Why do so many YouTubers give their videos offensive clickbait titles and ridiculously exaggerated thumbnails with tears, gaping mouths, fake enthusiasm, and glaring grimaces?
Idiots have their reasons.
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If you don’t give your YouTube videos a very concise title, they won’t get any clicks and won’t be promoted by the algorithm.
What this means is that even if you create a great video, it won’t get “noticed” and you’ll only make a few bucks for a day’s worth of work. This is why most YouTubers, including myself, give our videos clickable names and crazy thumbnails. It’s like, “I can’t stand it if this happens!!!” (Thumbnail image of a man screaming with his hands on his head next to a giant question mark)
If your video becomes a hit within the first few days, YouTube will promote it. Otherwise, it will never be pressed and will be lost in the past, like an old receipt in the back of a beat-up file cabinet.
While people claim to “hate clickbait,” many click on it to power the algorithm and reinforce the “need” for the clickbait title.
Accidental clickbait testing
I’ve seen clickbait work.
Just as a complete joke, my oldest son and I once titled a video about pumpkin planting “Farmers Hate Him!” This strange trick allows you to grow large amounts of food (literally large quantities!). Hint: It’s not a coupon. ”
This 37-minute video shows people digging pumpkin holes, filling them with chicken guts, and planting them, with various fun interludes along the way. So far, it has been viewed 512,415 times and has over 4,600 subscribers.
This certainly taught us something about how powerful clickbait can be. Even if it was done as an unpleasant joke!
In contrast, I created a video simply titled “This is how to grow pumpkins!” It had just 11,000 views and 10 subscribers. This is about 50 times less successful than clickbait videos. Advertising revenue has also decreased by 1/50th.
I don’t like it, but I don’t make the rules. I also don’t judge people’s preferences. For some reason, clickbait works, even though people claim in the comments that they “don’t click on clickbait” and “unsubscribe.”
I intentionally overdid this video, but it was a huge success.
I don’t want to make a stupid Soy Jack face, so I found a public domain image of someone making a monkey face and put it in the image. It has been viewed 603,000 times.
When a clickbait title or thumbnail has the potential to bring in 50x more AdSense revenue than a non-clickbait title, there’s a huge incentive to clickbait.
Imagine only making $10 from a video instead of $500. Because lilsue45 in the comments section said he would quit if he gave a video a clickbait title…
Most people just make up clickbait titles. And lilsue45 probably isn’t going to leave. And if she does, who cares? 100 other people besides you have subscribed because they watched “My Butt Hurts After Doing This at Starbucks!”
We live in unique times. And if you don’t cooperate, you won’t get the legal prize money and you won’t be able to afford Carl’s Jr.
lilsue45 is just jelly, dude.
Will this clickbait trend continue?
Sometimes I wonder if we’ve reached the peak of clickbait.
I’m tempted to start naming all my videos things like “Man Digging Sweet Potatoes” or “About 7 Minutes of Gardening” or “Standing Next to a Pumpkin Plant and Talking About It” . Now all you have to do is have YT pick a random awkward still from your video. Algorithmically it would be fatal, but it would be interesting. Countermeasures against clickbait!
We also considered making the video only black and white.
And it was all shot on a 1984 Panasonic VHS camcorder.
“You won’t believe what she said when she saw my camera!”
Personally, I think it’s a race to the bottom right now. Attention spans are rapidly decreasing and short-form videos are becoming a huge waste of time. TikTok and Instagram are full of high-speed videos, and Youtube Shorts aims to mirror that success. In this clip, it’s not even about the title anymore. It’s important to visually catch your audience seconds before they scroll away. I’ve made some fast-paced short stories, but I don’t prefer medium-length ones.
In fact, I don’t like long-form videos as a medium either. Books are my preferred way to both receive and impart information. But even as online viewing increases, book sales continue to decline.
I don’t think the trend will reverse unless another Carrington event is held.
“We thought the grid was safe, but then something like this happened!”
As one of my commenters wrote yesterday about clickbait, it’s the “Babylon System.”
If you need to use it for views, it’s fine. Make sure the relevant videos are at least entertaining or helpful to your audience.
Otherwise lilsue45 would be really hated.
