Comments on: How to Get Readers to Pay Attention http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2010/04/how-to-get-readers-to-pay-attention/ Your technology pain-relief experts. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:37:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die – A Review | SQL Server Blog - StraightPath Solutions http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2010/04/how-to-get-readers-to-pay-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-20141 Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die – A Review | SQL Server Blog - StraightPath Solutions Thu, 29 Apr 2010 12:59:51 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=7603#comment-20141 [...] want to thank Jeremiah Peschka and Brent Ozar for some recent blog posts on writing. This post was written a couple months ago and scheduled. [...] [...] want to thank Jeremiah Peschka and Brent Ozar for some recent blog posts on writing. This post was written a couple months ago and scheduled. [...]

]]> By: Valentino Vranken http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2010/04/how-to-get-readers-to-pay-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-20131 Valentino Vranken Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:30:11 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=7603#comment-20131 From experience I know that teasers do have some effect on the readers. I've done it a couple of times in the past, although not on purpose (i.e. not planned). What sometimes happens to me is the following: I start writing a blog post and before I'm done explaining everything (such as solution A AND solution B) I realize that the post is becoming quite long. Furthermore, solution B could be covered in a separate post without any problems. Those are the cases when I decide to end the first post with a teaser and then write the next, more or less standalone, part in a new post. A real-life example of this are my two articles about the Excel import - the first one using OPENROWSET() and the second one in SSIS. Even with my humble amount of readers, I actually got an email from a reader asking me what solution B would be! In my opinion, as long as the posts are related to each other, it's not a bad habit. Once part 2 is posted, which obviously is going to link back to the prequel, you can update the first one to link through to the second one, thereby making it easy for your readers to read the whole story. In that case, Brent, I believe that your conclusion regarding the third category is not completely correct: why wouldn't they be interested in more similar/related content? After all, that's what they were looking for in the first place (unlike those of the first category). Interesting post btw! :-) From experience I know that teasers do have some effect on the readers. I’ve done it a couple of times in the past, although not on purpose (i.e. not planned). What sometimes happens to me is the following: I start writing a blog post and before I’m done explaining everything (such as solution A AND solution B) I realize that the post is becoming quite long. Furthermore, solution B could be covered in a separate post without any problems. Those are the cases when I decide to end the first post with a teaser and then write the next, more or less standalone, part in a new post.

A real-life example of this are my two articles about the Excel import – the first one using OPENROWSET() and the second one in SSIS. Even with my humble amount of readers, I actually got an email from a reader asking me what solution B would be!

In my opinion, as long as the posts are related to each other, it’s not a bad habit. Once part 2 is posted, which obviously is going to link back to the prequel, you can update the first one to link through to the second one, thereby making it easy for your readers to read the whole story.
In that case, Brent, I believe that your conclusion regarding the third category is not completely correct: why wouldn’t they be interested in more similar/related content? After all, that’s what they were looking for in the first place (unlike those of the first category).

Interesting post btw! :-)

]]> By: Submitting a Winning Abstract at PASS | Jeremiah Peschka, SQL Server Developer http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2010/04/how-to-get-readers-to-pay-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-20090 Submitting a Winning Abstract at PASS | Jeremiah Peschka, SQL Server Developer Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:05:11 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=7603#comment-20090 [...] Want some more ideas about writing abstracts? Look no further than Brent Ozar’s blog post How to Get Readers to Pay Attention. [...] [...] Want some more ideas about writing abstracts? Look no further than Brent Ozar’s blog post How to Get Readers to Pay Attention. [...]

]]> By: Brent Ozar http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2010/04/how-to-get-readers-to-pay-attention/comment-page-1/#comment-20082 Brent Ozar Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:15:45 +0000 http://www.brentozar.com/?p=7603#comment-20082 Adam - you're right, and in fact, I need to go back and edit the article. I'm going to do that now. The other point is that you need to clearly define the target audience. Updating... Adam – you’re right, and in fact, I need to go back and edit the article. I’m going to do that now. The other point is that you need to clearly define the target audience. Updating…

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