June is Blog Posts by Number Month (Plus a BlogHop)

It’s time for Ketchup With Us. Hosted by Mel and me on the 1st & 15th each month, our link-up gives you TWO ways to play: (A) Write about anything for 10 minutes OR (B) Link up an old post. Or both!

I’m using the link-up today to kick off a ~~half-baked plan~~ … ~~crazy scheme~~ … creative idea that Mel and I have for the month of June. A while back, I was brainstorming for the future of ODNT and playing around on Google. In particular, I was looking at articles that claimed to reveal the secrets behind what makes a blog post go viral. Because clearly, I have no idea about such things. (comical, exaggerated sigh)

One of the many articles I found was entitled “3 Things You MUST Do To Make Your Content Go Viral.” Having just passed over similar posts called “How to Improve Your Chances of Going Viral: ELEVEN Steps” and “THIRTY-TWO Ways To Make Your Blog Post Go Viral,” the idea of only three things to do sounded preferable so I clicked it.

And here’s what it said.

Ensure you have a number in your title.
Be yourself.
Collect data about your market and analyze, analyze, analyze.
Keep it short.*

*Good for you! You’re paying attention. There are actually four points here. That was the author’s ways of playing a little joke on his readers to make them think the article was shorter than it actually was (aka #4).

Anyway, in looking at these helpful points, only one really jumps off the page to me. Because I’m always myself (#2), I’m lazy and SO not going to do this (#3) and, sure, I can get a little verbose at times but I’m certainly not releasing any War-and-Peacian-length blog posts. (#4).

So let’s get back to #1. I’ve written a few “numbered posts” over the years. Examples:

And I love each and every one of them. Plus, lists are popular for a reason. They’re fun to write and often easier than a lengthy epistle. Which gave me an idea.

What if Mel and I each wrote a numbered post every day for the month of June? (I’m going to hate myself by about June 8th for this over ambitious idea.) The posts can be about anything … “Ten things I love about my tennis shoes,” “4 Reasons I Prefer Winter to Summer,” etc.

But WAIT! There’s more.

Mel and I want YOU to play, too.

Write a numbered post in June.
Link it back to us and tweet us about it.
On June 30th, we’ll include your blog link in our final posts listing everyone who played Blog Posts by Number.