The Internet Goes Click...Click...Click

It's a wonder to me that advertisers haven't gone beserk in some form or fashion from what seems to be the latest trend in Internet "storytelling." I mean, they spend a ton of money seeking out places to put their ads that will lure in what are supposed to be truly interested buyers of their products.

What's more, what's a click worth?

Well, money of course. Sure, a lot of these websites do get paid based on a certain number of impressions—and if you know what kind of websites I am talking about here, you know that every time one of their pages loads...

So do a ton of ADS!

So basically here's how these tend to work. You click onto a news story or something like that you might find say, on the Bing "homepage." Then you get suggested stories you might like somewhere after the article.

You click on one of those stories and a page loads...yep, complete with all those ads. It provides you some alluring detail...

Take as an example, "One Nike employee who costs the company the deal of a lifetime!"  It says "start slideshow" or something like that and now that you've gotten the bait you just have to click on, right?

So many people must do this, that's why these sites thrive.

So now another page loads, along with tons more ad displays, a picture perhaps as well pertinent to the "story" about to unfold. You'll notice that the screen jumps and scrolls itself. Funny how a lot of that jumping and scrolling occurs right around the time your pointer lands on "continue" or "next slide."

These websites are trying to force a click thru to one of those ads. Invariably to get PAID for that click. 

And that's not only annoying folks. But it is part of the reason I think the advertisers—the READERS notwithstanding—should be going beserk. 

The person clicking thru to that ad that advertiser is paying for probably has NO INTEREST WHATSOEVER in what the ad is about—let alone in buying anything.

Without question there's one more thing that comes readily to mind. The WEBSITE and the STORY WRITER has absolutely no interest in the story either. They are simply interested in getting PAID.

Now, on the surface there is nothing wrong with that. Anyone who writes anything on the Internet would like some form of compensation. It's not THE ONLY reason we do it. But getting some form of compensation from doing it is an added bonus that can help us to determine that the time we spend doing it is worth it in the end.

But there is something else annoying about this trend in websites. That is, in order to get through the whole "article," you're going to have to click through perhaps as many as fifteen pages. Each of those pages will have a paragraph or two that contributes to the story...

AND AGAIN! EVERYTHING IS JUMPING AROUND AND SCROLLING UP AND DOWN WHILE YOU ARE TRYING TO READ WHILE THEY ARE TRYING TO GET YOU TO ACCIDENTALLY CLICK AN AD!

Now. I do get the attention span thing. Or, the lack thereof which plagues society today and these websites understand that as well. It's another reason, in some ways, this tactic actually works. If someone clicks into an "article" and sees a standard article format with several paragraphs and a few pictures they are like to say, "Ugh, I don't want to read ALL that," and are simply going to move on—and tons of ads will never even get the pleasure of an eyeball.

To be honest I actually find these "articles" and the whole presentation a bit annoying if not entirely frustrating. I am extremely careful not to accidentally click an ad. In part because I DON'T THINK IT IS FAIR TO THE ADVERTISER, and more importantly, I AM ACTUALLY THERE TO READ THE ARTICLE. I don't want to be distracted by having to go back from ad I didn't want to click on in the first place...

AND SOMETIMES THE PROCESS IS SO DAUNTING FOR THE PROCESSOR THAT IT OVERLOADS THINGS AND THEN THE SITE FREEZES AND YOU HAVE TO EITHER START ALL OVER, OR RESTART THE COMPUTER.

I personally much prefer a method I am using here for THIS piece. That is the "start-stop" method, or "forced break" method. You are using combinations of short phrases and paragraphs and all caps, italics, bold-face text and other things to give the reader breaks. It also detracts the reader LESS from the longer article format because on the surface, while it is longer, it doesn't immediately present itself as obvious.

It's not the way I prefer to write. But, I will say that given the choice on any of those articles that I am actually interested in the details of, I WOULD MUCH PREFER TO READ IT THIS WAY, THAN THE WAY MOST OF THESE SITES ARE PRESENTING IT. 

In some ways it actually does surprise me a bit that these sites DO INFACT work. It would seem to me that most people would find this sort of thing to be more of a nuisance than a great way to read an article.

But these sites also get an enormous AMOUNT OF TRAFFIC, and for whatever reason the bigger "legit" websites cater to these "clickbait" websites. And so they get all the eyeballs. Other bloggers and article writers get shunned simply because they not only have a story to tell, but ACUTALLY WANT TO TELL THE STORY and would prefer that their story not be loaded up with all of those annoying distractions, jumping and auto-scrolling.

It is what it is, and as I have always said from a pure marketing perspective is that it continues to be done this way BECAUSE IT WORKS. I also know that writing an "article" in the format I have chosen here also works. I get the best hit counts when I write them this way as opposed to a more traditional format. 

And all that can be concluded from that is that until it doesn't work, the Internet, and the user, goes click...click...click...

Until either the readers get tired of it...or the advertisers pull the plug on it.

I do wonder though, out of all of those accidental clicks, how many people also accidentally pull out their wallets and their credit cards and actually buy what they have inadvertently clicked into? MAYBE THAT IS WHY ADVERTISERS have NOT gone beserk. Maybe it actually works? I'll never know because I avoid those accidental clicks like the plague.