Great article. I’ve quoted you and put in a link to our content building website, which is not online, but is a place where our employees can develop content for our new and improved web site.

Your tips for developing checklist articles is right in line with our idea for posting a series of “call to action” statements on the home page, with links to more details (bullets and numbers) about critical things to know when designing wireless networks.
THANKS! Suzanne

very good article. I am using it already to design checklist articles for online freelancing and home business evaluation.

Kind regards,
Tony

This is an interesting variation. I never write that kind of article, but this template can be used in all fields.
Thank you for the suggestion and inspiration!

You’ve caught the essence of checklisting. However, this is far from the whole story on how to write good articles.

Many times a writer will hold himself or herself out as an expert and then crank out checklists that are far less than credible. If you want to be taken seriously, you have to support your assertions with good rhetoric — believable facts, statistics, logical reasons, and the like. You need enough discourse to fully engage the reader and bring them forward with you. And your list items have to be absolutely lucid and understandable. One slip and you’re toast.

It’s simply not enough to crank out trite lists. If you want to build reputation, what you say must be relevant, practical, and credible. The internet is crawling with wannabe gurus all trying to get rich quick. And they’re all writing to people who think as they do.

How many fortunes have been built on collections of tips?

You have to be different by making a big promise and then delivering on it. By giving someone the steering wheel instead of just the road map.

Don’t fall prey to this trap — believing that your readers are dumb enough to think they can conquer the world if they can manage to surf fast and compile enough shallow tips. The 5 best of this and the 11 worst of that, plus the 15 big mistakes, and so on. We’re getting sick of this.

At some point, we need to transition from knowledge to wisdom. To connect the dots. This takes greater depth, and longer prose.

People read long copy when it’s good copy. Sure, it’s great to have a few quickie lists but these are like tidbits. Eventually, the hungry want banquets. Tip lists are just the soup and dinner mints.

Don’t forget to go deep and share something truly valuable — the background principles from which tips arise — in some of your articles. Maybe in most.

Otherwise you’ll build a brand as someone shallow who deals only in trivia.

So far my longer articles are doing just fine. Getting page hits and publications. My site traffic is steadily rising. And I haven’t sent out any tip lists.

So, here’s my idea for a tip list article: “Beyond Tips and Trivia: 15 reasons why you need true depth in your articles.” Coming soon.

JR,w

I agree, it’s not the knowledge, it is the real experience. I must admit that I am still “surprised” to say the least about the content of many articles I see. And about the copy on the web in general.

Especially about “Earning money in minutes” etc.

Regarding using “tip-articles” and articles to build you business. I have created a simple tool called “tiparticlecreator” including google and amazon and a tell-your-friend function. And that works prety well.

In any case it forces people to structure their thoughts and think. That’s also the way of course you would start writing in general.

Regards,
Tony de Bree

A checklist is more appropriate for some set of actions you are asking your reader to take.

As to fortunes made on tips, well, maybe ask the FlyLady.

Providing quick and useful information is refreshing. So many times I have read articles that drone on and on not REALLY adding value. Because I have a short attention span, checklists are easier for me to read and absorb.