Blogs Are the New PowerPoint

I’ve noticed more and more lately that the latest blogging trend is to distill what might be a coherent, thoughtful idea or story into round-up style top 10 lists.

Here are just a few examples from my Google Reader account from the last few weeks:

These examples are just form the productivity/unclutter/zen/life-hacker blogs that I read, but there are hundreds more in my list of subscriptions. In the sea of the average reader’s RSS feeds, none of these stand out.

So what’s the deal? Do bloggers think we’re too stupid to read something longer than an executive summary? Maybe, but my bet is on getting traffic by way of SEO or link baiting or making the front page of Digg. But most importantly, it’s about putting something in your RSS reader.

search results for increase blog traffic

Search for “increase blog traffic” and you’ll find even more round up posts. “Use lists” is also at the top of Seth Godin’s tips for getting traffic on your blog (from 2006). Although, further down the list you’ll see “Write short, pithy posts.” and “Write long, definitive posts.” I don’t think lists fall under pithy or definitive, just short.

Daring Fireball for example publishes content nearly on daily basis that is a mix of short blurbs or links and epic John Gruber posts railing on a journalist who got it completely wrong. Jason Kottke is also a master of micro-blogging. In contrast, Michael Lopp’s Rands in Repose is updated less frequently, however the posts tend to be very deep and definitive.

Lists and round-ups are somewhere between Gruber’s mix of quick posts and Lopp’s epics in a spot that doesn’t need filled. It’s about taking a thin topic and stretching it into a full post all for the purpose putting something in your reader’s RSS reader so they don’t forget about you.

The 800 pound gorilla in the room is of course Smashing Magazine. They’ve mastered the round-up. Their average topical round-up is exhaustive, often citing a few dozen supporting examples. Does this make them definitive?

One Comment

  1. Steve Brewer said:

    3 thoughts on Travis’s post that will blow your mind:
    1) List are more likely to show up on digg / reddit
    2) It reminds me of movie plots – same old boring formula – people always fall for it.
    3) I felt compelled to have three thoughts

    -Steve