8 Reasons Why the Masses Love Lists
Posted on February 3, 2007 by
Adie 
General 
57 Comments
It’s no secret that the mob loves lists. It’s been talked about on pretty much every major web development or blogging site I can think of. But why are lists so appealing?
1. Instant Knowledge
“…make it seem like the reader’s online success is just a 5 minute read away.” - SEO Blackhat
Nobody likes to work hard and study to acquire knowledge. It’s much easier to read a list outlining anything and everything you need to know about a certain subject. Don’t believe me? Just look at some of the most popular publications in history: Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth, Top 10 Ways to Steal a Car, 10 Reasons Not to Hit Your Kids (this is one of those “why didn’t I think of that” articles), and 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job.
2. Requires Little to No Individual Thought
Lists don’t make you think - they outline what you should be doing and tell you [how] to do it. Sure sometimes there is some disagreement about a point or two, but that’s when the list-maker comes in and says “Okay maybe point #x is a little situational, but what about point #x, #x, and #x. Those are GOLD! How can you argue with pure gold?” And of course you can’t argue with gold.
3. Lists Have Authority
When a mob sees information outlined in a list they instantly acknowledge its authority. Case in point: The 15 10 Commandments. Only a few short thousand years after The 10 Commandments were written we have over a billion Christians. Coincidence? Doubtful. Other notable religions who embrace and indoctrinate via lists: Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Confucianism, Hinduism*, and Kabbalah.
4. Easy to Memorize and Casually Mention in Conversation
Members of the mob are always looking for ways to stand out from their friends. What better way to assert your individuality than by referencing an easy-to-remember bullet? “Well you know, I heard content is kind of important when trying to build a better blog.” … I <3 Darren
5. Lists are Skimmable
Who reads an entire article? Honestly. Lists allow the user to skip all of the important information and focus in solely on the witty list headlines (so they can recite them later as described in point #4). I guess you could read the content in between the list bullets if you really wanted to, but that would just be wasted time you could have spent actually putting the list into action!
6. Mobs Like Uniformity
Masses don’t really enjoy chaotic articles that aren’t confined to lists and instead are structured by paragraphs centered around a thesis. In a list every single point is its own little theme that even the most simple-minded user can follow. You don’t have to connect the sections to form a flow of thought - the list forms the flow (and subsequently, the thought) for you. No form of writing is more uniformed than a list.
7. Lists Have an Ending
People don’t like going into an article not knowing if it’s going to be “continued later.” With a list you almost always know that there is an ending, and what’s better, how long it should take you to read it. If it’s a “Top 10″ list then you can probably finish it in a couple of minutes. If it’s a “Top 100″ list then maybe you should make some oatmeal and grab a Dr. Pepper - it’s gonna take you a while. People like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, even before they start through it.
8. People Like Counting
I don’t have much of an explanation to this one, but it seems that people in general really enjoy counting.
And there you have it. After all this time of seeing lists spring up here and there on almost every topic you can imagine, you now finally know why they work. Feel free to memorize parts of this list and casually mention it to your friends. They’ll be impressed, I promise. After all, doesn’t everyone love lists?
* Thanks to angry poster for catching “Hindi”
Popularity: 8% [?]
If you like this Article then please subscribe to my full RSS feed.You can also subscribe by Email.Related Posts
From publisher point of view:
- lists are more easily editable. With a stream of text, you need to do a lot of editing when you want to add some infos. In lists, just delete the less important element and add a new one. Or add one as a bonus.
- you can easily refer to particular parts of the article. Much easier, than refer to “second paragraph from bottom on page 6″
- you can easily stress one rule after another - order the rules from the most important to the less and you got it.
- and it is more easier to steal some content. Writing a list about similar topic? Find a list and use one or two ideas :)
I know, Misha, there are plenty of benefits for making lists. This is just a bit of humor with some truth mixed in :)
We gotta have a little humor every now and then :-)
[...] Reasons why the masses love lists [NetBusinessBlog] Adsense Referrals Payment changes are official [ProBlogger] Please take Search Engine Land’s [...]
10 Reasons Not To Hit Your Kids!! I am nicking that!
This post is just in time for the “30 Ways” hamelife is going to start publishing on Monday.
By the way, it’s not going to be “30 Ways To Hit Your Kids”, in case you’re wondering.
Yeah, I have to agree. The mob loves lists. The most popular posts that I’ve written have been in the form of lists. Good post.
[...] webmaster of writing lists, but I dive deep into mob mentality to examine why exactly lists work. Net Business Blog ? Blog Archive ? 8 Reasons Why the Masses Love Lists Let me know what you think __________________ Net Business Blog - Online business without the [...]
Nice article. I guess I’m part of the mob, as I love lists as well. Mainly because of the fact that they’re skimmable, ie. I don’t have to read through a bunch of BS to get to the points, a list should just cut out the crap and go straight to the important ideas.
Hindi? What religion is that? Get your facts right before talking about something you have no idea about.
