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.

Maybe you’ve noticed something of a trend in the last couple weeks.  I’ve prefaced a blog post with a little something about my own life experiences.  Even though I’m only three quarters of the way to being, as Jimmy Buffett described, a pirate looking back at forty, there’s still plenty of bits to mention.  And when you can tell a little story about something relevant to the post, you infuse that post with a little extra value.

Compare a boring blog post to your boring drive across Iowa, for instance.  Don’t be afraid to drop a name or two–like yesterday when I gave you the name and location of my favorite remote working spot.

You never know who’s reading your posts, and what they might gather information-wise.  But even if you don’t have readers near your favorite coffee shop or who would even be interested in trying to drive across Iowa, the added value of the personal touch in your posts will spark reader interest.  A good story well told never hurts, and often helps.