by Lorelei Cohen

Created on: September 16, 2008   Last Updated: April 30, 2009

Your Helium article is sitting at thirty out of thirty. Not very good stats at all and this horrible rating is pulling down your overall average. So you have been attempting to leapfrog this article upwards but for some strange unknown reason your leapfrogs keep being rejected.

Now this is a pretty confusing situation because you are pretty sure that your article needs some improvement. It would not be sitting so low down in the ratings if it didn't. The problem is that you just can't figure out how to get those tough critics out there to approve your leapfrog so you can get rising back upwards in the rankings.

The clue usually lies in your first paragraph. Perhaps even with that all important first sentence. You need an opening line that is going to grab their interest and hold on to it for the remainder of the article. That is the very reason why a lot of writers grab the Helium article title and repeat it. They know that Helium has a sentence that is going to attract attention and they use it to their advantage. Now I am not recommending that you begin every one of your articles with Helium's title, in fact the opposite, too many others use that trick! When too many people start jumping on a band wagon it becomes "Old Hat" and out moded all too quickly.

Just use your creativity instead. Think of an imaginative first sentence that relates to your topic, one that is going to grab your readers immediate attention, and then follow that theme.

The following quote is the opening for an article on aging. In this example humor is used to draw you into the main article. "Grandpa is sitting across the table from you and his nose hair practically flows out in a thick gray mustache across his wrinkled grinning face. As he talks it blows back and forth in his breath and you are wondering if this is what is going to happen to you next." You can see how the use of humor can work to get you interested enough in the topic to read a little further into the article. Humor can also be used to make your article interesting enough to get you a positive vote in the leapfrog process.

Shock effect is another great method of opening an article. Appeal to their belief that the topic that you are discussing could affect their life or lifestyle. Make your topic important to them and show it in that all important first paragraph. Grab their attention! "Stress can cause irreparable damage to the immune system which can open you up to a warehouse full of future illnesses. Stress kills! Reduce

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