Cover Image by the author. Background image source. Headline by Todd Brison

Most are arguably clickbait

Headlines are a hot topic at the moment, and with good reason. With readers’ ever-decreasing attention span and thousands of articles getting published daily, headlines are about your only real tools in your belt.

I’ve crafted my fair share of headlines in the past 32 months — about 1,000 — and still, it’s not an art I master. Heck, I don’t know that anyone does, but it doesn’t hurt to keep practicing.

On my blog, I published articles with content I thought was great, but they were getting close to zero views. When I decided to republish them under a different headline, with no other change, they started getting thousands of views.

That’s the power of good headlining in action!

If you’re a writer, surely you’ve seen similar results. And if you’re a reader, you’ve likely noticed that you only click on certain types of headlines.

So, last month, I started analyzing some of the most popular articles published on Medium.com and tried to find out what works and what doesn’t. I compiled the results in a spreadsheet and I want to share a part of it with you here.

We’ll go a little deeper into each of the headlines below.

Results compiled in September from top stories from top tags

Below, I’ll explain how clickbait or not each headline is. Whether the articles are any good is out of the question here. That being said, if they got that popular, it’s likely they’ve delivered on their promise, clickbait or not.

Here’s how I define clickbait in this article:

Clickbait headline — designed to entice users to click the link using misleading and too-good-to-be-true statements.

Let me know your opinion on any of them in the comments section.

*List ordered by descending number of claps

#1

4 Things Emotionally Intelligent People Don’t Do

My clickbait rating: 4

I’d say this one isn’t clickbait in nature. It’s possible, even if unlikely. It also helps that the author is a clinical psychologist and backs his claims in the article.

#2

This Morning Routine will Save You 20+ Hours Per Week

My clickbait rating: 8

20+ hours per week means you save 2 hours 52 minutes per day, just by changing the things you do in the morning. A more realistic headline would claim you’d save maybe 5 hours per week, but sadly, people wouldn’t click on it.

#3

8 Really Small Things That Tell You a Lot About Someone

My clickbait rating: 7

A small thing leads to a big thing.

This is a winning formula that’s hard not to scream clickbait at, especially when you put extra emphasis on the small part. That being said, in this case, it’s possible that small things can tell a good number of things about someone. It’s unlikely but possible.

#4

The 7 Habits of Truly Charming People

My clickbait rating: 9

Charm is pretty subjective. One person I find charming, you might completely hate. Putting all charming people in the same basket and finding 7 habits they all have in common is unlikely to work every time. Also, adding the in front stipulates that these are the only 7, which is impossible.

#5

What I Learned Building an Online Course That Sold out in 10 Days

My clickbait rating: 3

The course sold out in 10 days, it’s a fact, so nobody can take that away. But maybe there were just 10 students in total and each paid $10? That being said, headlines about personal lessons are rarely clickbait in my opinion.

#6

6 Habits of People With High Social Skills

My clickbait rating: 7

“High social skills” is less subjective than “charm” from above. This headline also doesn’t start with the, meaning the author doesn’t claim they’re the only ones. Because of these two things, I put my clickbait rating lower.

#7

The 7 Things That Accidentally Led to Becoming A Full-Time Writer

My clickbait rating: 3

Everyone loves a good accidental good story. Again, writing from experience rarely is clickbait. Accidental is a tricky word to use because things are typically not as accidental as they seem in hindsight. And again the at the start means they’re the only ones, but it’s highly unlikely.

#8

How I Write 7–10 Articles Per Week, Every Week

My clickbait rating: 0

It’s quite hard not to deliver on this headline. This is what the author does after all, and with no pretence that you, the reader, will be able to do it. Or need to do it.

#9

The 6 Steps to Silencing Anxiety

My clickbait rating: 8

Man, I wish someone could actually deliver on this. “I only need 6 steps to finally get rid of my anxiety? Sweet, count me in!” Only 6 steps to solve millions of people’s number one problem is extremely likely to underdeliver. This would have been a 10 if the author went for this instead: “The 6 Micro Steps to Silencing Your Anxiety Forever”.

#10

10 Qualities That Make You Unforgettable

My clickbait rating: 7

That’s quite broad. Unforgettable for who? Is this positive or negative? It’s also quite subjective. That being said, it’s likely that 10 qualities can make you unforgettable, especially given how broadly you can interpret “unforgettable”.

#11

Steve Jobs’s Advice Turned This Programmer Into a Billionaire

My clickbait rating: 9

“Wait, so a single piece of advice from a world-renown person led a regular guy to become rich? Click, click, click!” If it were that simple, wouldn’t we all be billionaires? This is also a good indicator of clickbait.

#12

30 Things You Should Know About Life Before You Turn 30

My clickbait rating: 7

Is there really something you “should” know before any point in time? All advice is nice to have, but rarely necessary. Anything “urgent” airs on the side of clickbait.

#13

5 Things You Should Do Before Lunch

My clickbait rating: 7

Again, there’s no such thing as things everyone has to do before any specific time. I’m rating this 7 as well for the same reasons as above.

#14

Develop Mental Toughness With This Ancient Practice

My clickbait rating: 5

Using this "something" is always indicative of clickbait. A less clickbait-y way would be to just name the practice in the headline. The first part is great though. There’s no pretence of impossible results. Developing mental toughness is possible to do, and the author makes no claim as to how grandiose your results could be.

#15

Ukrainian Developer Built a $19.3 Billion App — Because Silicon Valley Was Too Ignorant to Do It

My clickbait rating: 9

Money talks! Dumb mistakes talk! Bam, winning headline! Much like the one about the cryptic developer above, here we’re presenting with a Ukrainian developer instead of this developer. This is very similar to #11 on this list. It’s clickbait, it’s enticing, and it works to get readers’ attention.

#16

One Book Explains Everything That’s Wrong with America in 2020

My clickbait rating: 9

Exploit a trending topic: check! Confirm the population’s suspicion: check! Boil it down into a single small thing to fix everything: check! It’s clickbait and it’s genius. Don’t steal this. :)

#17

Trump’s Latest Move Against Biden Is Pure Marketing Genius

My clickbait rating: 3

Personally, I love this headline. Todd is a master at twisting people’s perceptions in his headlines. I’d argue that it’s controversial, but not clickbait. There’s a fine line.

#18

This is How I Made $40k In Passive Income By Age 26

My clickbait rating: 1

The author shares his story of how he made good money. The numbers make it enticing, but not misleading. This is not clickbait in my book.

#19

Donald Trump Is Smarter Than We Ever Gave Him Credit For

My clickbait rating: 3

This is very similar to #17 on this list. Controversial, yes? Clickbait, not in my opinion.

#20

What It’s Like to Date Women, According to Men I Know

My clickbait rating: 0

I love this headline! This sounds really entertaining and potentially funny. There’s no promise of grandiose results and is based on experience from the author’s entourage.

#21 — Bonus

20 Headlines Readers Raved About

My clickbait rating: 0

Okay, I’m rating my own headline at zero, but it can’t really be misleading. Simply, it’s an interesting fact. Here’s how you turn this into a true clickbait headline:

Headline: 20 Unimaginative Headlines Readers Surprisingly Raved About
Subtitle: Why You Have to Steal Them Right Away If You Want to Be Uber Successful

What are your thoughts on this?

— Danny