Did you just use the word about twice in one sentence? Wow! I will say no more, and allow the humor to present itself.
The sentence is gramatically correct. What’s your problem?
Actually, that sentence is grammatically incorrect I’m laughing. Hard.
Fine fine, it’s been changed. But I still find it rather ignorant.
Idiot masses and their lame ass blogs. Thanks for adding more idiocy to the net, idiot. Take away the ‘blog’ from the idiots like this one, please.
Nice article, a list about lists. Hey, I read it so count me in as a “list lover!”
That is why I resort to using lists on my blog all the time. My readers are idiots!!! ;-)
Thanks for the great read. It was fun.
[...] Matt Coddington Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover [...]
[...] “Why are lists so appealing?” As a list of course. [...]
[...] read the rest go to Netbusinessblog.com Posted in Uncategorized [...]
[...] NetbusinessBlog tells why list posts rocks here in this post: [...]
You DO know that kabbalah isn’t a religion at all, right? You should remove it from your list. Kabbalah cannot exist outside Judaism.
I know. I just think Kabbalah’s adorable, so I had to include it in my list.
Authentic Kaballah, sure.
But just as we have yoga without all the Hinduism, I think we’re well down the path to a non-Jewish Kaballah.
[...] and unique articles often get blogged about if they have interesting content. An example of a succesful article is the one Matt Coddington wrote on his Net Business Blog February 3. Ironicly it was a list about [...]
The articles with the most hits we’ve had have been our lists. People are lazy… (yes, I fit into this catergory too I’m sure).
[...] ?? | ?? Design [...]
[...] you ever thought why? Well now you don’t have to, because I have, and I made a list about it.read more | digg [...]
1. Very good post
2. Makes it easy to write as well.
3. er…
Interesting Links for building web traffic…
8 Reasons why viewers like lists
Discover your links
Content Writing Tips
Duplicate content at Google blog
Building link based popularity
Use of BlockQuotes
…
I love lists…and apparently so do 997 other people. Nice digg, Matt.
Who would have known questioning Diggers’ IQ’s would result in so much traffic? *SHRUG*
[...] Net Business Blog shares 8 Reasons Why the Masses Love Lists [...]
[...] Net Business Blog shares 8 Reasons Why the Masses Love Lists [...]
[...] atractivas las listas para el común de la gente? En Net Bussiness Blog no tuvieron mejor idea que hacer una lista sobre ello. A continuación una traducción resumida de su [...]
[...] ?? ?? ?????? ???, ?? ????? ?? ??????????? ???????!8 Reasons Why the Masses Love Lists. ?????? 8 ?????? ?????? ???? ????? ??????. ??? ??????: [...]
Hi, your greatly helpful List has been featured on http://www.TodaysTen.com. Check out other Top 10 List there too
[...] To answer this question, I’m ironically linking to a list on a blog. The Net Business Blog has a nice array of 8 Reasons Why the Masses Love Lists. [...]
[...] or so says this article [...]
[...] Matt Coddington over at Net Business Blog writes 8 Reasons Why the Masses Love Lists. [...]
[...] 8 Reasons Why the Masses Love Lists A little humorous post (spliced with a bit of hard truth) on why the masses love lists so much. [...]
[...] came across two lists yesterday that although great, they had obviously not taken into account the recent tips written regarding attention grabbing headlines when creating lists. The good news is I did. So [...]
Phentermine….
Phentermine….
[...]  Netscape  RawSugar  reddit  Wink  Yahoo MyWeb   From Netbusinessblog 8 reasons why the masses love lists. 1. Instant Knowledge 2. Requires Little to No Individual Thought 3. Lists Have Authority 4. Easy [...]
[...] 8 Reasons Why the Masses Love Lists [...]
Fioricet….
Fioricet….
[...] Matt Likes Lists [...]
[...] Time is money, and the faster you can convey your message, the better. Plus, the masses enjoy lists. [...]
pagine piuttosto informative, piacevoli =)
Good site !!! Interesting content!!! What do you think about my sites?
I think what you are doing is great!!! I want to use your color scheme at my sites…
a list also makes an easy pinpoint a perticular area (reference point)
[...] case you don’t remember, I wrote a post not too long ago about why the masses enjoy lists so much. That was obviously a sarcastic article, but the basic principle that people like lists is [...]
[…] case you don’t remember, I wrote a post not too long ago about why the masses enjoy lists so much. That was obviously a sarcastic article, but the basic principle that people like lists is […]
[...] see, I could go on forever lke that, but I read somewhere that people love lists with 10 [...]
Fantastic effort
Cool post!
Will use these ideas for my blog.
Aerus Electrolux
8 Reasons Why the Masses Love Lists » Net Business Blog Aerus Electrolux http://www.freewebs.com/aerus-electrolux Aerus Electrolux The fiber reinforcement and cog design of this belt to fit the Aerus/Electrolux. Aerus Electrolux If your power no…