The 7 things you need to know to create a WPL
The Internet is perpetually home to wildly popular lists, lists bookmarked over and over and sent from friend to friend to friend via email. They wind up posted on the sides of cubicles. Some even serve as the basis of books. If you follow a few simple rules, you can create your own.
1. Sound authoritative. Over the years when people have asked me how to create a wildly popular list, the first thing I always tell them is to sound authoritative. If you don't, people may get the impression you don't know what you're talking about.
2. Come up with a TLA. Three letter acronyms have always been all the rage, are all the rage and always will be all the rage. If your concept is usually described with two words, add a word. If your concept is usually described with four words, remove a word. Most wildly popular lists (WPLs) contain at least one TLA.
3. Tell your audience what they want to hear. People don't like their beliefs challenged. The world's a crazy place, and it's comforting to hear personal beliefs validated by someone sounding authoritative. For example, the target audience for this list is skeptical people, who like me, believe that many of these lists are complete nonsense.
4. Include a personal anecdote to serve as a testimonial. Just the other day, a fellow came up to me with a draft of his list. He told me his list wasn't very popular. People weren't Digging it. I took a look, and immediately I saw the problem: it needed a personal anecdote. After he added one, his list became wildly popular.
5. If you run out of things to say, state the obvious. Everything you say occupies space, and things that occupy space can function as filler.
6. Repeat yourself. Either that, or you can always state the obvious.
7. Make sure your list contains the right number of items. Most successful lists contain 7 or 10 items. It is not the 8 Habits of Highly Effective People. Nobody's ever heard of the Nine Commandments.
by metamerist
1. Sound authoritative. Over the years when people have asked me how to create a wildly popular list, the first thing I always tell them is to sound authoritative. If you don't, people may get the impression you don't know what you're talking about.
2. Come up with a TLA. Three letter acronyms have always been all the rage, are all the rage and always will be all the rage. If your concept is usually described with two words, add a word. If your concept is usually described with four words, remove a word. Most wildly popular lists (WPLs) contain at least one TLA.
3. Tell your audience what they want to hear. People don't like their beliefs challenged. The world's a crazy place, and it's comforting to hear personal beliefs validated by someone sounding authoritative. For example, the target audience for this list is skeptical people, who like me, believe that many of these lists are complete nonsense.
4. Include a personal anecdote to serve as a testimonial. Just the other day, a fellow came up to me with a draft of his list. He told me his list wasn't very popular. People weren't Digging it. I took a look, and immediately I saw the problem: it needed a personal anecdote. After he added one, his list became wildly popular.
5. If you run out of things to say, state the obvious. Everything you say occupies space, and things that occupy space can function as filler.
6. Repeat yourself. Either that, or you can always state the obvious.
7. Make sure your list contains the right number of items. Most successful lists contain 7 or 10 items. It is not the 8 Habits of Highly Effective People. Nobody's ever heard of the Nine Commandments.
by metamerist
posted by metamerist at
7:46 PM
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