The Hustler Diaries Part 7: How to Make People Click on Your Content
91 Likes, 6 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "For my latest on @forbes, I interviewed artist @5uperficial, who's making $950 used panty masks to..."
Some people call it clickbait. I call it creating content that people want to read. When it comes to getting people to click on content, I am something of an expert. I’ve been hired by billion-dollar global companies to get consumers to do just that. Here’s the thing: You are trying to accomplish a single goal. What is that goal, you may ask? You are trying to get someone to move their finger. To click. That’s it. This isn’t brain surgery, folks. In any case, the secret to getting people to click is getting them to feel something. Desire. Curiosity. Fear. People click because they want to engage, and emotions are what drive engagement.
So, let’s take a look at a recent post from my Forbes blog. I wrote about an artist who is turning her used panties into COVID-19 masks. Ah, yes, you might say, thinking you know why people clicked on this post. (And click they did! 10,000 times.) Because sex sells, you say. Well, sure, maybe the used panties had something to do with it. But I published two other posts on my Forbes blog last week that were about sex, and they did half as much traffic.
Let’s parse the details:
Don’t write boring crap
Most people are boring, and because they are boring, they produce boring content. It may be harsh, but it is also true. Don’t be boring! Because so many people are boring, and producing boring content, non-boring content really stands out. A woman making COVID-19 masks out of her used panties? Not boring. But you don’t have to write about used panty COVID-19 masks to get people to click. You do have to write stuff that isn’t boring. Ben Smith wrote this jealous screed against Ronan Farrow, and people are clicking the hell out of that. Matt Taibbi is always ranting about some political thing—I don’t read him so I don’t know what, but whatever—and people click the hell out of his content. I’m trying to think of someone else who writes non-boring content, but so much content is boring that I can’t think of anyone else right now. In any case, say what you will about used panty COVID-19 masks, but they are not boring.
Make the thumbnail image be of a person, preferably with a face, and ideally with eyes
Listen, I’m not the Margaret Mead of making content clickable, but I do know that when your thumbnail image—that image they see when they’re sitting around debating whether or not to click—is of a person, preferably with a face, and ideally with eyes, people are more likely to click it. Maybe it’s because people are lonely af. Maybe it’s because content is a proxy person with which they hope to engage. Maybe it’s due to some weird law of animal attraction of which I am not aware. In any case, people are a million more times likely to click on your content if there’s a person in the image. With this post, the thumbnail image is of the artist wearing one of her masks. You see her eye. She’s looking at YOU. Click!
Be of the moment
It wasn’t actually my idea to write that story. Someone else suggested it. Frankly, I thought it was a little absurd to write about, so I dragged my feet before I finally wrote it. Here’s the funny thing about content. It’s oftentimes the stuff you care about the least that performs the best. I wonder why that is the case? I have no idea. Why did this post generate over 10,000 views in a few days? Maybe it’s Google. Maybe it’s the pandemic. Maybe it’s the masks. Maybe it’s the used panties. Maybe sometimes there are things we just don’t understand about the universe, and this is one of them. May all your content be fruitful and multiply.
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