Ten reasons why ‘Top 10′ lists suck

Is it just me, or is anyone else out there getting a little tired of the generic Top 10 articles that flood the blogosphere…? It seems everywhere I go I’m confronted with a list that will revolutionise my digital life:

“10 ways to optimise your blog in 10 minutes”

“The Top 10 ways to use social media to build your brand”

“10 ways Twitter enhances your cyber-stalking capabilities” (Ok… I made that one up)

Etc, etc… Sound familiar…? Personally, I’m so sick of this article format that I thought I’d develop my own little Top 10 list – Ten reasons why Top 10 lists suck!

And it goes a little like this:

1. Fast food blogging

I once heard a comedian compare KFC to porn… you enjoy it in the moment, but afterwards you feel all dirty and greasy. Top 10 lists are the KFC of the blogging world to me. Mass produced and not terribly good for you. In fact… they’ll probably make you fat. A handful of bloggers still manage to come up with insightful Top 10 lists (Darren Rowse, Maki from Dosh Dosh & Tad Szewczyk are a few that come to mind). However, most are simply re-hashing old ideas for the masses.

2. Linkbait

Ok… so I’m guilty of linkbaiting. Every digital marketing blogger is. I consider my recent schizophrenia article a classic case of linkbait (sadly it generated plenty of traffic but no links… sigh). However, I’d like to think my article was an original angle in an original format. Conversely, many Top 10 posts are specifically written in the format due to its inherent popularity. Add a generically popular subject matter to the mix such as SEO or Twitter and you’ve got KFC linkbait gold.

3. Filler material

Did you ever get the feeling a blogger had come up with about 8 good points for their list… but just couldn’t quite nut out the final 2. So they come up with a couple of lame points to round out the Top 10. That sucks. If you can only think of 8 good points, then do a Top 8 list. What’s the obsession with round numbers…?

4. Depth of thought (or lack thereof)

A Top 10 list is an easy way to skim over a topic. All you really have to do is identify a range of points/issues and comment briefly on each. A couple of sentences is generally all that’s required. There’s no real need for depth of thought or detailed research. Just identify the issue and move on to the next point. No wonder they’re so popular. They’re easy.

5. Stuff

See point 3.

6. False Controversy

Top 10 lists naturally attract attention and debate. Anyone that releases a Top 10 albums, Top 10 sportsmen or Top 10 movies is the immediate target of (sometimes heated) debate. It makes me wonder how often producers of Top 10 lists deliberately insert, delete or misplace items specifically for the purpose of creating false controversy and debate.

7. They’re not secrets

Let’s get this clear… there are essentially no secrets in our society today. The web has made sure of that. With hundreds of thousands of experts contributing to the web’s infrastructure on a daily basis, you can find out anything you want at any time. All you have to do is search. So please… don’t title your post along the lines of ‘The 10 secrets of online marketing success’. I could find your ‘secrets’ anywhere, particularly if the subject matter is popular enough to put into a Top 10 format.

8. Authority

Authority in the blogosphere is a complex issue. With so many authors it’s difficult to ascertain exactly who the experts are, and who’s opinion you can trust. Too many cooks spoil the broth. And the amount of people producing Top 10 lists simply creates clutter. The SEO Myths controversy within Sphinn is a good example of a Top 10 post that lacked authority, expertise and credibility. In a perfect world, Top 10 lists would only be produced by true industry experts such as Seth Godin. They’re the only ones I pay attention to… so by all means feel free to ignore this post.

9. David Letterman

Perhaps it’s because I’m not American… but he’s just not very funny. So… for making the Top 10 format universally popular, Dave Letterman makes my list of suckiness.

10. They’re bloody everywhere

But I think I’ve made that point already…

The ten reasons why Top 10 lists suck disclaimer - Yes, I do understand that list formats are easily digestable and online users prefer bite sized chunks of information. So what? The same effect can be achieved by breaking an article up with sub headings. Need proof…? Check how many times industry heavy weights Jeff Quipp, Rand Fishkin, Lyndon Antcliff, Dave Harry and others implement a list type format. Not very often…