I’m sick of it. From now on I’ll be boycotting any “top” list when the content is spread over multiple pages, just for the sake of increasing page views. Because, that’s what it’s all about folks: getting you to view more pages on a site.
Creating lists on Web sites is a popular and proven trope; people love to read lists, no matter if they’re baseless or not. Lists are fun! Take a look at the search results for “top 10” and “top 7” (for some reason 7 is an effective number if you want more reader response).
Never mind the fact that you’re probably not any likelier to click on the ad on page 5 of the list. It’s all about increasing the page views so that Web sites can impress advertisers.
Let’s look at the numbers. If 100 people click on all 10 pages of a top 10 list, that’s 1,000 page views, opposed to just 100 if the list was on one page. Apparently the extra bandwidth charges still make this tactic profitable. Maybe bandwidth is too cheap?
What are your favorite examples of the worst top 10 lists?