I
have to admit, before this assignment, I have never heard of the term
clickbait, although now that I know what it is, I can think of many instances
of it online. And not surprisingly, there is some debate about it and whether
it should be used or not. For those who do not know what chickbait is, according
to the MacMillan Dictionary,
clickbait is “an eye-catching link on a website which encourages people to read
on.” An example of a clickbait link would be, “What I’m doing to make $500 a
day will blow your mind!” The purpose is to entice people to click the link,
usually in the hope that the reader will share the link and it will go viral.
So
what is the debate all about? Opponents of
clickbait feel that the quality of the articles behind the links is under par
or nonexistent and often just fraud. Scott Raynovich of cmswire.com explains in his article, Internet Fake Out: The Clickbait and Ad
Fraud Explosion that “Clickbait is …
fakery, and distraction. It's diluting the quality of media.” I can understand
this opposition. Without knowing the term clickbait, I have often clicked on a
catchy link only to be disappointed with the article or annoyed that the
article had nothing to do with the headline.
Advocates
of clickbait insist that “clickbait,” in other forms, have existed long before
the internet ever existed; it works, and is not going away anytime soon. Steve Hind from theguardian.com believes that “When
readers are lured in, and rewarded for their curiosity with good content,
everyone wins. So if clickbaiting can be harnessed to drive views (and
therefore earnings), we should play along. After all, it's reasonable to conclude
that it is here to stay” (In Defense of
Clickbait). He has a good point. If the headline is catchy and the article
is of good quality, than there’s no reason not to use clickbait.
So
is clickbait good or bad? Should I, as a blogger, rely on clickbait to drive
traffic to my website/blog posts? I like Stephanie Masood’s perspective on
clickbait. Stephanie writes the blog, Words
from Y-M, Marketing Matters, and in her article, Clickbait: What Is It and Should You Use It?, offers three lessons
that bloggers can learn from clickbait use. These lessons are “Headlines
matter, Use numbers in headlines, and sharable content matters.”
Headlines
matter because without a good, memorable headline, no one may read your article
and that would not be a good thing! Using numbers is a good thing because
people like numbers. I know from experience that when I use numbers in my blog
title, article clicks go up. Sharable content is important because, as Masood
reminds bloggers, writing good content is key. It doesn’t matter how great the
headline is if the content is lousy. It won’t be shared, and it certainly won’t
go viral.
My
opinion? If used ethically and
sparingly, clickbait is fine, as long as it is backed up with good, quality
articles.
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Works
Cited
"Definition
Of click Bait." Click Bait. Macmillan Publishers Limited, n.d.
Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.macmillandictionary.com/open-dictionary/entries/click-bait.htm>.
Hind,
Steve. "In Defence of Clickbait." Theguardian.com. Guardian
News and Media, 03 Nov. 2013. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/04/in-defence-of-clickbait>.
Masood,
Stephanie. "Clickbait: What Is It and Should You Use It?" YearickMillea.
N.p., 6 Mar. 2014. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.yearick-millea.com/words-from-ym/?p=869>.
Raynovich,
Scott. "Internet Fake Out: The Clickbait and Ad Fraud Explosion." CMSWire.com.
Simpler Media Group, 12 Feb. 2014. Web. 04 Apr. 2014. <http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/internet-fake-out-the-clickbait-and-ad-fraud-explosion-024145.php>.
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