"The human animal differs from the lesser primates in his passion for lists of 'Ten Best,' " the writer and humorist H. Allen Smith observed way back when.Here in the future, the Web and its social media sites prove Smith right minute-by-minute. An infinite number of top 5, top 10, top 20 lists are out there burning electrons.
Nowadays, these lists of no importance often are referred to as "link bait" -- the easiest path to getting noticed in the Blogosphere and on content-aggregating sites such as Digg.
And so we have "Top 10 Ways to Triple Your Google Traffic," "Top 5 Redneck Movie Villains," "20 Most Horrific Fashion Victims" ... the beat goes on.
Give top 10 lists a try on your blog -- almost any topic provides plenty of opportunities. Hit the right keywords and the Google traffic flows right in. Be sure to include both "Top" and "Best" in your headlines and title tags. Some traffic-minded web publishers break the lists onto multiple pages, with No. 1 at the end. Like those old Burma Shave highway signs. Annoying but effective.
Editors often spend time arguing the merits of these lists, unless they work at USA Today. But everyone in the media biz agrees there's one time when the lists reign supreme: the end of the year. Here's my friend Jonathan, a trainer, right on top of that with weight loss tips for the new year.
Like Christmas shopping ads, top 10 lists for the year keep appearing earlier and earlier. I actually saw a mainstream reviewer's list of last year's "best movies" in late October.
I'm plenty guilty, having done an annual list of the top DVDs since 2001, first for the Hollywood Reporter and then for my DVD blog. Check out the "Best DVDs of 2008." Google keeps sending readers to my 2007 list, but I hear they're really into archives these days. Jeeze.
Three years ago, I started up a top 10 for horror videos, in time for Halloween. Walk this way for the "Top 10 Horror Movie DVDs of 2008."
Next I'll probably add a top 10 for romance movies keyed to Valentine's Day. Insidious, these lists.
Of course, no one knows which are the best DVDs, movies, TV shows, whatever. We're all guessing and inflicting our opinions on the masses. The film Academy uses its rat's-nest voting system to produce the one and only Best Picture of the year, an even more ridiculous proposition than a top 10, no matter who's doing the voting.
I hate the Oscars, but grudgingly admit it's the way everybody keeps score. This year, the best picture hardware goes to "Slumdog Millionaire." Promise.
Hmm. How about "10 Times the Oscars Actually Got It Right"?
1 comments:
Great post. I think that blogs are often at their best when they distill information into easy-to-digest, interesting bites. The "top ten" list has somehow evolved into a good way to do this on which most people can agree.
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