Most of you have probably answered that question already, so I’ll go ahead and answer down here so as to give you my insights on the topic.

Plain and simple, it’s emotions that hold attention better, and they’re not connected.

Look, we’ve all seen advertising and blog posts that are just long skeins of facts building up to one central conclusion or theme.  They’re great and well reasoned and everything, but for crying out loud, they just don’t hold water when it comes to attention.

But when you go after people’s emotions–you tell a story, you make them laugh, you make them cry–suddenly you’ve captured a whole new high ground that defies every convention you might expect.

Remember yesterday when we talked about Pennzoil?  They took an intellectual appeal route, and it collapsed under them.  Meanwhile, when I talked about that Snickers bar the other day, people took that ball and ran with it.  You taste the Snickers bar, you remember how good you felt when you ate it–you didn’t consider the caloric value of the components or how valuable nutrients are found in peanuts.  You went the emotional route.

So remember that when you write a blog post–grabbing attention is at the emotional level.

I’m always happy to see discussion around here, especially when the people who talk about the things I talk about come around.  And sometimes, new issues are opened up that need to be resolved.

First, I’ll apologize outright for any misunderstandings that were caused as part of my post.  After reading the commentary that Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips posted on that post, he made several good points that I’ll address here.

Now, he, like several others on that thread, described the importance of quality content in the material that’s sent out.  I agree with him that quality is of the utmost importance, but I do however maintain (as in, that’s my opinion, as is everything else around here) that the balance required is simply too big a risk to take, and the chances of alienating more readers than gaining approval from them is too great to bear.

Also he raises an excellent point about the double opt in concept, one I didn’t raise, that will in turn reduce the chances of alienating readers.  Though again, I’ll couch that in the belief that even if people DO perform the double opt in procedure, it’s still reasonably likely people will grow disatisfied with your email, and dissatisfied readers don’t read.

And again, I apologize openly for any misconceptions or misunderstandings generated by the article.

Caught your eye, didn’t it?  Well, guess what, folks?  That’s not just a rhetorical question–that’s a question so vital that you can’t afford NOT to do it.

When you’re on the internet, you have a whopping SIX SECONDS to get your reader’s attention.

That’s it.  If you don’t have them committing to read your article in the first six seconds of them clicking on your post, you don’t have them.

So what can you do?  You’ve got to catch the eye in just six seconds, so how do you grab that attention?  Simple–with your headline.

We’ve gone over how to make an eye catching headline before that also appeas to the search engines.  Don’t forget the keywords, but some of the best things you can do are to use the brick approach, in which you say something so outlandish it refocuses the attention, or ask a question, because it has the tendency to make the reader wonder what the answer is.

The point is, no matter what your post says, you’ve only got six seconds to say it.  So make that first six seconds count.  Time it if you have to, but make it count.

I’ve been bludgeoning you with messages about credibility for weeks now, and maybe one of the best moves you can make to establish credibility is to include an author bio with your blog.

It’s true what they say, that something signed is always more trusted than something anonymous.  When you put your name on something, you’re putting everything that goes along with your name on the line as well.  You’re putting your skill, your expertise, your reputation…everything that goes along with your name on the line when you post with your name.

If you’re not willing to put that kind of gravity and import on your posts that the use of your name implies, then there’s something wrong with your posts, plain and simple.  If you want people to trust you, then you have to be so clear and so strong in your belief that you’re willing to tell everybody who reads it: this is MY POST, and I stand behind it so deeply that I’m willing to put my name on it.

So when you post, you’d best make it as honest as possible.  Everyone’s got their eye on you.