Leather Traveler

Have you noticed that nowadays, there are just so many blogs posting “99 this” or “100 that”? Or “9 reasons this ___” or “21 ways ___”? List-style blog posts are both effective and powerful. These are just a few reasons why list-style posts (or “list blog posts”) are effective:

1. They’re Convenient For The User
   List posts help the user; it’s usually hard for a user to go and find every single website on the topic they’re searching for, so it’s much easier to find a list put together, all at one place. Often the author will also offer a small description or opinion as well, which is also useful for the reader.
2. They’re Convenient For The Blogger
   List posts still take a lot of time, especially as the list gets longer, but they usually involve gathering and presenting information to the readers, rather than creating information themselves. For example,with list of “10 Must Have Games This Christmas” it would be much easier to collect a link to a review for each game and a place to buy it than to actually write a review for each game yourself. At the same time, if you have written a review/article on each of your list “items”, it’s also a great time to link to some of your older posts.
3. They’re A Good Opportunity For Affiliates
   If you’re making a list of products (e.g. Gifts for Christmas, Best iPhone Accessories, whatever), they it’s a great time to use your affiliate link as the link to that product. Think about it – the reader is coming there usually expecting a link to somewhere else (unless you’re making a list that doesn’t involve external products/blogs/sites/ideas/services) and an audience expecting and wanting links is the perfect audience for your affiliate links.
4. They Encourage Reader Participation
   Any list of “top”, “best” or “must haves” is sure to provide ample opportunity for people to disagree – there’s bound to be someone out there that insists you’ve missed out on one or two major items that should be on your list. Conversely, making a list of “worst” or “must avoids” is sure to fire up a few people who are fans of the things you’re dismissing. But be careful here – you want to encourage discussion and participation on your website, but try not to incite anger in your audience; they’re going to hate you and not want to return to your website. On the other hand, saying something controversial is often an effective technique for a successful blog post.

   Asking people to add to a list or offer their opinion is another way to increase your comments. When a list seems incomplete (e.g. a list of 9 instead of 10 or 99 instead of 100), this encourages your readers to add to your list with their own ideas.

5. They Bring In The Traffic
   Most bloggers will measure their success in traffic – whether it’s traffic just for the sake of popularity, or because more traffic means more opportunity to make money. Well, the good news is, list posts are a great way to bring in the traffic. They seem to always feature on the front page of digg.com, and that not only will your traffic increase, but also the quality of your traffic. When people read digg, they will stop and click on posts that look interesting to them. If your post is interesting to them, they’re more likely to click on it, more likely to read what you have to say, and more likely to click the links you present them with.

Stay tuned for part 2 of my reasons that make list blog posts effective.