Do I Need To Be Controversial?

Being an internet writer is hard. There is a lot of pressure. You want your work to be seen, right? You don’t want to spend all of this time writing, pouring out your thoughts, and poring over a keyboard only to have no one read it…like EVER, right? You want it to be seen, to be affirmed, to be agreed with.

But there are so many people writing. There is so much to be said. There is so much to be read. It can be overwhelming. The writer wants to be read but the reader has so many choices. Enter CLICKBAIT. Writers, copywriters, and marketers are sharing controversial headlines that may or may not have to do with the actual content of the article.

I was on a sports website recently and at the bottom of the article, I saw an ad talking about how a wrestler almost got banned from the industry. I clicked on it and it began talking about a prominent wrestler-turned-actor. As I read, it became clear that the story I was reading was false. The article went on to state the reason for the wrestler’s banning was because of a supplement he was taking. He was getting such amazing results that no one could believe he wasn’t on steroids.

On this same site, I saw several other ads for actors and athletes making the same claims about this supplement. I began wondering why this “reputable” site would allow this blatantly false advertising to occupy space on…