Here are my eight tips for getting your listicle published. Carnival published a list-style article on what to pack for a cruise. A listicle can help the reader scan for information they need and feel less overwhelmed by the amount of content. We pick blog topics like hedge funds pick stocks. The first and most basic list article format is the 'listicle' which Shepherd refers . 10) Gift Guide: CNN published a list of 22 Gifts under $25.00. Some love them. For example, unrealistic claims could be: As long as you stay away from making bold claims which are completely (or even mostly) impossible to meet, you should be fine. Listicles can target core keywords while still hitting an array of related long-tail keywords. . 7 benefits of High-Intensity Interval Training. What if there ends up being only 11 solid, valuable items that make up that list? While we sometimes still write lists posts containing six or fewer items, we don't include the number in the title for those posts. This website uses cookies. A listicle is an article that contains a series of bulleted lists, each with three or more items on it. Choose your keywords. Fashion Reels like this highlight how brands can squeeze so much out of a short-form video. Youve now got a solid plan, and its time to write your listicle. By making sure that your readers always have at least a portion of an image on screen you can help to encourage them to scroll further to see the rest. There is no guesswork involved, and expectations you've set for your readers are very clear. The lesson? listicle: [noun] an article consisting of a series of items presented as a list. That way you dont have to keep looking them up to know what you need to aim for and surpass. Your email address will not be published. Do you? Short listicles are usually between 500 and 1,000 words, while longer listicles are typically around 2,500. 4. That makes it easier to skim and easier to write. It is a portmanteau of list and testicle, because they are usually bollocks. Listicle | Board Game | BoardGameGeek - Help us reach our goal of 18k supporters this year! Even if you cant locate it, its good to get into the habit of trying. Identify the logical order of your instructions and use numbered lists Use headings and bold to identify key stages in your step-by-step guide Use photos and videos as much as possible to provide context to your reader List-based content style Lists are a great way to consolidate information and provide your user with a quick and simple read. Great list posts are comprehensive, so they can get pretty long and unwieldy. Whether you're new to short-form video or just need some fresh ideas, we've got you covered. 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. You generally want a primary keyword and a list of secondary keywords youll hit along the way. Lists are a perfect medium for giving value without any fluff. [c]2017 Filament Group, Inc. MIT License */ Speaking of which, its time to move on to actually writing your listicle. listicle definition: 1. a newspaper, magazine, or online article that is in the form of a list: 2. a newspaper. Not to mention that your audience may well have heard everything you have to say before and quickly bounce from your page. Sometimes, if you can write a listicle about a complex issue, you can get special attention for the novelty. listicles game examples Alternatively, examples of a category are named, until another player can guess what is the category. Failed to subscribe. Add a step to check for filler words and remove them. software, Theyre easy to skim for important information, Its easy to put down and come back where you left off, They can break complex topics down into digestible chunks, Each item written feels like an achievement, Lists are great for targeting core keywords, Smaller listicles can be adapted to suit long-tail keywords, Write from personal experience on the topic, Use an interesting example/case study to frame the information, Dig out obscure but useful statistics to shed new light on the topics importance, Give relevant content upgrades to encourage further action and provide extra value, Collect information from multiple sources to provide a summary, Use images and/or gifs to illustrate your points, A personal essay/experience-based listicle (X things I learned about Y), Advice from experience (X tips from 3 years of, Research roundup (a heavily sourced list of information), Reported list (more of an article turned into a list to make it scannable), Editorial-turned-list (a list being used to argue a specific point), 16 Amazing Recipes to Convert Your Friends to Veganism, Give unique examples of your topic to inspire experimentation, Tie everything back to your central argument and hammer the point home, Offer a content upgrade or have another call to action, Suggest activities or techniques to use what youve written about. Our minds crave organization, even if it's on a subconscious level. If there are indeed only 10 significant points to make, consider going into more detail, having a more scannable structure, or even adding bonuses to make your piece stronger than the competition. It's just a reality. This makes it easy to slot in new points without having to restructure whats already there. If a new point needs adding you can just slot it at the end of the current list and change the title. 3) What I Learned From This type of list includes one item per line. Inside this tutorial: How to Create a Buzzfeed-Style Listicle. 