Xjyuk

We all have seen at least one of these clickbaits (or some variation thereof):

"single mom discovers the meaning of life with a simple trick"

or

"billionaires don't want you to know this secret"

or

"the 10 things that only real survivors do"

or

"you could be sitting on a fortune"

At face value they just seem cheap psychological tricks. They place the reader in the position to wish to belong to a certain group, and they suggest that membership can be attained with the only effort of clicking somewhere.

As a test I wrote:

If you want to be really famous you only have to click here.

but it does not quite stand the comparison.

Am I being too strict in judging my own clickbait, or is there a deeper art to crafting it?

Clickbait isn't like news where you tell someone the headline so they'll click for more information.

Eggplant linked to lower cancer rates.

Clickbait is where they have to click just to find out the headline.

This one vegetable stops cancer!

There's no nuance in clickbait. Not like medical articles where you use caution about overselling things.

Never tell readers to "click here," because that should be what your headlines makes them think. If you have to tell them, you've lost.

Clickbait creates promises. Sometimes it is about making money, achieving fame, or curing disease. But other times it's a promise of great entertainment.

Whale thanks her rescuer with this incredible move.

The purpose of clickbait is eyeballs (getting the visitor counts up), not to inform, or even to sell. And you do this in part by teasing something someone can't find out via the regular news.

Put this all together and you get lines like:

7 secrets of fame celebrities don't want you to know.

Click bait works by pushing psychological buttons.

Most of those buttons are in the form of tangible curiosity and fear.

Fear: If you don't know this hinted secret you will die

Tangible Curiosity: List. "10 secrets of the incredibly famous" (your test, rewritten)

Also, promises and calls to action tend to trigger people's BS reflex. So, avoid those and stick with inducing the fear that they might lose out on something.

All of those examples imply there is some specific kind of secret knowledge you can learn quickly that will change your life.

In your example, "really famous" is not specific enough. First, in writing, "really" is an intensifier without meaning. What exactly is the difference between being "famous" and "really famous"? Or "mad" and "really mad"?

Even then, famous for what? Ted Bundy is really famous as a serial killer of 30 young women and girls.

Your examples make specific major promises easily learned: The secret of life with one simple trick. A single secret that implies you might become a billionaire. Ten specific actions that might save your life. There is a way you might be rich and unaware of it.

For your example, "One simple trick to gain thousands of new twitter followers" would be click-bait for people that want to become famous.

The trick is to offer something specific that people will want (a product, an experience, knowledge) in return for an extremely small specific effort. That is why such offers are often followed by "You won't believe #4!": Disbelief and surprise are typically pleasant visceral experiences, and you are teasing that with a specific slide (or list item).

Don't ever use the word if. It is a sign of lack of conviction. If you want to impose your clickbait on the audience, don't give them an opportunity to make a choice. Look at your own examples. They are affirmative. The audience feels like making a choice, but they really aren't.

Try to use common habits and trends in your industry. Popular series, movies, shows etc.