Listicle is the new blue eyed boy in the world of content writing. Though it has been existing long before the internet era and finds its roots in the works of poets and writers of Japan in 10th Century. Martin Luther king during his tenure as Professor at University of Wittenberg, Germany is said to have used the Listicle form of writing in his academic works. With time Listicle has created its own special place in the heart of writers as well as readers. It turns a lengthy and uninteresting article into a short (to the point), attractive and interesting work which gives a reader concise and quantified information on a topic generating a pleasant reading experience.
A listicle can be defined as a fusion of a list and an article, often consisting of GIFs and pictures which act as catalysts and grab far more eyeballs than a conventional style write-up can do. A listicle in general does not carry detailed information about a certain topic but acts as driver to bring in more traffic to main website wherein the readers may get into the depth of the said topic.
Though listicle has won many praises time and again it does not enjoy the support of many conventional writers. These writers strongly feel that listicle is nothing but a ‘faux and short lived’ success tool in the world of content writing. They disregard the idea of promoting anything which does less of knowledge sharing and more of profit bearing. According to them, listicle is nothing but a glittering sign board with fancy headlines and dramatized pictorial representation created to trap readers and contaminate their brains by cultivating unhealthy reading habits just like how junk food does to stomach.
Listicle is everywhere, from dealing with your financial problems to reasons for your depression to simply identifying the best pizza place in your town. With its extraordinary feature of putting heavy and lengthy articles into crisp, simple and easy to digest language, listicle helps the writers and business to get more and more readers and clients respectively.
For example: 11 reasons your body is dehydrated. 7 ways to make extra income or 5 reasons listicle is attractive to readers!
5 reasons listicle is attractive to readers!
- First thing first, the headline of a listicle itself gives the general idea of the content listed below and holds the reader till the end point of the list.
- With to the point subject matter it helps the brain to process the information quickly and easy to absorb.
- It’s knowledge explosion on internet!!! One wants to gather more and more meaningful information in as less time as possible and listicle does the job.
- With use of GIFs and pictures it becomes eye-catching and takes hold of more and more readers thus generating huge traffic to the website.
- It gives psychological satisfaction to the readers for gaining vast information and insights about numerous topics and craft their own opinion in comparatively no time.
Love it or hate it, by virtue of its popularity among the readers worldwide, Listicle is here to stay.