5 Reasons to Use "5 Reasons" in Your Blog Post Title
November 26th, 2007 in Business & Process
by: Matthew Griffin
By now it's no secret that advertising "five reasons why..."in a blog post title is an effective technique for enticing clickthroughs. Advice pointing to this tactic is rampant in the blogosphere and, I have to admit, I've used the technique myself a time or two (not counting this post). But the technique has transformed from a cool little trick to an all out internet phenomenon. When I do a search on Technorati it seems like about half the posts are 100 ways to do this and 10 ways to cheat on that.
You'd think my awareness of the situation would make me more resistant to the ploy but amazingly it hasn't. I'm still just dying to find out 10 ways to eat spaghetti without a spoon. So are the "5 reasons" posts here to stay or is it just another here today gone tomorrow marketing fad? Before I answer that question, I'd like to point out that this is not actually a new technique. It was trick of magazine writers back when talking about "your blog" could illicit a drug test from your parents. So my answer is, yes, I think it's here to stay. We may have reached a peak but once everything settles down, we'll continue to see a steady stream of "5 reasons" articles.
Why has this worked so well on the web and why should we keep doing it? There are probably hundreds of answers to that question and they have all be analyzed and expounded upon on other blogs. In keeping with the specific theme, however, I've narrowed it down to a list of my top five.
1. In a medium saturated with information, the "5 reasons" articles say "Click me! I won't waste your time with a bunch of paragraphs and useless yarns".
2. Using numbers in your article title separates it from all the articles around it (though to a lesser degree right now).
3. It's actually easier to write articles with lists because you are starting by narrowing the scope of your writing.
4. "5 reasons" articles are the kind of posts that get bookmarked and returned to for reference.
5. It just works! Call it magic, but the "5 reasons" titles just make people want to click.
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Comments
Posted By: Danny Outlaw on 11/30/07
yep. this is a great idea. Makes blogging go faster, makes the post easier to read, and gets you the click thrus you need. Just found your website. will subscribe!
Posted By: chipseo on 12/01/07
I love using numbered lists in my articles, just do not do it enough. I have seen some articles that post the <em>top 50...</em> or even more, that is a little hard to digest. Scott