Comments on: This Is The Single Best One

By: pageoneresults

pageoneresults — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:48:00 +0000

Great post Ruud! I can tell you that our industry (SEO) is probably more apt to be attracted to a Top 10 list than anything else. Maybe the numbers are industry specific?

I do know that I like to approach the Top lists from a variety of perspectives. I may include a Top 10, and then also a Top 50 and by golly if I have them, I’ll include the Top 100. Now I have Top 10, Top 50 and Top 100 to work with and potentially tripled my exposure.

Watching Social Media for the past 6 months has opened my eyes to just how fixated people are on Top 10 lists or whatever. You can view the What’s New at various outlets and get a clear picture of what people are attempting to do.

But, I just checked Sphinn where I expected to find a plethora of numbers in titles and I’m not seeing it. I think some have realized that too much of a good thing can work against you, especially in a Sphinn type environment.

Oh, and I know how powerful the Top 10 can be! For example, the top 10 search engines or something of that nature. 🙂

By: Utah SEO

Utah SEO — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:34:13 +0000

Top lists work well on Digg. They used to work better than they do now. But pull that on Reddit and try getting away with it.

By: Dr. Pete

Dr. Pete — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:11:52 +0000

Great point – How many times have I read (even on my own blog) the phrase “…in no particular order”? All that means is that we can’t be bothered to take the time and energy to choose. I have two additional problems with Top 10 lists:

(1) When someone picks the “top 10” did they read every resource ever? No, they probably read 20 and picked 10 from those, and 5 of the 10 were written by their friends. Sure, we all do it, and it’s not a crime, but how often does a top-anything list really represent the wide world of what’s out there?

(2) Not to pick on people, and I think resource lists have value (I certainly love to appear on them 🙂 ), but if we’re all writing Top 10 lists, who’s producing content? Personally, I’d rather be on someone else’s list than write my own.

By: David Leonhardt

David Leonhardt — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:20:01 +0000

Top 10 lists still work. So do top-12, top-7, top 57, top 99, etc. But you make a great case for highliting the top single, best when it comes to recommending a tool to use…assuming that there is a single best for all situations.

By: Tadeusz Szewczyk

Tadeusz Szewczyk — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:39:36 +0000

Yeah, Ann has a distinctive style that works both in social media as well as for an advanced audience. Good point. Thanks for the posting idea. 😉

By: Tadeusz Szewczyk

Tadeusz Szewczyk — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:39:45 +0000

Hey Ruud!

This is awesomely amazing! Thank you! In fact it’s an apt way to elaborate on my point. Sadly you were fast enough to cite me before I could remove my typos.

It must be “There are already blogs [top->that] offer only top 10 lists.”

The problem with lists and overviews is that they only are helpful when they reduce the time you need to get to know all of the list items. That is when you gain a quick overview. Otherwise you get overwhelmed by the onslaught of info and have to really check dozens of items to find the single best one.

I’m guilty of bombarding you with lists but I’m working hard of finding other formats 😉 Now check my “40 Advanced Web Analytics for Business” list. *grin*