Day 14: Make a List Post For Your Blog’s Topic [BBBB1]
NB: This is the 14th installment in The Inspired Solo’s Build a Better Business Blog in One Month series. Designed to help solo lawyers and other professionals boost their blog’s performance, the series consists of a daily lecture and task (or tasks) that focus on one “blog improvement project” at a time. Each post in the series is tagged with “[BBBB1]“. You can start the program at any time. Catch up with other BBBB1 posts here.
Build a Better Business Blog, One Block At a Time
Day 14: Lecture and Task
Make a List Post For Your Blog’s Topic
Today’s task is to draft a list post for your blog’s topic. A list post is just that: a post based on a list format. It should offer substantive information relative to your topic and your services. The list itself can be ordered or unordered; the main idea is to create as complete a list as possible that offers suggestions, steps, how-to’s, or some other substantive information that your primary targeted readership would be interested in reading.
List-formatted posts have enjoyed wide success and popularity on a number of blogs in all kinds of subject areas. Why are they so popular? Probably because they’re easily digested and read, and when they’re done well, they convey in plain English the answers to common problems.
How do you get started with a list post? I’d suggest putting most of your effort in the brainstorming phase. Sit down with a pad of paper and pen, and simply brainstorm ideas for questions. The list items would then answer that question.
For lawyers, this can be as simple as thinking of “first steps.” What “first steps” should your clients take when they’re initially faced with a problem in your practice area? That advice can also be applicable to other service professions, of course — doctors can write a post about steps to take when you’re diagnosed with a serious illness; financial consultants can write about how to research investment vehicles or the steps to financial health; music teachers can write about steps their students should take to ensure their at-home practice sessions are fruitful, etc.
Once you’ve brainstormed several possible topics, you might want to do a little keyword research to figure out which topic gets the most search activity. Or you can simply go back to your original concept of your ideal client; often simply reminding myself of the person I’m trying to reach out to can inform topic idea selection for my blog posts. Pick an idea that allows for a lengthy list, because the idea here is to be succinct and yet comprehensive, if not exhaustive, in your list items.
After you select your topic, now you can brainstorm possible list items. If you’re writing about the steps in a process — i.e., “do this first, then that” — this will be somewhat easier. But if you’re writing about suggestions for improving a particular situation, for instance, you could be faced with an endless amount of choices. Every blogger is different, of course, but I prefer to put my effort initially in brainstorming as many ideas as possible, then editing them down as I proceed to draft the post itself.
When formatting your list post, be sure to use numbers and headings. Ordered or unordered lists using the ul or ol tags may or may not work for your post. Especially when you have a lot of list items together with lengthy explanations of those items, many readers find it difficult to follow huge laundry lists. You may want to consider using h2 or h3 tags instead. Then you can briefly describe each list item (suggestion, tip, step, etc.) in the heading itself, while you elucidate on that point in the text paragraph that follows.
Try searching your topic idea on Google or your search engine of choice to see what other bloggers have come up with on this topic. If you don’t see any other list posts on your topic, that’s great– you can be the first! If there are other posts on this idea, though, don’t despair — simply read and dissect the most popular posts and figure out how your list can improve on those iterations.
Finally: consider making this post one of your pillar articles. List posts enjoy great popularity and they can also provide good basic “foundational” information that makes for a good pillar article.
Extra credit: think of other ways you can use this list post, perhaps in promotional marketing material like pamphlets, a magazine article, or a much abbreviated version on the back of your business card.
