Entertaining and motivating original stories to help move your visions forward. This is not to say that there aren't bad lists and sloppy lists and lists that would make . Once youve edited your list post, youll need to find images and videos to support your content. It has comforting structure. Best of all, if readers are already familiar with some steps in the process, they can skip to sections most applicable to them. He was selected for just one All-Star Game, and that was three years ago after he got off to a hot start. I'm a full-time blogger. You can even fluff it up with a little more formatting, like if the Qualaroo article added subsections for URL, Price, or other information to the description. Here, we're going to dive into what a listicle is, how to write one, and listicle ideas to help you generate high-quality, engaging content for your readers. If theres no citation but theres a reference to the source (eg, from a 2016 study) try entering the information into Google along with the rough source. To illustrate the game, I provided a personal example using a hypothetical example: Ideally, most readers will find this example helpful for understanding the premise behind the game and understanding how it works in-action. 4) My Favorite Things: One of the most popular favorite things style blogs ever is Oprah Winfreys Favorite Things. As for why they are so popular to produce, there are a few reasons (aside from their popularity with audiences): Listicles are easier to plan and write than traditional articles because they dont have to worry so much about the order of their points. That is, as long as any claims you make are actually met within the body of the article. A friend of mine told me that Google will penalize it since she had issues with these. Listicles can make excellent bottom of funnel pieces of content. Learn More I supported because Just wondering! Indoor cricket and indoor soccer are two such games. Does that mean you should come up with three more lower-quality items just to achieve your goal of 14? Clickbait is difficult to avoid, as it encompasses different things for each reader. For example, we recently wrote a list post entitled, "Email Deliverability: 5 Quick & Effective Ways to Increase It". Other times, it just becomes an exercise in frustration. While many Evergreen content is an open secret to running a successful blog. Dont worry about the order of your list just yet (or any detail for the points you make). 6) Ways toThe Mayo clinic wrote an article listing 10 ways to reduce blood pressure without medicine. Listicles are a suitable format for a site, so long as theyre robust enough in terms of content that can be indexed and so long as they are relevant and full of value. Higher ranking for a keyword means your content it closer to being the first result for that term. 3. In fact, I'm a firm believer that the listicle does have a place in the world of high-quality blog content. Listicles can target core keywords while still hitting an array of related long-tail keywords. Listicles typically include a humorous title; numbered subtitles; a static or dynamic image; and text that elaborates on the subtitle and/or image. In some cases, you might turn a personal essay into a listicle this way. Then, if someone searches the relevant term, your article will be marked as relevant and have a chance to be put higher up the search results. March 30, 2012. A listicle is simply data in the form of a list; an example would be " 8 Tips . This is a great opportunity to use what youve learned about your competition and what you already know personally about the topic. This will largely depend on how much information you have on each point, along with what your competitors have already published. Infographic or Listicle? Then proofread it once more to make sure it reads smoothly. There is no guesswork involved, and expectations you've set for your readers are very clear. Heres an excellent example of a recent, high-quality listicle: It has a lengthy intro that digs into the topic and tells you why you should care. Find him on Twitter here. Find affiliate links if youre writing a list post about a product or service. The game of ridiculously random lists! I've learned absolutely nothing. Let's answer that in listicle form: 1. The closer you are to first place, the more people will read your content. Lists of actionable steps you can take. I wanted to reach out and share my finished article with you, since your article was super helpful in creating it. Use Google Trends, Answer the Public, Ahrefs, etc to identify a [relevant] topic. If an item is removed or changes enough that it doesnt belong on the list, it can easily be removed and a new one put in its place or the list number adjusted. 9) Tags: Tags are an effective way to organize your listicle. We're committed to your privacy. If your information isnt in some way unique to your own post, theres also little reason to link back to you instead of your sources. 5) Reasons Why: One Green Planet published a listicle about why zoos are bad. Cheers. I'm not as strict about this one as some list post purists, but in general, I agree that your listicle should have a consistent and parallel look. One problem dominates the field when setting out to write a listicle. Doing the actual writing isnt all that difficult, but its easier if youre an expert in the subject or have easy access to the data necessary to make your points. Then youve seen a Listicle. I recommend aiming to make your listicle an odd or unusual number of items. We've earned our black belts in both. Listicles are a great way to showcase examples in any niche. Hi Ben Mulholland Listicle examples There are lots of types and forms a listicle can take, so to give you a better idea of how listicles may look and work, I've categorized them by goal: 1. See pricing, Marketing automation software. "5 Steps to Do X"), and sometimes there won't be as obvious a story (e.g. An example is Best Practices for Writing Effective Press Releases. Lets hop on a call and talk about what we can do to help. The listicle-style blog post is popular because people love lists, and they are easy to read. But in general, I think many of these rules should serve you well, no matter where you're pitching. Here's an example of what we mean: 3 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Marketing. The reason was that they blew up to be so popular, so quickly, that it was all you would ever see on the site for months. If possible, its also a good idea to record what the purpose of the article is, as this can help you decide what angle youre going to tackle the topic from. Piggybacking again on point #2, sometimes one of the best ways to adequately explain a point on your list is to use an example to support it. The primary hallmark of a thin listicle or a clickbait list is that each list