Making Lemonade: Starting a Business After Ending A Career
What do you do when your career is over? You find a new one, of course! Starting a business can be difficult, but it doesn't have to be. Here are some tips to get started in the right direction.
If you want to make lemonade out of the lemons life has given you and start a new business, here’s how:
Both intro paragraphs written so far are factual but not informational. The introduction should help readers understand what they'll learn by reading the blog post.
Examples of introductions for informative posts: "Let me share with you 10 things that I learned from watching my dad work as an electrician. This will help you become a better electrician.”
Sample introduction of an informative blog post:
"The best way to learn something is to teach it. This enlightening blog post will teach you about some of the most common mistakes that electricians make and how to avoid them. If you ever hope to become an electrician, read this! "
Writing good blogs requires that writers present information in an interesting, easy-to-read way. Good introductions reduce the chance that readers won’t want to continue reading your blog post. As bloggers, we want people to take our advice and share our blogs with others as a valuable resource.
One of the most important aspects of an informative blog post is the introduction, which presents what the reader will learn and how.
For example, a blog post titled "10 things not to do when wiring a new home appliance" would start with "The following is for anyone who has ever wired a new home appliance."
The purpose of an introduction is usually to sell the blogger's credibility as an expert. Bloggers can use introductions to enhance their credibility or objectivity. A blog post titled “10 things that I found most important when learning how to pole vault” might begin by saying “For those who are interested in becoming pole vaulters, this information will help you achieve your goals.”
Some examples of introductions that are not informative:
Example 1:“This is my second blog post. I hope you like it. If you do, please share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google +. If not, please email me at jonethomasblog@gmail.com and tell me why.” This is an example of an introduction that is written too informally and awkward to be read by anyone but the author. It’s probably better if the blog post doesn’t say anything at all than to say something so poorly written that people don't want to read it.
Example 2:“I am going to show you how to create more time in your life. How? I’ll tell you, soon. Just click here and read my post.” The problem with this introduction is that the blogger doesn’t present anything interesting for the reader to do other than click on a link. It would be better if the blogger said something like “In the following post I will show you how to create more time by doing _____________.”
There may be one or two sentences in a blog post that serve as the conclusion, but they are usually not called a conclusion paragraph because they are not an independent paragraph (one that has its own topic sentence). When a blog post refers back to what the blogger said in several paragraphs, the reader may think that it is the final paragraph. However, this isn’t true because it does not have an independent topic sentence.
If a blog post has two paragraphs that seem like they could be called conclusions, then it probably should be split into two parts. That gives the illusion that each part is an independent paragraph (which shouldn't be split). The introduction and conclusion paragraphs are also called "paragraphs or sections".
For example:
Informative blog posts often have many great intro paragraphs.
Bloggers use introductions to show credibility and objectivity. A good introduction validates the blogger's expertise. Readers want to hear from someone they can trust, so they need to feel that the blogger’s advice is something they should read.
A blog post titled "10 things that I found most important when learning how to pole vault" might start as follows: “For those who are interested in becoming pole vaulters, this information will help you achieve your goals. I have been a pole vaulter for three years now, and I have learned quite a bit along the way. I was lucky enough to attend several training camps, which taught me many great tricks of the trade from some of the best pole vaulters in the world.”
In this introduction, the blogger refers to several previous blog posts so that readers who followed the blog post series will remember what else is discussed in this post. This is a good example of how to use introductions to increase blog posts’ popularity. When you write an introduction about something, it's a good idea to say what your previous posts discussed so your readers know where you stand and have other things to read because they will be interested in them.
Presentation of the whole topic in just one post is usually more valuable than presenting it in three different ones (it would take longer). If each post presents a part of the topic, then the reader can use them as reference materials.
Sometimes bloggers want to include a longer introduction in another post. But, if a blog is short and to-the-point, there's no need to write an introduction at all.
In addition, there's nothing wrong with leaving the introduction out of one post and writing it for another blog about the same topic.
Some bloggers do this because they don't have time to write every single post on their blog or because they feel it would be too much work to write every single introduction. It's easier to leave the introduction out if the blog is not well-known yet.
Some bloggers write an introduction for every post, but others write different introductions for different posts. For example, one blogger might write a general introductory paragraph that applies to almost all of his or her posts. Another blogger might write introductions for every post because he or she wants to inform the reader about something new in this post that was not covered in any of his or her previous ones.
The purpose of an conclusion paragraph is usually to sum up what the writer discussed in several paragraphs and let readers know that they can stop reading now if they’re satisfied with what they read.
As with introductions, there may be one or two sentences in an article that serve as the conclusion paragraph. But, these are not a conclusion paragraph because they are not independent. If a blog post does refer back to what the blogger said in several paragraphs, then the reader probably thinks that it is the final paragraph.
A blogger might write just one . . .
or he or she can write several . .
Or he or she can write just one long conclusion paragraph so there’s no need to split it into several parts.
The only problem with writing just one long conclusion paragraph is that the writer may become redundant, repeating what was already said and leaving readers confused.
Conclusion paragraphs should be brief, but they don't have to be unimportant.
If a blogger wants to write a few paragraphs of conclusion and then add a new post that talks about the same topic, it’s not uncommon to use the conclusion paragraph as an introduction for the next post.
In most blogs, the introduction and conclusion are usually too short.
Bloggers often rewrite their blog posts so that the reader can skip over slow material in small paragraphs called “slideshows” or “widgets.”
Sometimes bloggers want more time to write more blog posts but they don't want to do any extra work.