People don't really care what you have to say. That is, unless it is interesting to them or helps them in some way.

Oh it's selfishness on the part of the reader, to be sure. But it's the way people read articles and blogs and tweets. 

So if you want people to read what you have to say, you have to catch them (twice) before they'll do it.

The first catch is the title.

If an article or blog has a boring title, no one will read anything more than that (except maybe your mom). A catchy title tells people, "This is worth your time and will be interesting to you. You should read this." A boring title says, "You won't miss anything if you don't read this title."

The second catch is the first sentence of the piece.

Just because you have a good title doesn't mean someone is going to read your entire piece. If your title is good, but your first sentence is terrible, then people will stop reading or lose interest and stop reading after the first paragraph. A good first sentence after a good title says, "See, I told you this was going to be worth your time. You should totally keep reading!" A bad first sentence after a good title says, "I'm a liar, although a good one." A good first sentence after a bad title is pointless, because no one will read it anyway.

So for all of you potential writers out there, keep in mind the importance of the title and the first sentence! If they stink, you might as well not even write the rest of the piece.

Jacob