Travel lenses

Like my title? Get your interest? It must have done or you wouldn't be reading. Which brings me to my point. You can be the best writer in the world, but if you don't have a good title, most readers will just skim past you.

Think about how you use the internet or read a newspaper. You breeze along until a headline or title catches you interest. Then you read the first paragraph or glance at the sub-title, and if it lives up to its promise you read on.

Just imagine how many articles are out there. Billions! Your article has to stand out from the beginning.

Think about how you can improve your current titles. Recently I went out for dinner at The Marriot. I thought "Dinner at the Marriot" sounded incredibly boring. Luckily, the entertainment included dancing so I wrote: "A night with a whirling dervish". If you're like me, a whirling dervish sounds much more exotic than dinner in a hotel.

Titles relevant to your audience also help. For example, if I saw "ten ways to improve your travel blog" I would read it like a shot. It might not be the most interesting title, but it is well targeted. It's also why I chose "How to get your post read" fot his post. On the other hand, unrealistic promises turn me right off. I would assume "How to make a squidzillion dollars from your lens with thirty seconds work a year" was a blatant lie and never give it a second thought.

Also compare:

"Fishing in Qatar" with "My battle with a deep sea monster"

"Ramadan" to "Fasting in the desert"

"Tourism in Qatar" to "Fancy a holiday in Qatar, anyone?"

In all articles on writing content on the internet I seem to see the same advice.

Common advice

- Use headings.
- Use lists.
- Use links in your writing.

I use all three of these techniques - but not in every article. I like to vary the style of my writing.

Some things I like to do are:

- start in the most interesting part of a story and then go back to the beginning when I have the readers attention. This keeps them interested.
I'll give an example of this in my next post.

- make it personal: talk about my story or people's stories rather than abstract concepts. This technique helped me to get my first article published.

- on the same topic: address the reader. Talk to them. Think of this yourself. You like to be spoken to, not ignored, don't you?

- vary my writing. Mixing short sentences with very long ones can be an interesting way of retaining the readers attention.

Writing is my hobby not my profession. I'm sure many other people have good tips. If you do - please share them with me!

The introduction to a piece of writing should be a splash of water in your reader's face. It should wake them up, grab their attention. If the introduction is boring, your reader will move on, not read on.

Which of the two introductions do you prefer?

1. Driving in Doha is very dangerous. There are many accidents every day.

2. "Watch out," I screamed as a white land cruiser shot out from the exit behind us, and overtook us on the inside of the roundabout. I was about to have my first Qatar driving accident.

The first one is a bland and boring statement of fact. The second one starts in the middle of the most interesting part of the story. We want to read on - we want to know what happens next. But we don't tell the reader straight way. Instead, we leave it dangling till the end of the article. Making use of the urge to find out what happens next is one of the oldest tricks in the book (pun intended!)

(Do you want to read the rest of my article on driving in Qatar? If yes, click on Driving - Qatar style. If not - well, I've obviously been talking a load of bollocks!)

These are just my personal views. Feel free to disagree/add comments below.

I don't like lenses that are blatant adverts. I like them disguised a little. I am happy for there to be advertising, but they need to give something in return - amuse me, offer me a tool or give me information.

I like content. Come on, aren't you bored of two line introductions followed by some links and an Amazon shop?

Talking of content, make the writing good. Personalize it - talk to your reader, use the pronouns you and we, ask your reader questions. Sure, make a picture with words - but don't overdo it, leave something to the imagination. Give the reader a reason to read on.

I don't like link farms, but I do like blogs which choose their links carefully and give good reasons to visit those links. If there aren't those reasons - well, why not just use a google search to find out what you want?

Lenses that point to blogs/websites are fine, but why not show your reader what you can do? After all, if your lense is good, then there is a chance your blog/website will be too i.e. worth visiting.

Pictures are great, but I'm not really interested in seeing someone I have never met before. I'm not interested in pavements either. Show me something that I can't see out of my bedroom window. If you take a hundred photos I guarantee that you'll have one or two which are really good. Plus you have free and easy to use photo software like Picasso that can dramatically improve your pictures.

Lenses that include a link to my own blog/lense. Now, that makes for a really good lense...

I lived in East Java, Indonesia for years, and now whenever I hear an Indonesian voice I feel like I am hearing one of my own country people. I often drag my wife towards the voice and start up a conversation. (Actually, I don't do this when I hear someone from my country). Being Indonesian, they are always happy to talk to a total stranger!

The picture at the start of this module shows a superb sulphur lake at the top of a volcano in Ijien, East Java. It's hard to get to, transport wise, but easy to climb up. You share the climb with wiry little men with poles over their back and big fat cigarettes in their mouths, who mine the sulphur at the top of the mountain. When their baskets are full they sling them over their backs and trot down the mountain. I tried to lift one of these poles - I couldn't even get it off the ground.