item has a heading, but the actual content of each post is an image. They cater to the short attention span of todays blog readers. When you sit down to start drafting your listicle, decide how granular you want to make your topic. There are long-form listicles, and short (quick) listicles, visual listicles (that are mostly images, each following a list item), and text-based listicles, etc. Listicles are articles formatted into a list, usually focused around a particular niche, like: 5 best gaming laptops in 2020 When youre ready to publish your post, submit it to social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. What do you think of listicles? A daily dose of irreverent and informative takes on business & tech news, Turn marketing strategies into step-by-step processes designed for success, Explore what it takes to be a creative business owner or side-hustler, Listen to the world's most downloaded B2B sales podcast, Get productivity tips and business hacks to design your dream career, Free ebooks, tools, and templates to help you grow, Learn the latest business trends from leading experts with HubSpot Academy, All of HubSpot's marketing, sales CRM, customer service, CMS, and operations software on one platform. Use your analytics to tell you what's working. if it's a list of action items, each should be led with a verb). document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Want some free consulting? Pick a topic, set a number, and fill it out. Here are some examples: 1) Top List: Keller Williams Realty Las Vegas Summerlin included a top list of local mechanics in the Las Vegas area. Measure results! Listicles work for many of the same reasons that traditional lists do we just like to read them. listicles game examples Alternatively, examples of a category are named, until another player can guess what is the category. The best way to make sure that you do this and cut any meandering in your work is to put an extra check in your pre-publish checklist. For strategic audience targeting, brand awareness and audience trust, a good listicle should have the nine qualities defined below. Listicles! You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time. Definitely not. Speaking of which, its time to move on to actually writing your listicle. 16. All Rights Reserved |, "50 Ways to Promote Your Latest Blog Post After Publishing It", "7 Stages Of Grief Going Through the Process and Back to Life", "17 People Who Made Big, Big Mistakes On Social Media", a more advanced listicle I wrote that topped 7,000 words, "The 6 Step Guide to Writing Listicle Content", "Writing a Listicle: The 11-Step Guide and Why Theyre Awesome", "How to Write a Listicle [+ Examples and Ideas]", What Is Value-Added Content? Thanks for subscribing to the Process Street Blog! For example, The teacher might give words like- BZG, CZT, ZND, ZPPLE. . When you write a listicle, it's extremely important for people to be able to skim it and pick out the most important points in just a minute or two. The Help: During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, an aspiring . That's intentional. And if you have to link to an external resource because you haven't the written the post yourself great! This is only really important to content designed to get a lot of (or more frequent) readers; if youre writing for fun, dont worry about this. That way you dont have to keep looking them up to know what you need to aim for and surpass. Sit down with your team and brainstorm challenges your readers might be facing, and then decide whether that challenge can be solved with a step-by-step guide or a list of tools (that includes yours). Perfect! One of the best-performing content types today for bloggers is the listicle. I just found your article, Writing a Listicle: The 11-step Guide and Why Theyre Awesome while researching for my latest article, thank you! A listicle is easy to scan, and outlines specifically what a reader can learn in the post. I typically do subheadings for the list items, an image representing the tip or tool, and a paragraph describing its value. Even if you don't think you know anything about anything important, don't sweat- just choose a topic and ask 3-4 other people to contribute a . Then, we create articles that are 10x better to earn the top spot. You may have heard at some point that listicles or list articles are penalized, either by Google, by Facebook, by the algorithm, or just in general. I would be thrilled if you would include it in your articles (https://elitecustomessays.com/article-writing-writing-ideas/academic-work/), Best Regards, Under no circumstances should you just take what the current top-ranking post has said and turn it into a list. Our minds crave organization, even if it's on a subconscious level. Would you consider Lance Lynn to be a No. (function(w){"use strict";if(!w.loadCSS){w.loadCSS=function(){}} You could write a listicle which is nothing more than a title, five sub-headings for each list item, and a picture or gif below each. There are some fantastic tools out there to help with your keyword research, such as Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs. If theyve gone into detail, consider topping that with a content upgrade to sweeten the deal. "only halfway to go" or "I'm almost done!"). The angle needs to provide value that nobody else can; otherwise, your post could be easily eclipsed by someone taking what youve written, adding their own expertise, and not even having to reference you. The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. 14 Life-changing Ways to Reorganize Your Closet, How to Apply Red Lipstick in 4 Easy Steps, 20 Things You Should Know Before Buying a New Mattress, The 7 Best Sustainable Clothing Companies, 7 Communication Channels Your Team Needs in 2020, 12 Marketers Tell Us Their Favorite Marketing Campaigns of 2020, The Best 6 Superbowl Ads of 2019, and Why They Worked, How to Make These 3 Meals With Only 5 Ingredients, 10 Cool Gadgets You'll Definitely Need This Summer, 7 Hilarious Videos Trending on YouTube Right Now, How to Become an Entrepreneur, According to 11 Successful Ones. This is pretty obvious when you think about how much . Smaller listicles can target long-tail keywords and feed into larger listicles and topic pillars as well. One of the best-known examples is Dave Pell's Next Draft - a curation of great stories from around the web, which he regularly publishes as a list post. People dont want to spend too much time reading long paragraphs of text. I'd be less likely to share a more text-heavy piece like "How to Start Your Own Influencer Marketing Campaign". To give you some ideas of unique angles, you could: The last method (collecting information) isnt the ideal way to frame a listicle as literally anyone can look up a few sources and provide a summary theres nothing unique about the information itself.