Six Easily-Preventable Mistakes That Bloggers Make with List Posts
Posted: January 16, 2012
List posts are hugely popular in the blogosphere – and for a good reason. They attract readers, and they’re easy to write. Sometimes, there’s a bit of a backlash against list posts. That’s not because they don’t work, but because they’re often poorly executed. Here are six mistakes that are easy to make – and easy to prevent.
List posts are hugely popular in the blogosphere – and for a good reason. They attract readers, and they’re easy to write. Sometimes, there’s a bit of a backlash against list posts. That’s not because they don’t work, but because they’re often poorly executed. Here are six mistakes that are easy to make – and easy to prevent.
Mistake #1: Putting the Wrong Number in the Title
Have you ever read a list post where the title promised 17 items, but the post only had 16? Okay, it was probably still a good post, but it feels sloppy at best.
When you’re crafting your list post, you may well find that you cut out one item – or add in an extra one. Make sure you change your title to match.
Watch out for any other references to the number of items, too (probably in the introduction). This isn’t such a glaringly obvious error, but you can bet that at least some of your readers will notice the mismatch.
Mistake #2: Leaving Off the Introduction
Some bloggers launch straight into their list with #1, without even a line or two of introduction. This can come across as abrupt and jarring (or just plain lazy) to your reader.
You can use your introduction to explain the “why” of your list in the introduction, or to tell the reader how to use the list. For instance, you might encourage them to try out one or two of the ideas, even if they don’t have time to do them all.
Mistake #3: Forgetting to Number the Items
Quite often, I come across list posts where there’s a number in the title (“7 ways…” “4 tips…” etc) but the actual list items aren’t numbered.
There’s no good reason not to number your list items. The numbers help readers to orient themselves within the post – they know how far through the list they are at any given stage. Plus, without numbers, your readers may try to count the items as they read – which means they won’t be concentrating on the post itself.