# Cickbait: how does it work **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 16, 2016, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102 "2016-09-16T17:02:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/1 "2016-09-16T17:02:29Z")
Somebody’s got to be getting rich or no one would bother. What type of financial arrangement is usually involved? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/2 "2016-09-16T17:08:02Z")
Well, Ok, the way I have seen it work is that you go to a page- simply chock full of ads. The clickbait might be “40 pictures you wont believe, and # 29 is amazing!”. You have to go thru a page to see each picture, each page also full of ads. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/3 "2016-09-16T17:08:14Z")
Basically, they generate money from ad revenue. > **[How much ad revenue could a small clickbait "news" site generate?](https://www.quora.com/How-much-ad-revenue-could-a-small-clickbait-news-site-generate)** > > Answer (1 of 4): Almost nothing. Or millions. > > The content itself, especially at 1 article a day, is not going to get anywhere near enough traffic to matter these days. You'll probably make cents, or maybe dollars on the high end, per month. Many... ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/4 "2016-09-16T17:10:46Z")
[You won’t believe how much money you can make with clickbait.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=804812) ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/5 "2016-09-16T18:35:48Z")
I’d be surprised if clickbait sites survive much longer. Internet advertising rates are in freefall, especially for things like click bait sites which are not at all targeted and really only have “low value eyeballs”. Targeted advertising is much more valuable and it’s really where the money is going, you might be lucky to get 1 in 200,000 views with a useful click through on a generic click bait site. You might also find this forum useful, summarises the “hook” in click bait articles in a single line: > **[r/savedyouaclick](https://www.reddit.com/r/savedyouaclick/)** > > r/savedyouaclick: \*Don't click on that, we already did.\* > Fighting news media clickbait for better journalism. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2016, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/6 "2016-09-16T19:39:36Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > [You won’t believe how much money you can make with clickbait.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=804812) Naughty. Read this article on “content farming”–you won’t believe what’s in the see also! (Link farms, click farms? WTF?) > **[Content farm](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_farm)** > > A content farm or content mill is a company that employs freelance creators or uses automated tools to generate a large amount of web content which is specifically designed to satisfy algorithms for maximal retrieval by search engines, known as SEO (search engine optimization). Their main goal is to generate advertising revenue through attracting page views, as first exposed in the context of social spam. > Text articles in content farms have been found to contain identical passages across sever... ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2016, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/7 "2016-09-17T17:16:11Z")
Ever notice when you click on that stuff (“what do sitcom stars of the '70’s look like now” type crap) it’s really slow between pictures on the slide show? It’s to keep you on each page longer so you’ll get bored and look at the ads. And they lie like mother fuggers. I clicked on one that said “You’ll never guess who Gene Wilders daughter is” and it went through a bunch of celebrities kids but never mentioned Wilder. [South Park](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVfslRsNXUc) did a couple of episodes on this. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2016, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/8 "2016-09-17T17:56:18Z")
Google and others are also conspiring against clickbait links and will no longer permit or index them. No cite, read this on one of the tech sites a few weeks ago. Not surprising that it’s in part because it’s devaluing ad revenue the same way letting 5.000 homeless in might devalue the Black and White Ball. Bad for everyone, and probably not all that great for 99% of the clickbaiters. I am heartily sick of seeing scads of this web junk food on even quality, big-name sites. It can die any day now. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/9 "2016-09-19T11:37:55Z")
Ads currently showing on this page (for us non-members): **"His Final Words Were Shocking"** \ **"20 Mysterious Photos That Cannot Be Explained"** \ **"Presidents Ranked By IQ Guess Who Was First"** \ **"13 Poisonous Foods We Commonly Eat"** \ Presumably there’s enough money in these stupid ads to help fund this messageboard. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/10 "2016-09-19T11:52:48Z")
Mangnets. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2016, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/11 "2016-09-19T12:47:45Z")
There’s also different kinds of clickbait, too - besides the "_Do These 29 Hollywoo Stars And Celebrities Know Things? What Do They Know? We Found Out (And Number 12 Will Amaze Your Dog)"_ sites, which - as has previously been mentioned - are really just thinly-veiled ad delivery exercises, there’s also “Hot Take”-type clickbait on news websites. That’s basically where someone posts a particularly controversial opinion piece, knowing it’s going to get a lot of people reading it and commenting on it; that sort of thing is audience metric/advertising gold (_Gold, Jerry! Gold!_). Some internet advertising is sold with guaranteed page impressions - ie the website guarantees that x number of people will see the page; clickbait headlines (_What do you get when you cross an owl with a bungy cord?_) are one way to reach those targets. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/12 "2016-09-20T00:18:36Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Mangnets. Those are [different kinds of links](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnet_URI_scheme). ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2016, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cickbait-how-does-it-work/766102/13 "2016-09-20T04:44:02Z")
One of the most annoying for tech support people, are sites which essentially collecting every tech support question they can run across, and posting the links to them all. Google something like “Windows 7 SP1 will not install” or “folder security AD SID shows not username” or similar tech question - it’s getting better, but you used to get more than anything sites that listed these tech support questions on several other sites, but no answers. List 300 tech questions on one page and you’ll have the keywords to get a hit out of almost any tech question. Plus, I seem to find the same discussion thread word for word on half a dozen sites. Someone’s blatantly ripping off.