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Destroying your brand with non-stop lists

by Steven Hodson on November 1, 2008 · Comments

All I did was make a listOne of the first things you are told when you atart looking for tips about blogging is that list post are a great way to build traffic. Things like Top 10 this or The Best 50 of some type of service or application type. We’re all told that this just has to be a part of your blogging mix because people just love them and they do incredible in search results.

Now or the most part when done with common sense these list type posts are good to have as part of your blog write repertoire but they should not become the driving energy behind blogs that already have a powerful brand image. For the smaller bloggers there really is no harm in this and I am sure there are more than a few well known blogs that have made their reputations on these type of writing style. However I wouldn’t know them because to me this still of writing is incredibly boring and the anti-thesis of what professional blogging is about.

The danger I see is when blogs that have built a well known (and profitable) brand around the concept of news and opinion suddenly fall back into the safety of guarenteed link bait types posts - which is exactly what list type posts are. When you have built your brand around being a thought leader in whatever area this is what your readers come for and is what brings new readers. They didn’t sign up; and accept the advertising aspect, to be constantly punished with having to read list posts.

I can understand; especially in today’s current economic climate and the fear of losing ad dollars, why we might see a growing trend of big name blogs doing more and more of this. What worries me though is as they travel down this dead end street they are losing sight of what made them popular in the first place in leiu of the supposed safe harbour of link bait list posts. In effect they could very well be killing their brand as readers leave and the blog becomes nothing more than fodder for the Long Tail.

As this fear of losing advertising dollars premeates the big brand blogs some of them seem to be retreating into a mindset of not doing anything to piss off advertisers. It’s all about doing safe and happy posts and less about hold our very medium accountable on the road forward.

Sure we have the Valleywags and the TechCrunches who are less inclined to fall back to the cushy posts but that still leaves a lot of brand name blogs who are. This is happening at a time when they should be standing strong on the pricipals that made them popular - not to acquies to the fear of the crowd.

There is a reason these blogs have become leaders in their respective markets and I don’t believe it was purely on the power of link bait posts.

No - it was the power of what they; through talented writers, had to say and did it with out the restrictions of old media that has propelled blogging forward as the powerhouse it is. Now I see some of these blogs beginning a backslide towards Long Tail oblivion and that really worries me. I could be wrong and only time will tell I guess whether or not this is the case.

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Tagged as: advertising, Blog, brand, Long Tail, Mass media

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  • I subscribe to the blogs I do because I like/respect the author's thoughts. That means that as a reader, lists are the type of post I'm most likely to skip. I'd rather read real, solid content from the author. That's why I grabbed their feed in the first place.
  • I have been noticing the effect of lists on blogs lately. They seem to be popular, appear frequently in Google Alerts and get linked to by many other blogs. They also are devoid of original content for the most part. I don't mind the occasional list, where the content and context requires that format. But it is a format that can easily be abused, especially if it's being used simply to gain status.

    Ironically PC World magazine just came out with their "Lists" issue, with the majority of the articles being numbered lists of things.
  • Wow, scathing review Steven. I understand what you are saying. Lists are good sometimes, but they are not the core of a big site.
  • I had no idea that posting lists and threatening cute kittens was effective link bait. And here I've been wasting my time trying to come up with interesting content.

    Seriously, I've done some things that probably qualify as link baiting, such as joining the discussion on topics as they hit Techmeme or linking to high-traffic blogs that post back links. But it's a pointless exercise if the post doesn't deliver on the click-through. My blog isn't ad-supported, but I can't imagine that users would stick around to click through ads after being rick-rolled.
  • Now, there can be variations among the lists too! Some lists can qualify as good content: Say, five ways to promote a new blog, or ten tips to ace an interview.

    What gets me (and leaves some feeds in the unread part of my RSS reader) is these blogs that post nothing but lists of links to social bookmarking stories they want us to digg & vote for. No, not as a one-time or occasional thing, the problem is when that becomes the foundation of their content. I don't want to call anyone out, but there are some feeds I've subscribed to where I'm still waiting a month or two later to find something the author actually wrote about his/her topic. Sure, its updated - but only with links to the other blogs I should probably be reading instead.
  • It's kind of funny to see someone writing this. I used to be a writer and lists just seemed kind of lazy to me. Or, put another way, what people do when they can't actually write. However, since I started blogging some time ago (current project is a real estate blog for my company), I've of course come across many, many "list posts." I'm also a former search engine optimization (SEO) specialist, and anyone in that field and the crossover field of social media optimization will tell you that lists are great "link bait." All that said, I think I have something against these types of posts too. Could be that I tend to ramble in a semi-stream-of-consciousness mode from time to time (that's probably not good either), but I know how to read just fine. I don't need information condensed into bullet points. Not saying that these posts should never be published, but I agree that going overboard is just bad news.
  • Great points! But having said all that, the reality is that lists work. Over the last 30 years, the increasing influence of TV news has gotten us all accustomed to "sound bites" - the vast majority of readers prefer their news and even opinions in digest form, meant for easy consumption; a well-written argument in essay form causes the reader's eyes to glaze over and move on to the next 'Stumbled' site.

    Cynical? Maybe, but I've got more than one blog (ok, not big-name ones) and posts that have lists consistently rank higher and get more traffic. And the fact that they're easier to write is a plus!

    Should the big-name blogs, as you put it, hold themselves to a higher standard? Perhaps, but I would guess that they will go with whatever works to optimize traffic and revenue. By virtue of being "big-name", I imagine that their policy is the reverse of what you're saying: that in fact they have MORE pressure to focus on returns and less tolerance of risk-taking than the smaller blogs.
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