On a serious note, I love how you tied the science of attention spans into concrete strategies.
The countdown approach mirrors exactly how readers think. It also underscores the need for alignment across headlines, visuals, and subheadings, which many creators (including myself) overlook.
In a previous life, I was a career coach. We would always tell job seekers they had 6 seconds to grab the recruiter's attention with a resume. Focus on the top 1/3 to do that - formatting, use of white space, and a strong professional summary/skills section.
No one wants to waste their time - on a resume or an article. :)
Thank you, Karen. I agree completely, there has to be a sense of urgency and understanding what the ‘prime real estate’ is when the visitor arrives on your page. Your rule of focusing on the top 1/3 of the page is a great idea!
An almost "James Bond'ian" title for the article - which actually proves one of the points made inside; that a compelling and engaging headline is SO important. This is a super helpful breakdown of what works in an article to grab a reader's attention. Thanks Mack - I'll share a link to this in my round up newsletter on Sunday.
Hey thank you, JFT! I appreciate that! Headlines are SO important. Will be doing some deeper dives on how to write better headlines soon. Appreciate the comment and Restack!
Thanks for this. I’ve always hesitated adding visuals to my posts, but now I’m going to start. You make sense in terms of it adding to the entire post - the style and structure.
Thanks Parves. Visuals are super important, and honestly I often struggle with them. Like the photos I used for this post, I wasn’t a fan of them, but I couldn’t find ones that just clicked for me. It’s tough, I wish someone made a recommendation engine or something to pair the proper visual with your written article or post.
I love this, and really appreciate your 'meta' breakdown of how to capture and retain people's attention.
I must admit, I've struggled with this in my writing career. I KNOW that hooks work, but there's always been this internal voice (that I need to get over) between wanting to get people's attention without coming across like clickbait.
And with CTAs as well, I've also fought this internal battle between really wanting to encourage readers to engage with the content and to draw their own conclusions... but knowing that people do still want concepts summarised into simple takeaways.
I've long suspected this is a personal hangup. What would you suggest, for me to 'get over' that inner monologue?
Honestly, I think the fact that you are worried about being too ‘clickbaity’ almost ensures you aren’t. The creators who are actually too clickbaity or salesy never think to worry about their behavior! The fact that you are worried shows you care about the reader, so you will be fine because your barometer will always point toward doing what you think is best for them.
Why do you have to call me out, bro?
okayyyy I will do better.
On a serious note, I love how you tied the science of attention spans into concrete strategies.
The countdown approach mirrors exactly how readers think. It also underscores the need for alignment across headlines, visuals, and subheadings, which many creators (including myself) overlook.
Thank you for breaking this down.
Please, sis. People set their alarms to for every 8am Tuesday when your new article comes out. You are the exception to the rule 😉
I highly doubt that hahahaha
You are good for my almost non existent ego :)
Wonderful post, with great data and tips.
In a previous life, I was a career coach. We would always tell job seekers they had 6 seconds to grab the recruiter's attention with a resume. Focus on the top 1/3 to do that - formatting, use of white space, and a strong professional summary/skills section.
No one wants to waste their time - on a resume or an article. :)
Thank you, Karen. I agree completely, there has to be a sense of urgency and understanding what the ‘prime real estate’ is when the visitor arrives on your page. Your rule of focusing on the top 1/3 of the page is a great idea!
Powerful breakdown and call out to the science of catching the reader's attention, Mack! I really appreciated the A/B testing tip here, too.
Hey thanks, Chason! The A/B testing is really worth experimenting with!
An almost "James Bond'ian" title for the article - which actually proves one of the points made inside; that a compelling and engaging headline is SO important. This is a super helpful breakdown of what works in an article to grab a reader's attention. Thanks Mack - I'll share a link to this in my round up newsletter on Sunday.
Hey thank you, JFT! I appreciate that! Headlines are SO important. Will be doing some deeper dives on how to write better headlines soon. Appreciate the comment and Restack!
You're very welcome
Thanks for this. I’ve always hesitated adding visuals to my posts, but now I’m going to start. You make sense in terms of it adding to the entire post - the style and structure.
Thanks Parves. Visuals are super important, and honestly I often struggle with them. Like the photos I used for this post, I wasn’t a fan of them, but I couldn’t find ones that just clicked for me. It’s tough, I wish someone made a recommendation engine or something to pair the proper visual with your written article or post.
I love this, and really appreciate your 'meta' breakdown of how to capture and retain people's attention.
I must admit, I've struggled with this in my writing career. I KNOW that hooks work, but there's always been this internal voice (that I need to get over) between wanting to get people's attention without coming across like clickbait.
And with CTAs as well, I've also fought this internal battle between really wanting to encourage readers to engage with the content and to draw their own conclusions... but knowing that people do still want concepts summarised into simple takeaways.
I've long suspected this is a personal hangup. What would you suggest, for me to 'get over' that inner monologue?
Honestly, I think the fact that you are worried about being too ‘clickbaity’ almost ensures you aren’t. The creators who are actually too clickbaity or salesy never think to worry about their behavior! The fact that you are worried shows you care about the reader, so you will be fine because your barometer will always point toward doing what you think is best for them.