Staying Current with Intro Styles

Everyone's in a hurry. And: Everyone already knows all the

introductions that have ever been written online. If you're writing a blog, a how-to, an interview transcription, a research piece, an article --- be sure to get right to it. Skip the three or four paragraphs of cliches that used to be required openings. Your readers already know why they want to fix the toilet, learn how to outline a novel, who Einstein was, why you missed the signs that your ex was a narcissist, why love is better than hate, and why women should know how to change a tire. 

A one or two sentence intro is fine --- but no more than that. This isn't high school English, it's the web. Digitally oriented writers already know this. 

Say you want to know how to change 72 dpi to 300 dpi in Photoshop. Any good how-to article will simply start with "Go to Effects>Document Raster Effects Settings and either check high Quality 300 DPI or do a custom setting and use..." Hello and thank you. 

As opposed to an article, perhaps, on how to earn extra money if you've lost all your equity investing in companies promising to avert incoming meteorites from hitting earth. "So, you want to earn extra money. Perhaps you made a bad investment in anti-meteorite companies. Or maybe you were a victim of the housing bubble. Perhaps your ex got the settlement you were dreading. Now you need to earn more money. Perhaps you want to pay off your credit card debt. Or maybe you have a tax lien on your house..." 

You see what I mean? When you write copy, you will lose readers if you don't get right into the solution they are looking for. They already know they are broke / their dishwasher is leaking / their condo management has decided your dog is too big. They just want the answers. 

You help your readers by being direct, and you help yourself by keeping your readers!