WritingSpirit Blog

Lists: An Easy and Fun Content Creation Tool for Writing Blog Posts and eBooks

Lists

We are surrounded by lists. Catalogs and calendars are lists. The weather forecast and the TV Guide are lists. And, of course, there's our daily "to do" list. As writers, we can also add to our list of lists: article outlines, our book's table of contents and index, conference schedules, and everybody's favorite, the New York Times Bestseller List.

Lists are everywhere. They're a natural way to brainstorm, organize and present information. A list's basic structure helps to order, illustrate, highlight, and clarify. When you add to that a list's ability to make writing and reading easier, it's understandable why so many people write list-based content.

Writing list based content is as easy as…

1.
2.
3.

Pick a number. Any number.

Okay, you've picked the number 7. Now pick a topic.

Put them both together, brainstorm and create a list, and -- presto! -- you have your content's outline, whether you're writing a blog post, an article, or a book.

Here are some examples:

The 7 Highest Grossing Movies of 2010

• A simple list of the top 7 movies and how much money each one made. Great for a blog post.

The 7 Hottest Self-Help Books of the Summer

• A paragraph on each book--what it's about, why it's hot, and who's reading it. Great for an article.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

• An in-depth examination of the habits (and the principles behind them) that lead to personal and professional success. Stephen R. Covey's bestselling book.

A list is not only a fabulous brainstorming and organizational tool, it's one of the easiest content creation methods around. Once you've brainstormed your list, all you have to do to quickly write a blog post or article (a book takes a little longer) is follow this simple formula: Introduction + List + Conclusion = Great Content!

Here are some tips to get you writing your own list-based content... easier/faster/better!

The Title

• 7 Ways, Tips, Hints, Secrets, Keys, Laws, Habits...
• Best/worst, most/least, mistakes/lessons, improve/solve, money & time wasters/savers, quickest/easiest/cheapest, surprising/unique/creative, what every newbie needs to know...

Introduction

• Briefly talk about the problem, and how these 7 Secrets hold the key to (or are) the solution.
• Describe why these 7 Steps are important to follow in order to achieve success.
• Simply introduce the topic that these 7 Tips address.

The List

• Depending on what you're writing, each item on your list can be a sentence or two, a paragraph, a page, or a chapter.
• The list can be organized randomly, step-by-step (from first to last), or as a countdown (from least important to most important).
• Each item's content covers the most important points on its subject, directly and succinctly (which is why it's easy to write).

Conclusion

• The conclusion can be a sentence or two, or a paragraph or two (some leave it off altogether).
• Restate the value and benefits of following these secrets/steps/tips.
• Offer hints to help the reader apply the information given.
• Pull it all together, and lead the reader to what s/he needs to learn or do next (your next article or blog post).

Short list-based articles convey a lot of information quickly, making them as popular with readers as they are with writers. You can use them to connect with your audience on a website, blog, tip sheet, newsletter or ezine. You can also use them to explore new ideas, to see if a particular subject sparks your interest or your audience's. If it does, you can expand your list by adding more items to it, or going more deeply into each individual topic.

Longer list-based content can be used to create an ebook or opt-in offer, can be broken down into individual pieces and turned into an e-course, can be read and recorded then burned onto a CD, and, of course, can become a book. The possibilities are virtually endless.

Now, pick a number. Any number.

Okay, you've picked the number 7, again! Now brainstorm 7 list-based topics you can write about.

Whichever one has the most energy for you, take it, create a list, and start writing.  

 

The TOP 5 List Writing Tips

Now that you've discovered how easy it is to create list-based content, here are 5 quick tips that will skyrocket the traffic generating, audience pleasing power of your lists.

#1 Mix 'em up
How to. Tips, tools, techniques. Top 10. Step-by-step. Glossaries. Resources.

#2 Make 'em buzz worthy
Hook to current events. Be controversial. Show the "other side" of popular/unpopular ideas. Seek out the unusual.

#3 Make 'em viral
Take a buzz-worthy, inspiring or especially useful list, add photos and music, turn it into a video and post it on YouTube.

#4 Post lots of lists
When one of them starts attracting attention and getting some buzz going, turn it into a free report and circulate it widely, or turn it into an ebook and sell it.

