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Comment by SixSigma | Hacker News Reader

Instead of generating random articles

  1. Generate click bait headlines
  2. Write suitable copy for them
  3. ???
  4. Profit

Where 3, of course, is "build ad network"

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I know of at least company which actually does this (tests headlines before writing the actual articles).

I've always wondered if sites do this the other way around. A site invests a lot in content they create you would think to get the most out of it they would serve it with different headlines to different demographics. Knowing from Facebook what headlines you have clicked through in the past can indicate how they should write future headlines to get you again.

Oh, they definitely do it the other way around extensively.

In the testing phase, what happens when you click the headline?

Sometimes it just loads a random article, sometimes it gives an error page.

And parts of 2. involves automatically farming out the writing to places like Fiverr..

1a. Split-test. A lot.

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