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Some listicle writers believe that you should choose a number before you start writing your list and make sure you have enough points to fit that exact number. Hes been a content marketer for over 10 years and writes for Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, and many other publications on blogging and website strategy. Generally, the list is numbered or contains bold items or subheadings. 5) 23 Songs To Play You To Sleep Yes, Debussy's "Claire de Lune"! Hashtags are keywords that appear after a symbol. 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 . If you're writing a list of best practices, you should only have best practices in your list sneaking a few examples in the list will just confuse your audience (and you can always create another listicle for examples, later on). Posted on . For example, if the space for SEO Checklist is packed (which it is), I might look for a unique angle on it, like: Picking a unique angle, a unique spin, or a unique framing for your listicle can go a long way towards making it more relevant, even if 90% of the content inside it will be the same. Well, with this method he was able to increase his search traffic by 110% in just 14 days. Theyve been done to death, and a lot of us are sick of them. Lists Are Ethically Neutral. Keywords can guide your content, but you dont need to be ruled by them. Whatever you decide to do to beat your competitors, note it down in your plan along with the rough information, number of points, and level of detail in other posts. This is what comedian and writer for Parks and Recreation, Harris Wittels calls, 'false humility'.It allows the offender to boast his/her 'achievements' without any sense of shame or guilt. Covering popular subjects like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, SQL, Java, and many, many more. Want to talk about online marketing? Those headlines are hard to screw upand they tend to get healthier clicks precisely because readers know what to expect from them. Use images and bullet points to break up text when appropriate. Have you browsed Facebook in the last ten years? This includes your intro and conclusion, section headings and descriptions, or extras like links to sources, links to other lists, links to other resources youve created, and your calls to action. Lists of tools. Listicles take a complex thought and break it down into digestible chunks in the form of a list. Use Short Paragraphs. Short listicles are easier to write than longer ones, but they dont provide as much value to readers. Audiences have been exposed to so many listicles at this point that you can easily run the risk of being seen as producing clickbait or worthless drivel. Now, you're well on your way to including more listicles in your content strategy. . What's in the box Whatever you decide to use, make sure you have the appropriate permission levels to use it. With a little more effort and planning, you can thoroughly dominate search rankings with advanced list-based techniques. Today, of course, listicles are fine so long as youre doing them right. 6) Quotes: Quotes are another way to add personality to your listicle. A list with 17 items draws more attention than a list with 20 items usually. Hi there, great article and Im happy to have found your website. Listicles! This is particularly important when you have a longer list, because readers want to gauge their progress as they're reading through the list (i.e. Here are some helpful guidelines to consider: As we mentioned in the beginning of this post, one of the reasons people have always loved listicles is because they know exactly what and how much they'll get out of them. -Alice Walker. Remember: Listicle Does Not . When writing a listicle post, my first step is to open up all the lists in the top 10-20 Google search results. In other words, if everyone else has lists or articles containing no more than 10 points, you need to aim for 15 or 20 to have an advantage. 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. Ideally, youll either find a wide-open keyword (which is rare) or a bunch of mediocre lists that you can take, merge, add value to, and sculpt into mega-content. Certain topics are evergreen, which means that audiences will always be interested in them, but most pop culture articles need to be written at specific times. 6) 25 Celebrities That Look Like Mattresses One of my all-time favorite BuzzFeed lists, of course. I realized how easily numbers five and six would flow into each other, and how number five would make more sense after discussing points two, three, and four. For example, a list of WordPress plugins to boost your SEO. A business blog (such as the one here at Process Street) may instead use a topic relevant to their products audience. 6. Lets hop on a call and talk about what we can do to help. But not all list posts need to be low-quality. Though, Buzzfeed is still around. And while every point you make on your list might not be new to all your readers, if a reader walks away thinking, "Well, I already put numbers 3, 4, and 6, into practice, but I can't believe I've been missing out on numbers 1, 2, and 5!" 9) Best of List: Scott Taylor published a blog about the top neighborhoods in San Diego for Millenials. 33 Listicle ideas | money saver, infographic health, budgeting money Listicle ideas 32 Pins 7y S Collection by Sizzling Scrapbook Content Marketing Social Media Marketing Internet Marketing Make Money Blogging How To Make Money Blogging Ideas Blogging Prompts Easy Money Money Fast Other times, it just becomes an exercise in frustration. 