Anatomy of a Blog Post

Opening line of an irresistible anecdote.

Complicate the anecdote.

Cliffhanger observation.

Question?

Bait readers that the answer is somewhere further down the post.

Section Two

This is what I actually wanted to write about — and probably what you were Googling for in the first place — but because we’re trained to Always Be Storytelling now, I had to hide this further down the page.

Here’s some more information so you’ll think I’m actually an expert.

Now I’ll add some external links that I’m really only including so other bloggers will get notified that I linked to them and hopefully they’ll read me and promote me to their audiences — as well as a link to basically the same article that I wrote three weeks ago, so you’ll think I’m prolific.

This is where an actual writer would summarize everything and wrap up, right?

But wait — there’s a twist.

Section Three

Remember that anecdote? Now I’ll explain how it vaguely applies to my actual lesson.

Here’s the part where I reverse-engineer the anecdote to create either the impression of a relevant case study or some cherry-picked data that supports my central thesis, even though every case study or data can really be manipulated to imply anything at all.

One last opportunity to restate my original point as though it’s genius.

Clever closing line that buttons both the anecdote and the theme.

Desperate question to boost comment traffic?

Author Bio that includes a link to something you don’t need.