Lists on Your Blog – Five Things to Consider

Who said blog posts need to have lists anyway?

Well, someone obviously did as they seem to be so common, so here is my list about lists.

1. Choose your title wisely – there’s a thin line here between intriguing and sounding too spammy. Don’t be too pushy. If I read a title that says “X things you absolutely MUST…” I just move on.
2. Don’t make your list items too long. If they become too long consider developing each one into an article or blog post in its own right.
3. Don’t make your lists too long. For myself, if the list has more than 10 items, you probably lost me at the title already. The exception would be actual lists like “50 best selling books” – with no added text.
4. Don’t make your lists too short. “Three ways to increase your creativity” sounds kinda lame. If you have just a couple of things to say about something, use a different format.
5. Really do count the number of bullets you have there. Then count again before you hit “publish” to make sure the number hasn’t changed after editing. It can get embarrassing when your readers are looking for that elusive 7th point that’s mentioned in the title but nowhere in the text.