Lists on Your Blog – Five Things to Consider

November 24, 2009

in blogging

Who said blog posts need to have lists anyway?

listWell, 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.

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Nine Types of Blog Posts to Get Your Writing Juices Flowing — B6S.net
December 1, 2009 at 2:13 am

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3 Jordasche Bledsoe November 26, 2009 at 11:20 am

Hi, thank you for the tips. Saw your link on Extreme John’s site.
Jordasche Bledsoe´s last blog post ..Kesha Says You Will Leave Her Concert With Sweat And Possibly A Condom My ComLuv Profile

4 ileane
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November 27, 2009 at 1:48 pm

Hi Anne,

I think I have made a couple of these boo-boo’s before. Thanks for the reminder.

@Ileane
ileane´s last blog post ..Introduction: The Blog Engage Community [Video] My ComLuv Profile

5 Anne November 28, 2009 at 9:52 pm

Hey, I still make them after having written the article ;) But it did help focus me. My last post on my israelimom.org blog is – 11 Things Twitter is Good For. I did stop at 11 because I noticed it was getting too long!

6 Ruchi November 30, 2009 at 9:33 am

Great post. Agree with you, readers lose interest with long post and list. Post should be short and to the point.

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