How lists provide quick, easy and powerful content

Lists are one of the easiest ways to provide interesting content for your newsletter.

You know the kind of thing:

  • 10 things you must do in your yard this November
  • 5 ways to wash red wine off the rug
  • 99 secrets to buying a used car

They’re easy to write because you don’t have to come up with a coherent article – just a list of things.  And they’re easy to read because they don’t require the commitment that an article asks of a reader.

And as Brian Clark points out in this amsuing post, they’re used all the time on magazine covers to tease people to look inside.

They’ve been doing it for years – so it must work. You’re just dying to know what those 10 things are, right?

(Thanks to Michael Stelzner for reminding me of this post.)