Why Shouldn’t Anyone Click Here?
I’m sure you’ve seen this trick many times: someone writes a headline such as “Don’t Read This!” or creates a banner that reads “Don’t Click Here!,” causing several people to do exactly the opposite.
Curiosity killed the cat and may make you waste your time on something that isn’t even remotely worth it. Yet those sentences work. So I’d like to propose a simple two-step exercise:
1. Think about the kind of content that can be titled “Don’t [insert action here].” It could be an article (”Don’t Read It”), a video (”Don’t Watch This Video”), a podcast (”Don’t Listen It”), a thumbnail that leads to a certain image (”Don’t View This Pic”)… anything you are able to produce.
2. Now create some content that can be titled like that, but do it in such a way that your visitors won’t feel fooled. Don’t let it be a waste of their precious time. Make them feel rewarded for their curiosity.
Why would you wish to try this? Because if you pack some high-quality stuff under a don’t-do-it title, chances are some of those curious visitors will be so glad at their discovery that they will return to your site. And next time they hit your pages you won’t have to play tricks again, for you’ll have already won their trust. 
Just make sure that you won’t disappoint them, of course.
If you ever put this little idea into practice, please let me know. I happen to be a quite curious person. Yes, it means I’d want to find out what you might have hidden under a don’t-do-it headline. *hint, hint*
Posted on December 2nd, 2007 by Karen Zara
Filed under: Ideas and Inspiration
i wrote a post like that once, entitled i don’t believe in god.
it was a bit of a twist on your suggestion, using the “i don’t … but …” approach. the article has a nice page/visit rate and a good time on page number but i can’t say it’s one of my most successful posts - ranks 143 out of 1043 pages since it was posted.
I’ve just read your post. Since this is a very delicate subject for me, I’d rather not discuss the content itself. But yes, I noticed how you applied the “I don’t… but…” concept, and I liked the way you did it.
As for being or not one of your most successful posts, I can only say that 143 out of 1043 isn’t a bad ranking at all. By the way, I hadn’t realised you had so many pages over there until I read your comment above. Wow… I hope I’ll be able to write as much as you do some day, while keeping the posts’ overall quality. I should take a closer look at your blog to learn how to do it.
i haven’t written that many posts - i think i’m at 690 right now. but then you have the monthly pages, the category pages, etc., etc., it all adds up.
I see. Anyway, that’s still a lot of posts. I don’t think I’ve ever written that much, even when I consider posts published on all of my blogs together.