post.

It's sneaky, but effective. Option number three, referring to a popular post written by someone more important. So the example here would be, as Nate Silver pointed out in a recent 538, post about political statistics, etc, etc. So this is kind of the less elegant version of beginning with a quote by somebody famous or more important, what you're doing is you're writing the buzz of a popular subject by or a public figures recent statements to introduce your own thoughts on that same idea. So, it's crucial that whatever post you refer to is popular enough that your reader has referred to it. You want it to be widely known and familiar to as large an audience as possible.

If you're referring to a popular post that isn't actually popular, this opening technique is going to fall flat. Finally, just jump right Write in. So sometimes people don't want a clever opening. Sometimes they don't need statistics. Sometimes they just want to know, What are you writing this blog about. So my example here is shoppers or buying something this summer, make sure your site is the one selling by using the right technology.

Now, because some readers just want to get to the point, this approach can work really well. It also saves you time and gives you more space to actually focus on the argument of your blog. If you know that your audience remember your audience profile has a very short attention span and just wants you to get to the point, this could be the opening for you. And the other nice thing about this opening strategy is it's very easy to write something where you're just going right into the argument. Personally, I think it's a little bit boring, but it works perfectly fine for what you need to do. Now it's time for an exercise.

I want you to take the blog title that you came up with Think about the audience profile that you created and take a look at that outline that you put together in case you need it. And I want you to choose from one of those 12 openings to actually start your blog. So in case you need a reminder, here are the 12 opening tactics that we went over in the last three lessons. So now that you have an understanding of these 12 opening tactics, I want you to choose one to begin your blog post. If you want some help choosing the right tactic, here's some advice. So remember your audience.

If your audience is no nonsense and rational, you're going to want to choose one of the more direct openings and not one of the more creative ones. If your audience wants to be entertained, go for a storytelling or begin at the end kind of approach. Remember, play to your strengths as a writer. If you know that you have a great sense of humor. If you know you can tell a good story use one of those openings. If you know that you're much better at making a factual statistic driven kind of argument.

You're going to want to go with one Those now some of these strategies are much easier than others coming up with a good joke can be very easy for some of us in some of those can find it very difficult. Also, if you're going to have to spend the internet spend time on the internet trying to find the right statistic or quote that can make this take a little bit longer. It's okay to make up a statistic for now. But before you publish this blog post, you're going to want to make sure that it's accurate. So you can use that as a placeholder. But again, there is nothing that's going to save you from the time you need to do the research.

And finally, if you don't like any of the openings you've come up with it's okay to start over with a different choice. Before you publish your course project, I want you to have exactly the opening that you want. So now it's evaluation time. Take a look at the opening you just wrote. Were you able to draft one you liked? Can you see your audience actually liking this opening?

There's your opening fit. The rest of the outline of the blog you want to write? Is your opening have tension, humor or insight Is there something compelling about it that would make someone want to keep reading? And do you feel happy to the answers to this assessment? I asked this last one because I want you to rely on your instincts. If you think this opening will work, go for it.

If you have a lot of questions about it and you're unsure, it might not be the right one for your blog. All right, the next lesson we're going to dive into how to write a first draft. Now that you had your strong opening. You're ready to begin