Top Ten Ways To…..

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed that people — press and public alike — like to read these days, it’s a list. I’ve got my theories on this. I believe, for starters, that we’re a “sound bite society” — everything we digest these days are in little snippets of information.

Lists play right into this theory:

• they’re numbered or bulleted
• each point is usually pretty short and concise
• they provide easy-to-follow directions
• most lists don’t require a lot of thought to understand
• they’re easy on the eye

(did the above just sort of prove my point?)

Marketers have either consciously or unconsciously made great use of lists on the Web. On web sites themselves, lists make the dissemination of information easier and more compelling to read. Lists can also be a fabulous way to drive traffic to a site. An author can either compose a list and shop it around to the media — if it gets published, the publicity alone can help drive traffic (provided the author was smart enough to ensure that the list also provided some sort of hyperlink back to his web site) — or, he can use it as a teaser. For example, if a list proclaiming, “Top 10 Secrets of Great Selling,” publishes only five of the secrets and to view the other five, you have to go to the web site, if those first five were valuable enough, guess who’s clicking on the link to read the rest?

One of the key words in the statement above, however, was VALUABLE. No one wants to read lists of any size, short or long, that are useless. So how does one write great lists? Guess what’s coming….

HOLLIS’ TOP 10 WAYS TO WRITE GREAT LISTS

Well, I’ve kinda covered at least five ways in the beginning of this tip, but let’s review:

1) Either number or bullet your list - without this formatting, you’re really not distinguishing your list from regular text paragraphs.

2) Start each bullet or number with a subject header - just like with an email message, the most critical thing to get people to continue reading is the subject. It needs to be powerful and must quickly communicate your message.

3) Make each point easy to understand - you want everyone to “get it” because chances are, your list is being published for people needing the education your brief list provides.

4) Use simple language - The folks who publish the “Dummies” books have it down to a science. If you want people to understand, you also have to talk in a way everyone relates to.

5) Create a logical flow - nothing is more confusing than a list that jumps around in either chronological order or order of importance. As you compose your list, think of the order in which things belong.

6) Don’t try to chock too much information into one point - remember, lists are easily digestable. With great lists, each point is made quickly and concisely.

7) Draw upon your own expertise - if you’re good at what you do, there’s bound to be something you know that most other people don’t. That’s what you can write best about.

Don’t be stingy - don’t be so afraid about “giving it all away.” The more forthcoming you are with what you know, the more you will establish your own credibility and build up your own worthiness (the applies to individuals as well as companies).

9) When at a loss, throw in a statistic or two - stats are great “fillers,” but they can also be great information. If you’re hurting for content for your list, go to an industry source and quote a stat.

10) SPELLCHECK! Ok, can’t say that everyone’s perfect, however, if you at least make the effort to check for spelling (and grammar, at that), you can certainly present a more professional product.

So, now that you’ve read this tip and I’ve hopefully provided you with some valuable information with which to get your own list out there, here a special quickie bonus list:

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