The trick to writing anything whether it is a sales page or a how to article is to hook your reader’s attention immediately. Of course you have to hold on to that attention too but that’s significantly easier once you already have it. Here are three must do’s if you want to grab your reader’s attention right away:

1. Headlines are the end all be all of copywriting. Newspapers know this, advertisers know this and you must too. What makes a compelling headline? Several things actually:

* A promise. A good headline can make a promise - Lose 30 pounds in 30 days-guaranteed.

* Make it newsworthy. New diet guarantees fast, healthy weight loss.

* Ask a question. Is the food you eat making you sick?

* Offer a benefit full of emotion. You’re going to absolutely love your new body-guaranteed.

* Appeal to their self interest. Know the secret to losing weight permanently?

* Offer value. 3 easy steps to losing weight naturally.

* Headlines must use strong verbs and powerful words. Compare these two headlines:
- Lose weight with our enzyme based diet
- Weight literally falls off with enzyme based diet.

2. Make sure your most compelling copy is above the fold. First, let’s clarify what the ‘fold’ is. When you look at a website, the fold is the point at which you need to start scrolling down. This means that anything above the fold is what you see immediately on your screen. If your good stuff is below the fold, most people won’t stick around to read it. You must make sure that your most compelling copy, your headline and your first paragraph, are immediately viewable.

Of course everyone has a different screen size so you want to work for the least common denominator - the smaller screen sizes.

3. Make sure your copy is scannable. There’s an old joke about what people read on the web. The joke is - they don’t. What people do is scan. They spend about 20 seconds evaluating your web page, if it isn’t easy to read they’re gone. If you want to grab your reader’s attention immediately - make your copy easy to read. Use bold lettering for words that you want to stand out. Space the copy well so that it is easy to read. Use bullets and numbers to list benefits or steps.

There are many expert tricks of the trade and these three will take you far. Make your headline strong and compelling, keep your strongest copy above the fold and make sure your copy is easy to scan. You’ll have visitors that are more than happy to spend time reading your web content.