#5 Make lists of lists
List the top 10 subject areas that you write or blog about, or create infoproducts for, and brainstorm 10 potential list topics for each. Let loose and have some fun with this. The more fun you have, the better ideas you'll come up with.

 

Tip Lists: A Fast & Fabulous Way to Drive Traffic and Create an eBook, book, or Infoproduct

Creating and posting daily tips (written or audio--on your blog, to your list, or at a social networking site) only takes a few minutes a day, and in a month you'll have 30 tips. In another three weeks you'll have 50 tips. And in a little over 3 months you'll have 101 tips.

You can then turn these tips into an ebook, a 30 day e-course, a year-long weekly audio course, or a CD. You can also take these quick tips, add a couple of paragraphs of description and/or instruction to each, and you've written a book that you can self-publish or submit to a publisher.

Throw Away Your TO DO List and Get More Done!

While To Do lists can be a useful productivity tool and help you focus in on and accomplish all the many activities that go along with a writing career, they can also--far too easily--become a source of stress and self-condemnation that dampens your creativity and sabotages your productivity.

This happens in several ways:

• When you feel that you "have to" do something, even if you know it's important for your writing or even essential for promoting your book, it can bring up a feeling of resistance, which makes accomplishing what you want to do even harder. Just putting something on your To Do list can make it a "have to" in your mind.
  
  
• Because your To Do list is filled with things you truly need to do, you can feel a sense of pressure (or the potential for negative consequences) whenever you think of your list. You may worry that if you don't complete what's on your list, it will cause you problems.
  
  
• If your day is "getting away from you," and you haven't gotten to your list, yet, you can feel the pressure of it, or judge yourself because of it. 
  
  
• When you get to the end of your day and haven't done, or completed, something or everything on your list, you can feel like you failed. You set a goal for yourself, and didn't achieve it.

Your relationship with your To Do list is everything. If you see it, primarily, as an organizational tool that can help you be more focused and productive, moving your writing and promotional activities forward, you'll probably be alright. But if you see it as a taskmaster, as a list of things you "have to" do or "should" do, you're more likely to run into the above thoughts and feelings.

If you've turned your To Do list into a taskmaster, the quickest and easiest way to turn it back into a fun and useful productivity tool is to reframe it and rename it. Your To Do list is now your Treasure Map! The best part is that it's absolutely true. Your To Do list IS a treasure map, which, when followed, will take you to the writing success that you long for.

Do you want to write a book? Create a Treasure Map to put that book in your hands.

Do you want to build your author's platform or promote your book? Create a Treasure Map, and follow it to establish a large and loyal following.

Seeing what you used to call a To Do list as a Treasure Map does several powerful things:

• It makes productivity fun.

• It changes your focus from what you "have to" do, to what you "want to" do, which changes your energy and makes doing the work much easier.  

• It keeps your focus on the Treasure! By keeping your goal in front of you at all times, you're constantly reminded WHY you're on this journey, and that keeps you motivated.

• Your constant focus on the Treasure, on the outcome, puts the Law of Attraction into action in a positive and powerful way for you.

• Because you're focused on the outcome that you want, it makes you more open, eager, and willing to do all that is needed to achieve your dream.

• And best of all, it turns the journey into a grand adventure.

If you're having trouble getting to, or completing, the items on your To Do list, throw your list away! Create a Treasure Map, instead, and name the treasure you desire.

• You can name it the title of your book:   My "Unleash Your Writing Genius!" Treasure Map.
  

• You can name it what you're trying to achieve: My Full-Time Book Author Treasure Map.
  

• You can name it how much money you want to make: My $10,000 per month Treasure Map.

Whatever your goal is, name it and place it on your treasure map. As you keep your goal in front of you, surrounded by fun and forward moving energy, you'll get more done more easily than you ever thought possible.

Try it and see.

Productivity isn't the only aspect of your writing career that can be perceived and experienced in a new more joyful, open and creative way. You can transform your relationship with promotion, too. Read my post on Writing Success Secret #1: Book Promotion Can Be FUN!

What do you do to find the fun in, or make peace with, the aspects of your writing career that support your ultimate goals and are essential to your success, but may not be your favorite parts of the process?