Did you know that Clickbait can hurt your brand?
This is what you should NOT do if you want to have a successful and long-lasting business.
Example of a clickbait
In today’s world, we often see flashy ads claiming wonderful things, but only to get disappointed in the end. Most companies are using this tactic to drive traffic to their website, but let’s face it. Nobody likes being click baited.
We’ve all fallen victim to clickbait at least once in our lifetime while roaming the internet. Not only are click baits deceiving, but it’s wasting your time.
In this article, I’d like to talk about how clickbait can hurt your brand. Personally, I’ve noticed Clickbait being a huge issue on media channels like YouTube.
For example, you might have seen an interesting title or thumbnail. It enticed you to check it out, but in the video, it hardly relates to the title or the thumbnail.
I hate it and I’ve unsubscribed from many YouTubers because it misled me into thinking that I was going to watch or hear about something based on the title or thumbnail.
What Is Clickbait Exactly?
Clickbait can be a misleading title or picture that entices you to click on it but delivers something entirely irrelevant.
Definition from Wikipedia: Clickbait is a form of false advertisement which uses hyperlink text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, with a defining characteristic of being deceptive, typically sensationalized or misleading.
Why Do People Clickbait?
People clickbait because they know they are not going to get any real viewers without lying. These are individuals who only care about their personal gains rather than your best interest.
Also, people clickbait because it works! Clickbait has proven to work over and over again because we don’t know whether it’s a clickbait or not until we’ve actually clicked on the content.
Fool Me Once Shame On Me, Fool Me Twice Shame On You
Although clickbait might be proven to be very effective when trying to gain viewers, it can backfire on you if you truly care about your online business.
Let’s use two examples here (one for YouTube and one for Websites)
YouTube Example:
The word spreads like wildfire on the internet. If you are a known clickbait, people will talk about you and sooner or later you will lose all credibility and trust.
Yes, you will gain views at first, but you are also losing viewers in the long run. Nobody likes a click baiter and it doesn’t take a genius like me to realize that I’ve been click baited.
Let’s say you have 100,000 subscribers, the currently subscribed will soon unsubscribe and the ones you just click baited wouldn’t bother subscribing because you just LIED to them.
Well, of course, there will always be some who don’t mind being click baited and subscribes, but if you want to truly maximize your earning potentials, you need to think of your viewers first.
It’s hard to deliver quality content, but it’s even harder to keep your subscribers if you don’t try.
Website Example:
If you are an online affiliate marketer or the owner of an online business. Click baiting will definitely do you way more harm than good!
As an online business, generating traffic is quite essential because, without traffic, you wouldn’t be able to make any type of sales.
However, when you rely on the use of click-baiting, you will sooner ruin your business than being successful.
There are bloggers who try to be very creative with their headlines hoping you would click it, but turns out the content delivered has nothing to do with it!
The idea of a captivating headline is a good idea, but only if you can back it up with relevant content!
You want viewers to return because most consumers wouldn’t buy a single thing until after a couple of visits, but if your first delivery of content leaves a bad taste in your viewer’s mouth. Chances are, they would never return or recommend your website to anyone.
Don’t Be A Click Baiter
If you truly care about your viewers and your reputation, please think about it before you publish your next post. Is the content within relevant to your headline?
This is very important for people who are new to online marketing. Most beginners believe that pumping out a lot of posts will get them lots of viewers and potentially increasing their revenue.
Don’t forget, your viewers are here to get information from you! You will never have a return viewer if your content is misleading and has nothing to do with what they’re looking for.
Viewers → Helpful Quality Content → Sharing Your Content → More likely to Return → High Sales Potential
Vs
Viewers → Clickbait Content → NO SHARES → Never Returns → Lower Sales Potential
As you can see, your earning potential is much higher if you share high-quality content, but it makes sense! Hard work pays off whereas clickbait frustrates your new viewer’s experience.
Thank you very much for taking precious time out of your life to read this blog! Hopefully, this has discouraged the use of clickbait and instead, encouraged quality content production.
This blog was in no way shape or form intended to offend anyone! I’m doing affiliate marketing myself and I much rather have competitors who are at least offering informative, non-click-bait and quality content!
If you are interested in learning more about how to make money online. I highly recommend that you check out my Wealthy Affiliate review by clicking on the image down below.
Kind Regards,
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