Welcome to the authority hacker podcast Today and another one of our daily Episodes we’re gonna be talking about Article intros and how to write article Intros that don’t suck so without any Fluff in your intro and without any Fluff in this intro let’s get started so Article intros are notoriously bad They’re full of filler content the the Language is it’s just fluff you know to Give you an example and I made this up By the way and many of the examples here You know we’ve already before an article Let’s say best paintball guns is what We’re going it will say something like In this article on the best paintball Guns I’m going to look at the alot of Paintball guns and tell you which is the Best right no that’s that that’s What I googled I kind of figured that What you’re doing and then it will go on To say something like a paintball gun or Marker is a device which shoots Paintballs not realizing that if I’m Googling this I already probably know What a paintball gun is and know what is I just need to know what where the best One is then they’ll often go on like Some random tangent like they were Invented in 1962 by Alfred I paint in as A way to chase ghosts out of his farm And what as interesting as that might be That does not need to go here that can Come much later it’s not intro kind of
Content that’s related contract content Which should be much further down you’ll Often get just multiple paragraphs of Filler stuff stating the obvious it’s Really really bad if there’s ever a site Which is writing a lot of similar Articles with different geographic Regions like best Golf Course in Ohio For example whether the article start Off saying something like Ohio is a State in the Midwest of eleven point six Nine million people its capital is Columbus and home to the other side oh Hi Oh State Buckeyes like it’s just Completely irrelevant but they’re Writing that so that each of the best Golf in whatever state articles can be a Little bit different and it’s a surefire Way to just like turn people off your Content straight away so how do you Write a better intro first and foremost Write it last I’ve told loads of people About this it’s kind of common wisdom But most people who I’ve ever observed Writing an article or would ask them About it they don’t really follow this They write it first because that feel They feel like they need to kind of get Into it somehow next avoid any fluffy Words or fluffy sentences every single Sentence every single word should out Add value don’t stay the obvious don’t Tell people something they’re likely to Already know third keep it short so a
Few sentences are okay writing one Paragraph sentences absolutely fine People have come to find a an answer or A solution to a problem or some Information about something you need to Give them that as fast as possible don’t Give them stuff they don’t care about Our stuff they already know a good way To think about this is something called The inverse pyramid of value I think it Is where you want to be giving all of The other the majority of the value Immediately so in the in the in the Intro that could be if you’re doing like A roundup kind of review you could tell Someone what the best paintball gun is In like the first couple of sentences You could write something like after Comparing ten of the latest paintball Guns from the top manufacturers I found That the best paintball gun was that Desert fox e 9000 or whatever it might Be called so start off giving giving Away the answer straight away if it’s an Info question and like you know how how Fast can you start a website you know Give them that answer straight away Second in the intro you want to be in Terms of structuring it you want to be Establishing trust so why should people Believe that your recommendation or your Opinion or your knowledge on this is Good tell them how many years of Experience you have in the in the space
Or just how many hours of research you Spent looking around reading other People’s reviews looking at Facebook Groups and read it and just finding what The pros had to say about paintball guns Or what they used your time spent Researching this and if you can Communicate the that you’ve legitimately Done that that’s a lot of value because It means that the person reading the Article will trust you will trust your Opinion and doesn’t need to spend all That time doing it themselves so you Could be you know I bought all tank guns Myself and test them across the weekend Or you could just be like oh I spent Eczema Hours researching this then you want to Move on to something which is like a Preview of what’s to come So think of like a mini mini table of Contents but not a table of content so In this article I’m going to compare you Know with paintball guns what all the Aspects are maybe firing speed range Weight price etc and then you want to Have some kind of like open hook that’s Gonna get people to move on to the next Next section but also to read to Encourage them to read the whole article So you could say something like there Are a number of good guns but the best One for you will depend on your style of Play so keep reading to find out which
