6 ms·

Fascinating topic, but nothing surprising about any of the findings. (Does that qualify this post as clickbait?:)) An extremely interesting question IMO would

Fascinating topic, but nothing surprising about any of the findings. (Does that qualify this post as clickbait?:)) An extremely interesting question IMO would be what is the longetivity of these tactics? Are there phrases that worked extremely well for a period of time, and then stopped being effective? In other words, how long before people get tired of clickbaits?

Punoxysm 12y ago
"You won't believe what the data about Buzzfeed clickbait reveals!"
minimaxir 12y ago
> An extremely interesting question IMO would be what is the longetivity of these tactics? Are there phrases that worked extremely well for a period of time, and then stopped being effective? In other words, how long before people get tired of clickbaits? I mentioned at the end at the disenchantment against linkbait. Linkbait works due to basic human psychology, similar to ancient psychological marketing tricks like odd-even pricing and price anchoring. Unless basic human psychology changes, linkbait will still work. There's still a negative brand perception for BuzzFeed though; it wouldn't surprise me if they attempt a rebrand at some point if they want to be a serious publication.
- walterbell 12y ago
  Thanks for the reference to price anchoring, http://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/bid/181199/Price-Anchoring-to-Optimize-Your-Pricing-Strategy http://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/bid/181199/Price-Anch...
username223 12y ago
> In other words, how long before people get tired of clickbaits? Somewhat facetiously, "is clickbait more like banner ads, or more like porn?" Is it useless, or is it something people actually want sometimes? Once people realized that flashing "punch-the-monkey" gifs never led anywhere useful, they quickly stopped clicking. However, porn is something people actually want, and it just needs to be "good enough," not "the very best porn on the internet." While clickbait is low-quality content, it's still useful to someone looking for a 10-minute distraction while on the bus or at lunch. Similarly, Demand Media's content farms are extremely low quality, but might be good enough if I'm just searching for how to brine a turkey or something. Like soap operas and 24-hour "news," I think clickbait serves a real need, and isn't going anywhere.
diydsp 12y ago
> nothing surprising Pah. There are numerous interesting findings in there. 1. Odd numbers outnumber even numbers, except for "10" 2. The optimal number of items in a listicle is 33-45. 3. "There’s a strong focus on nostalgia, with toys, childhood, and 80s. " 4. "Gay" is surprisingly common keyword 5. "Which" and "Character" get some of the highest FB shares. (possibly from "Which character are you" quizzes) > longetivity of these tactics The first bar graph shows Listicles gaining ground on normal articles until late 2013, then stabilizing over the last 15 months.
onewaystreet 12y ago
The fallacy of the clickbait charge against Buzzfeed is that they don't use clicks as a metric, they focus on shares. Buzzfeed learned from the once hot Upworthy (who originated the "You Won't Believe What Happened Next" style headline) that if a visitor feels like they were tricked into clicking on a link to your site then they aren't going to share it. You get a lot more traffic by delivering on the promises made by your headlines.
- zeeshanm 12y ago
  I think it's kindov subjective. A clickbait headline may "trick" a user into clicking on a link but it may also deliver on the expected content. Is there a blog post dissecting above hypothesis though. I'd be interested in reading it.

Punoxysm 12y ago

"You won't believe what the data about Buzzfeed clickbait reveals!"

minimaxir 12y ago

> An extremely interesting question IMO would be what is the longetivity of these tactics? Are there phrases that worked extremely well for a period of time, and then stopped being effective? In other words, how long before people get tired of clickbaits? I mentioned at the end at the disenchantment against linkbait. Linkbait works due to basic human psychology, similar to ancient psychological marketing tricks like odd-even pricing and price anchoring. Unless basic human psychology changes, linkbait will still work. There's still a negative brand perception for BuzzFeed though; it wouldn't surprise me if they attempt a rebrand at some point if they want to be a serious publication.

walterbell 12y ago
Thanks for the reference to price anchoring, http://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/bid/181199/Price-Anchoring-to-Optimize-Your-Pricing-Strategy http://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/bid/181199/Price-Anch...

username223 12y ago

> In other words, how long before people get tired of clickbaits? Somewhat facetiously, "is clickbait more like banner ads, or more like porn?" Is it useless, or is it something people actually want sometimes? Once people realized that flashing "punch-the-monkey" gifs never led anywhere useful, they quickly stopped clicking. However, porn is something people actually want, and it just needs to be "good enough," not "the very best porn on the internet." While clickbait is low-quality content, it's still useful to someone looking for a 10-minute distraction while on the bus or at lunch. Similarly, Demand Media's content farms are extremely low quality, but might be good enough if I'm just searching for how to brine a turkey or something. Like soap operas and 24-hour "news," I think clickbait serves a real need, and isn't going anywhere.

diydsp 12y ago

> nothing surprising Pah. There are numerous interesting findings in there. 1. Odd numbers outnumber even numbers, except for "10" 2. The optimal number of items in a listicle is 33-45. 3. "There’s a strong focus on nostalgia, with toys, childhood, and 80s. " 4. "Gay" is surprisingly common keyword 5. "Which" and "Character" get some of the highest FB shares. (possibly from "Which character are you" quizzes) > longetivity of these tactics The first bar graph shows Listicles gaining ground on normal articles until late 2013, then stabilizing over the last 15 months.

onewaystreet 12y ago

The fallacy of the clickbait charge against Buzzfeed is that they don't use clicks as a metric, they focus on shares. Buzzfeed learned from the once hot Upworthy (who originated the "You Won't Believe What Happened Next" style headline) that if a visitor feels like they were tricked into clicking on a link to your site then they aren't going to share it. You get a lot more traffic by delivering on the promises made by your headlines.

zeeshanm 12y ago
I think it's kindov subjective. A clickbait headline may "trick" a user into clicking on a link but it may also deliver on the expected content. Is there a blog post dissecting above hypothesis though. I'd be interested in reading it.