Listverse Success: My Experience and Proven Ways to get Published
Like Tyrion Lannister, I like to say, "I drink, and I know things." Except I don't really drink that much. But I do know some things.
If you do too, and you have aspirations of becoming a content writer, then you might've come across Listverse.
They publish fascinating lists on all kinds of topics, and you can send them your own ones through their website. That's how I started my writing career.
Two years later, I'm sharing what I've learned.
How To Regularly Get Published On Listverse
Absorb the Author's Guide
Sorry, number 1 is no big secret, but once it's out of the way we can move onto the stuff I've learned that they don't tell you.
But, yes, you really need to read the author's guide.
The requirement to submit finished articles and not pitches means you are about to spend at least 2-3 hours researching and writing. It would be a shame for that time to be wasted because you didn't pay attention to what they want.
I actually made this mistake myself.
The first piece I ever submitted to the site was turned down, and months later, once I'd gotten over it and decided to have another go, I read the guide and realized that I'd done basically everything wrong.
Start With One Fact
Listverse is not a generic top ten site. They don't do practical tips, subjective lists of the "best" things, or unimaginative topics like the "biggest" of something. Your task is to think of a list with a twist.
For example, my first published piece there was all about wars where no blood was spilled.
In my experience, lists like these don't just pop into your head. If they do, they likely already exist. I usually start with just one fact.
It's often something I've heard on a podcast or documentary, and I make a note of it on my phone so that I can write about it later. When I need to write and I'm stuck for ideas, I also have a list of websites I look through for interesting stories.
Then, it's a matter of asking, "What surprised me about that fact? Can I generalize it and find nine similar examples?"
Don't Be Rigid With Titles
Once you've figured out what makes your fact interesting, you probably have a title in mind. Then, it's time to look for the rest of the items.
This is where things can get tricky. Your list will only be published if it doesn't already exist online, so you need to find the other nine items all on your own.
In my experience, if you try too hard to stay within the bounds of the first title you come up with, you'll have a tough time.
The trick is to be a bit flexible with your title. I mean this in two ways.
Firstly, you can tweak your title as you go. I usually make slight changes to my title 2-3 times when I'm researching an article, based on whether it's proving easy or hard to find items.
Secondly, you can get away with an item that doesn't quite fit but comes really close. However, you should justify its inclusion when you write about it.
Avoid AI, Use Search Operators
Right now, you might be thinking, "Ah! I don't have to find all of the items on my own. Trusty ChatGPT will help me."
But take it from someone who has been there and done it; you'll end up wasting time trying to track down sources for things that never happened.
When I give ChatGPT my title and ask it to find more examples, I'd say about 60-70% of its responses are pure hallucinations.
How do I know? I ask for sources, and then usually get a response like "On closer inspection, it appears that never happened."
Maybe one day it'll be useful in this way, but not yet. For now, It's far better to stick with Google and use search operators. The most useful ones you should know are "" , site: , and -.
Use Common Sense With Sources
This may come as a shock, but not everything that is written on the internet is true.
You can pick your jaw up off the floor now.
But seriously, while the author's guide gives some guidance on the kinds of sources they like, you are going to be using your own judgment a lot of the time. In many cases, it comes down to who the author is.
If it is someone with an academic title in an area related to the topic at hand, then they're probably okay to cite as a source.
If it is an amateur blogger, I tend to not use them.
Also, you will deal with conflicting sources at some point. Often, you can "word" your way out of these. If one says something happened in January 1870, and the other says March, you can say "early."
Don't Use Too Many Sources
If you get to the end of your writing and you've used more than 20 sources, there's a good chance your article will be rejected.
This might not be an official policy, it's just a pattern I've noticed.
At the end of the day, there will be a human being fact-checking your work, and humans tend to favor those who make things easy for them (or so I hear).
This doesn't mean you are strictly limited to two sources per item. I've used three and four for a single item before. Just try not to let the total exceed 20.
Avoid Direct Quotes
This isn't something I had given much thought to before, but another company that hired me as a content writer recently told me never to use quotes because of copyright issues.
Looking back over my rejected lists, I can see now that many of them contained quotes.
I'd put them in quotation marks and attributed them to the original source, but there does seem to be a pattern of these pieces being rejected.
As far as I can tell, it's the ones that quote from modern sources, like news sites, that seem to be the problem.
Avoid Typical Content Writer Habits
I don't know when I decided to start doing this, but my acceptance rate definitely went up after I stopped addressing readers directly ("you") and cut down on the use of contractions.
I'll use them if it's really necessary to improve the flow, but on the whole, avoiding them has served me well.
This is a tricky habit to get out of, though. Just about all of my other work involves addressing readers directly.
At the same time, you don't want to be academic. You need to find the right balance between factual and casual, and there's actually a great tool they recommend to help you do that, which leads us nicely onto the next point.
Use a Readability Checker
The author guide recommends using the WebFX Readability Test, although they don't really tell you what score to aim for. But I can tell you what I am for, which is a minimum of 55.
That's a reading age of 16-17. I can't remember how I settled on this number, but my acceptance rate definitely went up once I started aiming for it.
I'd advise against aiming for too high a score, though.
The problem is that it strongly favors single-clause sentences and one-syllable words. If you try and optimize to get the highest score you can, you'll sound like a robot.
I'd also advise against typing directly into the readability checker. Not only could you easily lose your work, but you'll waste a lot of time clicking the button every time you write a sentence.
Type a paragraph, copy it in, and edit if the score is under 55.
Link Your Paragraphs
You should start writing about most new items by linking them in some way to the last one.
This might not be necessary, but I find listicles much easier to read when they do it.
Say I'm writing a list about historical figures that did something strange and there are two monarchs on the list, I'll put them together and start the second one with a sentence like, "Another monarch who did something strange was..."
Make Your Titles Alliterative
Another pattern I've noticed is that most of my successful articles have alliterative titles.
By that, I mean maybe two or three of the main words will start with the same sounds. It doesn't have to be every word.
Titles that do this are just much more fun, in my opinion, than plain old "10 Strange Things..." or "10 Interesting Ways...".
The site receives dozens, if not hundreds, of submissions a day. Your title needs to stand out.
A Great Place To Start
Whether you're new to the game or an experienced content writer like me, writing factual listicles is a great way to hone your chops.
As long as you're willing to put in the time and stay the course despite some rejections, you'll refine your idea-generation process, learn how to find great sources, and get used to condensing ideas down into digestible, easily readable chunks.
These are all skills that will serve you well in any kind of writing.
If you've come across this article because you're looking for Listverse-style articles for your own site, check out my "Work With Me" page.