1. Easier to Read. People don’t have time or the interest to read long sections of text. Writing by bullet points or numbers makes it easy to read and skim through. Picking up on the points which look most interesting
2. Easier to Write Writing lists tends to be easier. Writing by bullet points means that you focus on one point at a time. It also tends to encourage simpler writing which is a good habit to encourage.
3. Discussion Lists provide an opportunity for discussion. For my next blog post I am going to choose my top 13 books that changed the world. It engages the reader because they start thinking what they would have chosen. If you want people to add comments to your blog this is a good strategy to employ.
4. Lists have a certain authority. People give a lot of respect to top 10 Bestsellers. If you give top 10 tips for writing a blog, it gives your points an added force.
5. Grab Attention. People skim read the internet. Surfing the internet is not like reading a book. When you a buy a book you know what you are getting. When you come across an internet page, 95% of people move on after less than 60 seconds. Lists and subheadings are a way to grab people’s attention before they move elsewhere.
6. Use Bold Text. As well as writing lists it is helpful to use a small amount of bold text. This makes it even clearer what the point is about.
(To create Bold text in html use < b > Text to be made bold < /b> (without spaces)
7. Create content Lists are an easy way of creating content. You could always write an article like a list about lists…
Of course this doesn’t mean you have to write everything by lists. But some subjects do work very well through writing by lists.
More advice on netwriting.co.uk/ Writing for Blogs
Richard is a member of Sri Chinmoy Centre and contributes to various sites including Vasudevaservice a site about blogging, Plone and help for content users of websites. vasudevaservice.com/ vasudevaservice.com