The New Way to Blog With Less Writing. Curated Lists of Your Favorite Items

Whenever I see a list post with products and items, I ask myself how could this transferal of knowledge be improved for both the curator of the information and the audience.

Say I stumbled upon a list of facial creams… this obviously represents either some research conducted by the writer or her extensive experience in the field. The writer can either integrate a few lists to create a full catalog or, especially when dealing with evergreen content, collect items that she has recommended over time into one shoppable collection.

As a reader, I would be really happy to see other items she has recommended in the past to check out how similar our taste and preferences are. This could help me make a purchase decision, especially if this is the first time I have encountered this specific blogger. Wouldn’t it be great if I could also save for future reference only the items I like and think I might use?

Creating great content for your blog or social media is central to building and growing an audience. Consistency of content creation is another important factor. Some of the most popular posts you’ll ever read online are list posts: some are curated list posts, many are lists with shoppable products. Lists can be about a variety of things and, if used wisely, can be a great addition to your content.

Who is this post good for?

1. For content creators – As a blogger, or content creator, whether you are a long essay kind of person or one who prefers to keep things short and simple, posts with lists of items or products are something that every content creator has used at some point in time.

2. For social media influencers – On Instagram or Pinterest, lists of recommended or inspiring ideas can break down every lifestyle experience into recommendations of products and places and help you share your knowledge and bring value to your audience with great ideas they can explore, use, and save.

3. For anyone joining todays' growing passion economy – Everyone is good at something. Some love shopping, some are foodies, cooks, travelers, great at planning vacations, parenting advice, finding deals, whatever. Finally you don't even need a blog! Curate lists and promote them on your preferred social media platforms.

By using a tool which can help you upload all that information you share all the time with friends and family, you can expand your audience and earn passive income.

Many open a blog to share their passion, but VENNDY offers a simpler solution with many of the advantages of blogging. Even if you don’t have a website, you can still create curated list posts using VENNDY’s tools and monetize with affiliate marketing by promoting through social channels. In this post we share some carousels, each includes a list built with a VENNDY Story (a collection of items) around a certain topic, so make sure to check them out as examples.

4. For anyone who wants to make money online – You can curate lists built on places and products you have used and recommend and using affiliate marketing, promote them through one of the aforementioned platforms. Trading your valuable knowledge for money instead of trading your time has never been easier, and list posts can be a good place to start.

New to affiliate marketing? To help you out, we have created a free "Affiliate Marketing Strategy Cheat Sheet” according to which you can build your "Affiliate Marketing Strategy Map.”

GRAB OUR FREE AFFILIATE MARKETING STRATEGY CHEAT SHEET AND BUILD YOUR AFFILIATE MARKETING STRATEGY MAP

Lists have some great benefits:

• They can be about anything – fashion finds, books, inspiring quotes, blogging, recipes, destinations, restaurants – you name it and it can be part of the topic.
• They are usually numbered which make them easy for readers to click and read through. Numbers in the title convey something organized, orderly, and user friendly.
• They are, by their nature more focused on the needs of the audience they are written for, offering a clear solution to a problem.  The audience knows exactly what to expect, as lists take you right to the point of the given topic.

Here are 4 good reasons why creating lists is good for content creators:

1. When facing that well-known periodic blogger’s block. Blog posts comprising lists are easier to pull together, as they require less writing effort, especially if you are using curated content. That doesn’t mean that as a blogger you should base all your content on curated lists, but it can be great once in a while, particularly if the subject you are discussing lends itself to a list format. Curated category lists do not require you to be in a creative mood or to have a creator’s inspiration, but rather they allow you to research and take advantage of your past experience and knowledge while sharing products and places you know and love.

2. When the subject of your post works better with short descriptions or reviews accompanied by an image. There are some topics that are best presented and most helpful when curated as lists, particularly blog posts that are no more than an introduction to products. For example: best overnight face masks, a list of cookbooks for the coming holidays, the 12 Best Books for Female Entrepreneurs, 8 types of skinny jeans for winter, 10 cute, tiny houses to book for the holidays, 6 romantic places to greet the New Year, the list goes on and on…. List- friendly content is not necessarily easier to put together, because it requires research or actually experience, but it is more straightforward and requires less actual writing and more curation of existing content. Here is an example of a list with 12 books for entrepreneurs (powered by VENNDY):

3. When you want your audience to take action: to click, buy, or save for later. List content inspires a call to action, just like a To Do list. You don’t need to look for something buried deep down inside a long paragraph; instead you get what you are looking for more instantaneously.

4. When you are thinking of your audience’s ease. There are certain subjects/topics/ideas that your audience may be looking for, which might suit them better in a list style. A list makes it easy for them to quickly scroll to something that catches their eye and might be just what they are looking for.

Here are 4 good reasons why audiences love list posts:

1. They are easy to follow.

2. They are arranged practically.

3. They make it easy to save specific items which they like.

4. They convey trustworthiness. For example, if your heading reads "15 Adorable Cafes To Visit in Paris,” people associate this long list with more time and effort invested in research or actually visiting these 15 adorable cafes. This adds to your credibility and may even imply higher quality or expertise in the relevant topic. People would rather check out your list of 15 and end up visiting 6 of them than a post with only 3 recommended cafes, which anyone could have written about.

4 simple steps to curating a list post

Whether you create a list post for your blog or without a blog, with VENNDY’s tools or without, here are the 4 steps to make your post appealing and beneficial.

