Images

• Writing a thousand words takes a lot longer than adding an image. There is a hierarchy to the way people scan material they view; when given a choice between text only or text and a photograph ... well, which would you choose? Readers' eyes move left-to-right, scanning for things of interest; a photo to the left of your opening paragraph is ideally placed to guide a reader's eyes into your prose.
  
  

Questions

• Provoking thought is a great way to engage a reader. A question asks the reader to think, to start an alternate path in her brain. This is part of the interactivity of reading. If you are writing about something that happened to you, try an opening like, "What would you do if..." Your reader is not only reading your story, she is getting involved as an active participant.
  
  

Outrageous

• Declare yourself the Queen of Jupiter. In this cynical age of bat boys and Elvis sightings, readers have a taste for the absurd. This is an area where you can't cheat the reader. You need to build on that outrageous claim, whether you ultimately support or disprove it. Use metaphor. Being the Queen of Jupiter might represent the crazy goings on in your house, for example. Resolve your opening with your content.
  
  

Format

• Use space as your ally. Set your opening apart from the body of the post to give it impact. Like the question, it's a way to jump-start a reader's brain, and like a car on a cold morning, sometimes it takes a minute for the engine to catch. Space around your opening gives your reader's imagination time to turn over, to want to read on. Empty space around words acts as a pause button, helping to pace the intake of information.
  
  

Foreshadow

• Are you starting your opening bang today? What did you do yesterday to prepare a reader to come back? One of the well-exploited tendencies of blogging is that it can be spur-of-the-moment. Set yourself apart from other bloggers, and plan ahead. Perhaps this means writing a blog and holding it back from posting until you've written your next. Then go back to your original and add a little blurb about the next blog. If a reader is anticipating, anything you say tomorrow will have greater impact.