3 Ways

3 Ways to come up with 3 ways to make a list of irresistible links

Has anybody else noticed how lame most social media / promotional media have become? We all know that to get someone to actually read your material is a challenge. There is a tsunami of web based material being published every day and it seems that taking the time to write an article of depth and quality is now out of favor. Hey, just write a quick list type article, and then tweet about it. Now rinse and repeat. The half life of your new web content is a matter of minutes so frequent and shallow content is the word of the day. This is like a cocktail party where a loudmouth drunk is yammering incessantly and will not let anyone get a word in edgewise. In fact is worse than that because the current internet marketing model rewards the loudmouth. Any real conversations are drowned out by the noise.

So back to that marketing piece – make that list!
So what kind of list should you create? It really doesn’t matter but what is important is to get your headline to grab people’s attention. Here are some sure fire methods:

Schadenfreude – pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others.

Everyone loves to revel in how others have screwed up.
For Example:

  • Three CEOs now on skid row
  • Three housewives whose deep dark secrets cost them everything
  • Three former centerfold women now over 300 pounds

See how that works? Who could resist that headline!

Go Negative

Provide reinforcement for people who want negative information. People like reinforcement for their belief that others people are bad or seek confirmation they themselves are not bad.

For example:

Ten things bad bosses do

  • This is great because if you have a boss you can see if they do those bad things!
  • If you are a boss, you can see if you are a bad one!

Five mistakes bad parents make.

Holy smokes, I’m a parent and I want to be a good one, I gotta read that. Or, I have parents, did they make these mistakes with me? I gotta know.

Play on Stereotypes

How about the headline that plays against stereotypes?
For Example:

  • Three Rap artists who don’t like guns and weed.
  • Three CEOs who actually fly coach
  • Three people on EBT who are actually multimillionaires

Make ridiculous and outrageous statements

  • Three ways to make your iPhone in to a coffeemaker
  • Five top hedge funds hire palm readers and fortune tellers
  • Three people who think Barack Obama was a actually a constitutional law professor

3 ways to make your list:

1) Get your phone or PC device out.
2) Open a notepad or your favorite editor
3) Type three things in this order:
Thing One
Thing Two
Thing Three
Viola, you now have a marketing masterpiece!

Can’t think of anything original? It doesn’t matter, what is important is that you have an article with a list of things. Now you can tweet about it! Yeah!