3 ms·

When I find an article like this, what is supposed to convince me to spend the time to read it? The title communicates almost nothing and there's no subtitle. T

When I find an article like this, what is supposed to convince me to spend the time to read it? The title communicates almost nothing and there's no subtitle. The author starts off with a (boring) vinette and knowingly teases the actual topic: "Needless to say this article is about Saudia Arabia." But there are thousands of journalist writing thousands of articles about Saudi Arabia right now. Is the idea that I would know the author's name and just trust them? (Surely no one loves everything TechCrunch puts out generally.) Or that I'd get linked to it on social media from someone who's taste I really trust? I'm just honestly confused why a column like this doesn't have such a bad bounce rate as to induce a different writing style.

coldtea 8y ago
If article titles were crafted to convey the topic and thus only attract people interested in the topic they'd be as good as useless. Instead they use bold, non detailed, titles to attract readers that might not even care about the particular subject (but will click to see what the "blood money" are about). Isn't that the whole idea behind clickbait titles? Bounce rate after reading some of the article shouldn't really concern them, as long as people click on the article and the banners have been displayed.
- gowld 8y ago
  Adtech has some awareness of bounce rate -- page linger time is a factor in ad impression metrics. That's why so many sites have arbitrary videos at the bottom of articles, to inclease linger time on the page.
- jessriedel 8y ago
  I understand they want clicks and the general incentives for clickbait, and thus why the title might be a tease. But they also need to keep people on the site to view and click on the ads (especially near the bottom). So, for instance, why not tease more with a subtitle? Maybe the idea is that, empirically, the small fraction of people who will trudge through the article to find the mystery topic, for whatever reason, nevertheless stay for long enough that total ad exposure is higher. So the bounce rate is high but outweighed by these outliers. It still doesn't help me understand their motivation though. Like, there are a thousand news articles each day that begin with an intro thats indistinguishable (information-wise) from this one. Why read this one?
  - wwwdonohue 8y ago
    I think it's just laziness/the economics of web content. Stuff like this usually gets pushed live more or less as soon as it's written and (maybe) checked for spelling errors.
- wwwdonohue 8y ago
  Clickbait is usually sensationalist. It promises something so intriguing/attractive that you click because the potential payoff is higher than the cost of clicking. It's kind of just good title writing taken to the extreme, if you think of a good title as something that intrigues you (but delivers on the intrigue) or makes a promise (but fulfills that promise with the content. I've been trying to think of an apt clickbait title for this piece for the last few minutes, but can't: I think, because the article isn't really saying much that's new at all.

coldtea 8y ago

If article titles were crafted to convey the topic and thus only attract people interested in the topic they'd be as good as useless. Instead they use bold, non detailed, titles to attract readers that might not even care about the particular subject (but will click to see what the "blood money" are about). Isn't that the whole idea behind clickbait titles? Bounce rate after reading some of the article shouldn't really concern them, as long as people click on the article and the banners have been displayed.

gowld 8y ago
Adtech has some awareness of bounce rate -- page linger time is a factor in ad impression metrics. That's why so many sites have arbitrary videos at the bottom of articles, to inclease linger time on the page.
jessriedel 8y ago
I understand they want clicks and the general incentives for clickbait, and thus why the title might be a tease. But they also need to keep people on the site to view and click on the ads (especially near the bottom). So, for instance, why not tease more with a subtitle? Maybe the idea is that, empirically, the small fraction of people who will trudge through the article to find the mystery topic, for whatever reason, nevertheless stay for long enough that total ad exposure is higher. So the bounce rate is high but outweighed by these outliers. It still doesn't help me understand their motivation though. Like, there are a thousand news articles each day that begin with an intro thats indistinguishable (information-wise) from this one. Why read this one?
- wwwdonohue 8y ago
  I think it's just laziness/the economics of web content. Stuff like this usually gets pushed live more or less as soon as it's written and (maybe) checked for spelling errors.
wwwdonohue 8y ago
Clickbait is usually sensationalist. It promises something so intriguing/attractive that you click because the potential payoff is higher than the cost of clicking. It's kind of just good title writing taken to the extreme, if you think of a good title as something that intrigues you (but delivers on the intrigue) or makes a promise (but fulfills that promise with the content. I've been trying to think of an apt clickbait title for this piece for the last few minutes, but can't: I think, because the article isn't really saying much that's new at all.