Written on September 15th, 2005 at 01:09 am by Darren Rowse

8 Reasons Why Lists are Good for Getting Traffic to your Blog

Writing Content 72 comments

Here’s a tip for how to get people to link to your blog.

Write lists!

I’ve been reminded by this again today by seeing just how many people are linking up to Piaras Kelly’s list of Tips on writing content for your blog. I must have seen 10 or 15 people link to it in the last few hours (including me). Even though I don’t agree with all of it there is something about a list that bloggers and blog readers love. Here’s a list of reasons why lists can be good for your blog:

  1. Lists are Scannable - online readers are notoriously lazy. A list helps communicate a number of points quickly and easily
  2. Lists keep posts succinct - there is something about a list that keeps you from rambling
  3. Lists look ‘neat’ - I don’t know about you but when I surf onto a site that is full of messily formatted text - I don’t tend to stick around long. Lists on the other hand can be quite visually pleasing
  4. Lists are easy to link to - most of the links to the link above simply summarize the list (giving the keypoints) - bloggers seem to like linking up in this manner
  5. Lists can be comprehensive - Piaras covered 12 points in the above list
  6. Lists are persuasive - if you want to mount a case for something quickly presenting numerous arguments in a list can be quite convincing
  7. Lists can add to the ease of writing - I like writing in lists because they break down my thoughts into bite sized pieces which is good not only for readers but me as a writer as I consider how to express myself
  8. Lists as Memes - I’m not quite sure how to describe this - but lists can start epidemics of ideas. For the above reasons (and others - bloggers seem to love linking to lists and as a result they have the ability to spread quickly

There is obviously a pretty good case for using lists in your blog writing. Of course you can use them too much - sometimes a topic calls for something a little more meaty and in depth than a list - but overall I’d recommend that using lists on your blog as part of your writing mix is an worthwhile strategy.

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