1. Create a catchy heading

Attracting the audience’s attention is a top priority. A good heading should include strong words highlighting the main topic of interest with a silent promise that the reader will learn or easily find something. Including a number can be helpful as it helps to meet the audience’s expectations. A good heading with the right words can also improve your SEO ranking, so it is well worth taking the time to think about it.

2. Consider the value you bring to a specific audience

Your list must be helpful; it must make a reader want to click that pin or check your Instagram bio link. List posts are not necessarily easier to build, as they may require some intensive research about the items you want to include. If your heading says 10 Gift Ideas For Lovers of Teal, then you must find those 10 items you want to recommend.

3. Include items that are relevant to the topic and easy to navigate.

Just as the items in your list should be relevant to the topic you are sharing, so too they should be of value. In terms of navigation, the easier, the better.

While including some personal note is important for bringing some added value and building credibility, when your list contains many items, your personal descriptions or reviews are better off kept short. 

When using VENNDY’s tool, items are automatically gathered with a separate page for each product where your notes are inserted. Here is an example of an item page:

4. Be Creative and Unique

With all the information available in a Google search and on Instagram and Pinterest, in order to catch the attention of your viewers and stand out you must have something unique to offer. Distinctiveness can come from the combinations you create, for example, when designing a home office space with all the design items you have found, putting together a particular outfit combination, or sharing the items for a special festive table arrangement.

How can VENNDY help you create better list posts?

There are a few occasions when using a tool such as VENNDY could be extremely beneficial.

1. When you want your blog post to be divided to categories, each with a list of related items, VENNDY can help you create separate lists for each category and build widgets out of each with Shop the Post carousels that can be added to your blog post.

2. When your lists do not fit your blog’s niche, you can still create lifestyle related lists and share them on social media, thus leveraging your affiliate marketing skills to make some extra money.

3. When you don’t have a website but love sharing your knowledge and experiences, by using VENNDY, you can blog in a way which is more than micro-blogging (such as Twitter, Facebook, etc.) by building a mini-blog with posts and lists on all lifestyle related topics.  

4. When, for example, you want to share one of the following ideas which are perfect for a curated list on VENNDY:

• Best articles, best tools, best blog posts.
• Best destinations and best restaurants, places to visit, must-see attractions, hotels, etc. in that destination.
• Best fashion, beauty items, and décor items.
• Gift ideas according to color, price, occasion, age, and interest.
• Best books, songs, shows according to age and destination.
• Products within a specific niche, such as must-haves for female travelers, bloggers, entrepreneurs, busy moms, etc.

How to promote your VENNDY curated list posts?

1. Add carousels to your blog post

By using VENNDY’s tools to create lists, you can turn every list into a widget that can be inserted into a blog post.

Take, for example, a blog post about a 2-week trip to Japan. You can break this post down into various separate lists (each one a story on VENNDY with a collection of items) regarding the cities you are visiting – Tokyo, Kyoto, Takayama, and Hakone – and for each of these cities have a separate list with the best places to stay, top attractions, best restaurants as well as general things to do in Japan, what to pack, etc.

You can pull out a code from every VENNDY Story by clicking the 3 dots at the bottom of the Story which allows you to insert a carousel with all the items in that story next to the subject discussed in your blog post.

2. Promote and share the separate lists to your social media

Using the previous example, you can create multiple graphics for the best restaurants to visit in Tokyo and share them on Instagram and Pinterest. Thus, one travel post about Japan can be divided into many shareable topics and items with or without your affiliate links.

Here is an example of a brief 2-week itinerary for the first-time traveler to Japan: 

Here is an example of must-see places in Kyoto: 

3. Collaborate

Another way to expand your lists and make them comprehensive and rich with information is to collaborate with others. As no one has been to all the restaurants in a city or tried all the recommended cameras for travelers, a list built in collaboration with others can really make your content stand out. Collaborative stories are another way of making the best of the VENNDY platform. Read more about it here.

What if you don’t have a blog?

These days successful blogging requires learning many new things, developing new skills, and adapting to a different mindset. So, just in case you were considering starting a blog, you may want to head up to our Resources Page where you can find some of the most helpful blog posts we could find to help you get started as well as some other recommendations.

But, to become a blogger or an influencer on Instagram you need to be ready for the consistent long-term work involved. It doesn’t happen overnight. If you think you have a lot to share from your own experiences and can be of assistance to others, you can always start out using VENNDY. With VENNDY you can start collecting your tips and finds without the need to master the skills of blogging. In every Story you can write a short to medium post and include the related items. VENNDY can be a great way to learn more about yourself, your preferences, and your expertise, all of which will be a great help if you do decide to jump over to the next stage and have your own blog. By creating your own lists of products, places, and items you love and recommend, it will become clearer to you what niche you should be focusing on (based on the category where you’ve gathered the most items). Learn more about how to get started using VENNDY’s tools here, here and here.

Read this blog post to learn more about the advantages of using VENNDY, and if you are ready to start using the tools, you can sign up here and send us an email so we can send you an invitation to join our beta.

So, to wrap up…creating lists with products and places you want to recommend is a great way to enrich your content as a blogger and influencer, and you can also start micro blogging via the VENNDY platform. Remember, however, to be very clear and transparent with your readers about what they should expect to find when they click on your pin on Pinterest or link on Instagram.