7,12 & 10 Prime Numbers in Blogging
Ok for all you math geeks out there I know I am taking liberties, only 7 is a prime number of three in the title. However, what you may not know is that those three numbers are the prime numbers of blogging, especially when constructing lists.
List posts, along with How To’s are currently the most popular posts in the blogosphere. However, lists of certain lengths are more popular than others. The magic lengths, yes, list of 7, 10 & 12. List of 3, 4 & 8 are the least popular.
The reason for the popularity of lists of 7 ? Well, while no one is absolutely certain, the theory according to psychologists is that human beings cope well with retaining thing between 5 & 9 items in length. 7 being right in the middle of that seems to be the most readable. Bearing in mind that most blog readers scan your posts, a list with 7 elements will be retained well by them.
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Popularity: 1% [?]
#1 by The Blogger Source on February 23, 2009 - 2:08 pm
Not sure why 12, I would think 10, 20, or 25.
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#2 by Leo on February 24, 2009 - 3:36 am
You know, the same psychology is applied to price points, at least online…ever notice how many products are sold with "7" being the last number? ie. $7, $27, $47, $97….
Not sure why this is.
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#3 by Best CSS Gallery on February 25, 2009 - 12:31 am
Interesting, I always thought 5 is the most optimal number for lists
#4 by PSP Go on November 29, 2009 - 1:10 pm
Interesting point, I had never really considered number all that much before.