I don't even need to read the article - even regular schmoes that I had been following for years on YouTube, etc., succumbed to that debauchery - and it makes me just wanna vom.

Even back in the early 80's in my journalism courses, were were taught to use the "inverted pyramid" method of authoring articles - the excuse back then was space restrictions - editors needing to make the most out of space, so every article had to be written in such a way that the editor could cut your article off at the end of any paragraph to make space for the real estate needed by other journalists.

So we had the headline, an attention grabber, followed by a leading sentance / paragraph with the "Big idea", then supporting info in decreasing order of either significance or sensationalism.

I guess the SERPS by indexers like Google and others incintivized click-bait as a valid relevance, but in reality, they were just encouraging trash headers so that we (the average joeschmoes of the world) can't even really be certain that the headlines grabbing us actually relate to something relevant or truly interesting to the audience the authors seek to engage.

It's a very sad state - resist the urge to write according the rules of SEO - that amost guarantees that your articles will be trash.

Instead, talk to your audience - the subject matter should speak for itself and once your readership learns that you don't do click-bait they'll become loyal followers and even subscribe to your RSS or ATOM feeds :)

BTW, I really find your publishing interesting - you make people think, ask questions, and engage their cerebrums.

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