4 ms·

>> Some of this guy's lack of popularity is down to his videos not being labelled well I do not envy the life of a struggling content creator. Having to alw

>> Some of this guy's lack of popularity is down to his videos not being labelled well I do not envy the life of a struggling content creator. Having to always come up with titles like... "Man feeds CATNIP to crazy fail dog" ...sounds like a special kind of hell to me.

yomly 7y ago
If working life is about being paid for your time by providing valuable skills, paying, or learning for yourself, to get useful clickbait seems like every other skill to me. Ultimately it's a bit like all other interpersonal communications so if you enjoy making headlines or captions or brand spiels you can probably learn to love clickbait titles. Though if all of that is wooly to you then yeah it's probably not your cup of tea, but I can assure you for people who have invested in that skill they probably quite enjoy the thrill of trying to craft the perfect clickbait title and now in the age of data the success of it is measurable, creating a tighter feedback loop...
- munificent 7y ago
  > they probably quite enjoy the thrill of trying to craft the perfect clickbait title and now in the age of data the success of it is measurable, creating a tighter feedback loop... They probably do, but they get that thrill at the emotional expense of the consumers. It's a fundamentally selfish act. "Clickbait" really means that the title sets an expectation in the viewer that is more engaging than the content itself actually is. The viewer clicks and then ends up disappointed because the actual content is less rewarding than the title suggested. But at that point, the author's already claimed their precious ounce of attention and got what they wanted. The name stuck for a reason. Fish don't end up happy that they ate the bait. Only the fisher does. So I don't think we should be happy that people find this skill thrilling or rewarding any more than we should laud the thrill of a skilled pick-pocket or con artist.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    Headline writing has been a skill since long before there were clicks. Sure, headlines can veer into the misleading and there are certain particularly annoying online patters. But the whole purpose of a headline is to entice you to read.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
elif 7y ago
Thumbnails have gotten mad too. To get CTR, they have to be obvious and alluring to a 3 year old with 0.1 seconds of attention. Having a detailed thumbnail appropriate to your content is throwing away revenue. Some content creators cycle through 5-10 thumbnails based upon metrics during the first 12 hours.

yomly 7y ago

If working life is about being paid for your time by providing valuable skills, paying, or learning for yourself, to get useful clickbait seems like every other skill to me. Ultimately it's a bit like all other interpersonal communications so if you enjoy making headlines or captions or brand spiels you can probably learn to love clickbait titles. Though if all of that is wooly to you then yeah it's probably not your cup of tea, but I can assure you for people who have invested in that skill they probably quite enjoy the thrill of trying to craft the perfect clickbait title and now in the age of data the success of it is measurable, creating a tighter feedback loop...

munificent 7y ago
> they probably quite enjoy the thrill of trying to craft the perfect clickbait title and now in the age of data the success of it is measurable, creating a tighter feedback loop... They probably do, but they get that thrill at the emotional expense of the consumers. It's a fundamentally selfish act. "Clickbait" really means that the title sets an expectation in the viewer that is more engaging than the content itself actually is. The viewer clicks and then ends up disappointed because the actual content is less rewarding than the title suggested. But at that point, the author's already claimed their precious ounce of attention and got what they wanted. The name stuck for a reason. Fish don't end up happy that they ate the bait. Only the fisher does. So I don't think we should be happy that people find this skill thrilling or rewarding any more than we should laud the thrill of a skilled pick-pocket or con artist.
- ghaff 7y ago
  Headline writing has been a skill since long before there were clicks. Sure, headlines can veer into the misleading and there are certain particularly annoying online patters. But the whole purpose of a headline is to entice you to read.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

elif 7y ago

Thumbnails have gotten mad too. To get CTR, they have to be obvious and alluring to a 3 year old with 0.1 seconds of attention. Having a detailed thumbnail appropriate to your content is throwing away revenue. Some content creators cycle through 5-10 thumbnails based upon metrics during the first 12 hours.