A Guide To Clickbait with steps

You know what’s terrible? Clickbait. We pretty much all hate it once we recognize it, and sites that are built on it, upworthy, for example, are possibly the worst things on the internet.

I know these clickbait headlines are sometimes very hard to ignore. So I’ve assembled a helpful little decoder for you. You can refer to this any time you’re tempted to click on a clickbait headline, and, lo and behold, you’ll see what the article says without actually having to read it. Let’s begin.

This method is neither new or revolutionary, but it is progressive in terms of content publishing. Before we were inundated with keyword stuffed listicles, which were crafted precisely to take advantage of Google’s search spiders (that prioritized keyword dense articles on a certain topic at the top of search results). Now it’s content publishing specifically for the social ecosystem – click-bait lures traffic in social sphere, shareworthy content pushes content out.

So how it works exactly: A/B tested headlines paired with emotional subject matter

Upworthy takes subject matter that is inherently important for a broad mainstream audience, like causes. They write the story or whatever the content is to hit on the common characteristics that makes something go viral. Content that:

Makes people feel smarter once they’ve read about it

Triggers a memory of something. Either topically relevant or super bizarre.

Is a remarkable story

Has a strong emotional or ethical level appeal

Promises practicality

1.When writing social copy or article headlines, create a curiosity gap between the reader and the content.

Upworthy-esque headlines could pay off for gaining more site hits and social reach. But if you cringe at the thought of writing to the tune of “The Things This 4 Year Old Is Doing Is Cute. But The Reason He Is Doing Them Is Heartbreaking”

2.Be rigorous with headlines and employ the help of A/B testing to do so.

Before you put any line of copy out into the social internets (tweets, headlines and status updates) try pushing for 25 alternatives. The exercise in itself will help finesse copywriting. Keep track of the best performing copy, note the language that is used. Reuse the things that went well.

3.Be deliberate in how you write for social media audience or search engines.

If you are producing resourceful pieces of content such as a recipe or health, financial or technical advice, which people seek out ensure the best practices for SEO are followed. But if you are writing content for social media such as entertainment or getting the word out about new causes and brands then take a few pointers out of Upworthy’s book.