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. For example, a list of WordPress plugins to boost your SEO. The biggest indicator of a lousy list post is one that contains a ton of fluff and no real, valuable takeaways for the reader. Try searching Google for relevant images and videos. 2. The key here is to keep your examples general so that everyone can relate. Write the list. Once youve edited your list post, youll need to find images and videos to support your content. Jeans - a year-round phenomenon, not just a casual Friday. 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. Conservation. Write out your entire post in bullet points. The common letter here is 'z'; now, the students need to figure out what this Z stands for. Before we dive into how to create your own listicle, let's explore a few examples to inspire you: Now that we've explored some examples, let's dive into how you can create a listicle of your own. Step Two: Make Your Pitch Timely. A listicle is an article that is a list. Author. Generally consisting of 5 or more items, a listicle format is a great way to get readers to engage with content and generate traffic. As marketers, we're often tasked with writing about drier topics to educate our viewers and attract leads. Not only do you get a sense of how reliable the info is but this can also avoid giving backlinks to your competition. What was penalized was thin listicles with heavy clickbait. There you have it! The Help: During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, an aspiring . Listicles are easy to read quickly, which is important for the increasingly fast pace of the modern world. 5) Images:Images add visual interest to your listicle. Failing to do so only confuses readers, especially when they can't tell that they've moved onto a new item on the list because the header style was inconsistent or under-emphasized. Party Game. 3 Kinds of List Article Formats. For example, a checklist of SEO items to monitor. Every individual item on a listicle has, typically, 50-100 words worth of content. To gain search rankings, your marketing strategy should include listicle blog formats. There are some fantastic tools out there to help with your keyword research, such as Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs. Listicles; Listicles, a portmanteau of the words list and article, are short articles that list down samples, reasons, or factors about a specific subject. SEO for different site types is generally the same, with a few unique tips for specific elements like recipe posts or product descriptions. You can easily drown in a sea of particularly low-quality, low-value listicles like the "7 Signs You're Monica from Friends" post I read earlier. Required fields are marked. You've just passed off some link love, and you also now have another article idea for your blogging backlog! Well, take a look at that post above. Each list item will typically include either a few sentences or multiple paragraphs, and a listicle is meant to either educate or delight readers. Eight fun facts about the listicle: 1. For example, how-to guides can be broken down into distinct steps: 10 Steps to Start Your Business 9 Ways to Improve Organic Reach and Beat the YouTube Algorithm Blog posts consisting of a list of examples make great listicles: The Ultimate Preppy Listicle 12 Facebook Ad Examples You Wish You Made 2 Listicles are extremely skimmable. 1. If you cut out the words in the images (which Google cant index), that post is 200 words long. I've learned absolutely nothing. Listicles are easy to update. The Listicle Dilemma. I am a fan of listicles, and your write-up is very comprehensive on the topic. For instance, I could write a list of the top SEO checklists on the web. If an existing point needs changing, the format will make it easy to find and tweak. loadCSS rel=preload polyfill. Does that mean you should come up with three more lower-quality items just to achieve your goal of 14? Furthermore, do some testing and research if you want to glean some best practices for your list posts. 7) Numbered List: Numbers work well in listicles because they are easy to read. List of SEO Items to Check Before Launching a New Site. Even then, its mostly the parenthetical that does it. One of the best-performing content types today for bloggers is the listicle. As an online retailer that publishes articles and content, it is important to understand the 3 primary kinds of BuzzFeed list Article formats as described by BuzzFeed's Editorial Director, Jack Shepherd: #1. While we're talking about numbers, let's clear up some misconceptions about them. All of it. They can break down a complex topic into easily digestible chunks, which can be parsed in order or consumed at the rate the user wants to see. That is, search your keyword or topic in Google and see what results are currently top-ranking. Once again, this is easier to achieve with a list (where appropriate) because of how easy they are to write and update. Thats why you need to include relevant images and/or gifs to add some flavor to your listicle. Then, we create articles that are 10x better to earn the top spot. 10 ways to reduce blood pressure without medicine. This helps you figure out how long your list will be and thus how much writing each element will require. Do searches for your keywords and for related keywords to see what comes up. Have you seen how every website has a bevy of top 15 X lists? Hidden in the vast, sprawling hills of Kentucky are many surprises. Shorts - they're basically business casual. As we mentioned before, listicles can easily become unwieldy. Sometimes a particular order might be more effective but, in general, any extra items can be added to the end of the list without disrupting whats already there.