Ejoh

There are few things that draws the attention to an article at digg, technorati or reddit as the title “The 10 Commandments of…”. Writing an article like that is a foolproof way to draw visitors and increase your traffic. Especially if you write it with care and choose a good subject which draws interest. I have actually tracked down a site witch made huge success with it’s “10 commandments of…” article. Here is a link to the article itself and here is a link to a page that displays a few statistics. It should be said that it currently has about 1115 diggs at digg.com.

Anyway, here are a few commandments or things you should think about before and when you write your article.

1. Thou shalt use “thou shalt” in front of every new commandment
   This one is obvious
2. Thou shalt never write about things thou know nothing about
   Writing anything at all about something you don’t know something about is dangerous. Creating a bad reputation can go real fast and you might not even see it coming. The interest in your article will be much less if people notice your incompetence. For this type of article that is even more important than in normal cases and I think you need at least an extensive knowledge before trying it.
3. Thou shalt count on people having opinions
   They always do.  They will say “why didn’t you write this” or “this thing is way more important than that” but don’t be afraid, it’s normal behavior. Just make sure you agree with yourself when reading it through before publishing it.
4. Thou shalt always write descriptions to your commandments
   I know God didn’t provide a explanation for every one of his commandments but they were, after all, not very hard understanding. Never count on people know what you mean when you write a commandment. Even if the average user understands a little fun comment could be nice. Write a little description or comment under the commandment.

At the moment, these are the commandments I’ve come up with. I know you have your own ideas so feel free to comment.