A defense of clickbait from a practitioner. He frames YouTube, where he posts, as “consensual clickbait” — viewers want the videos to grab their attention, and they are satisfied with the payoff. All clickbait isn’t like this (he uses Upworthy as the antagonist, and I can’t say they don’t deserve it), but, in his view, the best clickbait is.
Related: How To Paywall — Edging your audience until they beg for it, by Aella. (If you think an article on that subject with a title that good isn’t itself paywalled, lol.)