Skip to content
FormatDNA

Listicle / Ranking

A set number of enumerated items, each an originally scripted beat, usually counted down.

Voice onlyEasy
  • YouTube (long)
  • YouTube Shorts
  • TikTok

The long-form guide for this format is still being written. Everything below is complete and is what the quiz scores against.

Best for

  • Anyone who needs a repeatable structure to publish consistently
  • Topics with a large surface area of comparable things
  • Creators who want reach without a camera or a personality

Not ideal for

  • Anyone hoping to be taken seriously as an authority quickly
  • Niches where the obvious lists already exist a hundred times over
  • People who find formulaic work draining

Five ways to start

  1. 01Ranked worst to best, with the reasoning stated
  2. 02Things in your field that are quietly obsolete
  3. 03The list everyone gets wrong, corrected
  4. 04Ten things, nine of which are obvious and one of which is not
  5. 05A ranking you expect your audience to argue with

How it changes per platform

YouTube (long)

Put the number in the title and honour it. A '7 things' video with six things is the fastest way to lose a returning viewer.

YouTube Shorts

One item, framed as the whole list's most surprising entry.

TikTok

Number-in-caption is the entire hook. Start at the most contentious item, not number one.

Channels doing this well

No examples are listed yet. Every channel on this site is checked against the live platform and signed off by a person before it appears, and none have been signed off for this format — so rather than list plausible guesses, this section stays empty.