Member-only story
humor | money | clickbait | psychology
Clickbait Sucks!
yes — it really does — but …..
But???? It works!
Online platforms want to make money. Medium is no different — and the people who write here certainly are no different. Many, if not most, want to make money and they study how to make money — not how to write — but how to make money. This, in spite of those who say they are here to write, not make money. [I rarely believe them.]
It really isn't hard to figure out the money part, because the media — even what people call the mainstream media — have figured it out — and they figured it out years ago back when we had more print media.
It's this:
online:
use clickbait — get people to click on your story because then you get advertisers who pay to be on the clicked stories pages…
print:
“if it bleeds it leads” — gore draws eyes and ad money follows…
On Medium, the gist is this: get people to click on your story and spend a few minutes on it then Medium will pay you a few pennies. And if you get a lot of clicks you might wind up on the front page of Medium where more people will click on your link, rinse and repeat….
