In self-media, we often see some very shocking headlines. But when you click in, you find that what they talk about is rather ordinary. We call that “clickbait.” We hate clickbait—not because the headline tricks us into clicking in, but because the content wastes our time. Our time is valuable. If we had known it would be this kind of content, we wouldn’t click. But before clicking, we can only decide based on the headline—so we end up getting “lured in.”

But being lured in isn’t entirely a bad thing. Wang Sicong said he was a poor guy; in the end, you realize he fooled you—you might just get angry a bit. But if a “poor guy” says he’s an Arab prince, and you later find out he’s just some loser working on a factory floor, then you would be furious, wouldn’t you?

The question of whether clickbait makes people hate it isn’t whether it strongly draws you to click. It’s whether the quality of the content after you click can avoid wasting that slice of your time. That’s the key.

So if your content quality is very good, then you have to put in everything to study headline-writing techniques—how to get all the people who want to see it to come in. No matter how you attract attention, it’s all good. On the other hand, if your content quality is very bad, then you should polish the content quality first, because even if your headline is brilliant, once people are in and find nothing, it won’t help.

What I said isn’t only about text—short videos are the same. You need to respect the communication rules of self-media. For example, when viewers open a short video, what kind of state are they in, and how many seconds of patience do they have? Then you must respect these psychological traits of the audience. If you need to put a hook at the beginning, put the hook there. You hook them because you have good stuff for them—you’re helping them, giving them value—not because you’re trying to trick them.

Some people think my stuff is good, so I don’t need these techniques. If they didn’t see it, that’s their loss. Yes, it’s their loss. But aren’t you doing self-media? Then shouldn’t you provide as high a value as possible to as many people as possible? High value is certainly content quality. But what about as many people as possible? If fewer people end up seeing your higher-quality output, doesn’t the total value you provide to the world also decrease?

I understand that for ordinary users, what they most want is for each work’s title to accurately summarize the content itself. But the point is: while you do that, others don’t—so your better content, by some twist of fate, loses in market competition to those ugly, lousy things. That’s a double loss between good content and audience attention.

To change your mindset, you have to respect the communication rules of self-media, respect the audience’s mindset when they watch your content, respect how important the title and the hook are for helping the audience absorb the good stuff smoothly—and that’s also a kind of respect for the audience. #GUSD年化升至3.8%