School of The Rock

 

Ten Reasons to Avoid Internet Articles that Start with Numbers

Written by Paul Race

You’ve seen them.  You’ve even clicked on them.  “Ten Reasons to Quit your Job Now.”  Five Ways to Improve your Golf Swing.”  “Eight Killer Mistakes People Make in Job Interviews.”  Here are ten reasons why you should stifle the response to click on them in the future:

10. They’re Never Fact-Checked or “Vetted.”

Most web sites on which these appear don’t care if there’s any value in these articles as long as they drive folks to their web sites and their advertisers.  To them it’s “free content.”  (And generally worth every penny!)

9. They’re “Click-Bait” for the Hosting Page.

One SEO consultant recently told me that these “list” articles are almost guaranteed to boost advertising revenue on the sites that host them.

8. They’re SEO-Boosters for the Authors’ Sites.

By publishing clickbait on other folks’ sites and including their own URL in their signature, the “authors” increase the Google ranking for their own sites.   This works even if nobody ever clicks through to the “author’s” site. 

7. They’re Seldom Original.

Most of the folks who throw these together are just rehashing content that they’ve read elsewhere.  It’s a cheap and easy means of self-promotion.

6. They’re Seldom Written by Experts

Most of the ”authors” who aren’t rehashing other people’s content are flat out making it up. In my experience less than one in ten of these “list” articles are written by someone actually qualified to write them.  Again, the sites they post on, even the so-called news sites, don’t care.  

5. They Vastly Oversimplify Life-Altering Decisions.

“Ten Reasons to Change Jobs Now.”  “Ten Signs that it’s Time to Get a Divorce.”  Come on, when has life ever been that simple?  And would you take advice on such topics from a 20-something stranger if he or she was in the room with you?

4. You “Feed the Monster.”

The more you click on Internet “list articles,” the more you motivate unqualified, unoriginal “authors” to write them and the more you motivate “truth-blind” web sites to host them.  Resist the temptation to give these vermin what they want - your “eyeballs,” and, with any luck your clicks on merchandise they advertise.

 

 to Stay with an Unfaithful Spouse.”  The folks who throw these together are almost always rehashing content that they’ve read elsewhere. 

God bless and guide you,

Paul Race 


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