One you should choose that’s like a hook So they oh okay so there’s like some Nuance in here I want to I want to learn If you don’t care about that I’ve you Have time you just want the best one you Can still go and click that link from From the best one straight away and That’s your intro right it can be three Four sentences if you really want most Likely it’s gonna be I don’t know no More than six sentences across to three Paragraphs so stop stop writing fluffy Intros give all the value away straight Away keep your focus hook people in and Then just transition to your article and Write it right this intro last because It’s very difficult to do all these Things if you don’t know what you’re Actually going to talk about or what What the best one is going to be until You write it so I think this is cool but I’ve never managed to get outsourced Writers to do this properly it almost Feels like it’s a requirement in Problogger to not know how to write Intro so that you can apply for jobs Because it’s like it’s it’s like I do That in my articles etc I think one that Works really well is the proof by Showing that you dig well for example Like a mini case study or something like Having a photo or something really early Showing the items etcetera so how do you Get writers to do that and how do you do
That when you don’t actually buy the Items for your review which a lot of People also those are two questions one How do you get how do you do it when People are not or when you do have the Product you don’t have to have the Product you can just do the best Research and like figure out what the Best one is like if you’re buying the Product for yourself like how do you Know what the best one is you check what Other people You check what the pros use and they Recommend or you you know check other People’s reviews and you make your own Decision you’re essentially doing that In your content and that is adding a lot Of values saving people a lot of time And the the other question right how do You outsource writers to do that guys difficult yeah I believe a part Of the reason for this is the Incongruence and what they’re writing Versus it’s it’s not really their Website so they don’t have that same Kind of like personality and in order to Write in the short snappy style you have To have a level of confidence in what You’re writing about and you have to Have the the mind of the the person your Who’s reading kind of in your mind and You need to be like really talking to Them addressing to them and like a Casual over the bar kind of
Conversational tone almost and it’s hard To do because every writing course every You know creative writing degree that Someone studied and probably every SOP That they’ve worked for in the past sop From a company they’ve worked for in the Past will have told them to write the Intros in the kind of more classical way Yes say what you’re gonna say say it and Say again kind of thing and there’s an Element of usefulness in in that Approach but when it comes to writing Good web content these days bad intros Is the easiest thing in the world to Spot and you need to be like rigorous With your application writer application Process and just like if anyone’s like Fluffing around or writing like Just kick them out on there and then It’s just a case of hammering home to The writer every single time you can do A gale breath in and just like delete The intro and tell them or write again Come on a deleting in Google Docs Because it’s not good enough but I mean Of course you need to provide specifics But if you’re able to do it yourself you Know give them four or five articles and Say hey this is the style you need to be Writing yeah it’s hard it’s like the Thing is like it sounds off very often When people do that like you try yeah And it’s like it’s not hitting like you Read it and you just don’t trust it you
Know they don’t have that confidence That you mentioned so an element of that Though is because this style of Communication is a bit more casual bit More personal it can often feel like Quite personal to you so someone else is Not going to write in the same way that You speak right because it’s like it’s The gale breath and way of speaking Not the though clearly defined English Language which everyone writes the same In right so you kind of have to like Accept that it’s not always going to be Exactly what you want and it’s just a Training process you have to drill People and it over and over and over Again but once they get it this kind of Style will filter through to the rest of Their of their right yeah and it’ll be a Lot better actually it’s like it’s funny Because I’ve observed that process on The 8/5 blog and age first now pretty Much rewrites the same intro on every Single blog post which is like uh over The past 18 months we have grown our Traffic by this much so I see advice Must be great Here’s how to insert you know and it’s Like by the fact that this intro is so Mimicked and is kind of the same every Time you can tell that they’ve struggled A lot with it and now that they’ve hit Like one format that works with the Writer they’re kind of like repeating it
All the same it’s like it’s fine if it’s Search traffic but I can tell it’s a Very difficult thing to get without Sauce writers and I can see why they’re Struggling actually so that’s our even Outsource writers I mean they have a Full-time team in house doing this and This struggle yeah tell you I mean there Is good now but it’s always a sec Basically um hey else nope All right well thank you for listening Guys we have another podcast coming out Tomorrow we are releasing one a day These days it’s on YouTube as well if You’re on the video and if you’re on YouTube you can drop us a comment to Tell us if you like that new quick Format our podcast you can also drop us A like and subscribe we’re also on the Audio platforms if you want to still Listen to a podcast and we wish you a Good day [Music]