Listicles.
Content thought leaders constantly advise us refrain from writing these gimmicky things, yet we never seem to listen, do we?
One of the most popular types of listicles is the “5 Tips” article.
Why five? My objectively correct theory is that readers generally aren’t interested in learning more things than they can fit on one hand. (And if you’re a double amputee, my most sarcastic apologies.)
Because these kinds of blog posts do so well in terms of traffic and engagement, I thought I’d ensure that this blogging fad is perpetuated in the form of this article.
So if you’re a blogger who wants to learn how to cash in on this annoying trend, this article is for you:
1. Start with the first point first, then work your way down from there
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s worth repeating: “Don’t begin your ‘5 Tips’ article with Tip #38”.
However, if you like countdowns, you can start with Tip #5, followed by Tip #4, Tip #3, Tip #2, and so on until you finally get all the way down to Tip #1.
Just make sure that when you go in reverse order, you maintain that sequence. Five tips is plenty to confuse the heck out of…
