[orangethirty]

I stumbled into some weird data as to how startups may be able to use this kind of technique without exploiting people. Yeah, it sounds hard to believe. But you have to understand that every technique out there can be used for good. Anyhow, turns out that there are some tricks that these type of advertisers use to increase their response. One just needs to carefully read the source of their pages (specially the Javascript), and you will find lots of interesting stuff in it. Just beware. Once you dig into this type of advertising your view on the subject might change dramatically. You can learn more about it here: http://bit.ly/13wOrj2

Edit:

16 clicks on 2 minutes. This sort of technique works on everybody, including smart hackers. Its mostly about talking about what you want. Some people want to lose weight, others control their diabetes. Apparently, lots of people want to learn of a little known advertising secrets for startups. I should make a Copy as a Service startup. (:

See how many are suckered into clicking: http://bit.ly/13wOrj2+

[xeper]

I grew up in Utah. Living there taught me at least one thing that helps me deal with certain types of more fanatical or difficult people I meet and deal with on a near daily basis:

    Everyone wants to be part of a secret society or have some esoteric knowledge that
    makes them feel set-apart from the norm.

Unfortunately, this is incredibly easy to exploit and I've watched nearly every member of my family get taken in by someone or something promising them unrealistic benefits from some 'secret' or another.

[lostlogin]

Jesus!

[euroclydon]

The gospel of Jesus is a poorly kept secret.

[astine]

I don't think that anyone who clicked that link really believed that they were going to find out "one weird trick," so much as they just really wanted to know what you were really linking to.

[turtlerose]

Oh, come on. There's such an obvious difference of situations here it's not even worth going into.

[zombio]

Agreed, it was obviously satire.

[lotharbot]

I considered clicking just to see if it was a rickroll.

[robobenjie]

I was disappointed it wasn't.

[runn1ng]

Amazing. People click on stuff that is in comments. Genius.

[dan1234]

> 16 clicks on 2 minutes.

How many people usually click on the links in comments? Unless you have something to compare it with, your experiment is not useful.

[rhizome]

16 clicks on 2 minutes. This sort of technique works on everybody, including smart hackers.

Assuming facts not in evidence. Are you saying that all HN readers are "smart hackers?" ...or even that there's a greater likelihood of them being one simply by virtue of reading the site?

[emhart]

Some of us just click because we like seeing the punchline :)

[X4]

I would say nice try, but after seeing your EDIT, I'm shocked that it works that good.

[GhotiFish]

Percentage of those clicks that were bots? Eh?

Also, this context is far removed from any real world scenario. Cracked did a decidedly low brow version of it, everyone clicked through, just because they wanted to see what stunt they would pull.

If you know it's going to be a joke, you might as well see the punchline.

[X4]

using curiosity against you.

[greesil]

Thank you. Best comment I've seen all year.

[lucisferre]

The value of "tricked" clicks vs. relevant clicks seems dubious to me.

[markild]

Agreed. I found the goal of this comment obvious from the second sentence.

I do find that I click links like this, simply out of the curiosity of seeing what exactly I'm being nudged into consuming/buying.

[derleth]

Congratulations. You're smart enough to abuse a position of some minor trust. That's never been done before. The fact your draw a nonsensical conclusion from it just makes the moment that much more special.

[cLeEOGPw]

HN users have established a certain amount of trust in each other that lets us evaluate links in user's comments differently than links in other places, especially if the comment is upvoted. Your "technique" shows exactly that. If you would write anything like that on a thread NOT about advertising, you would just be downvoted and not get almost any clicks, so I don't agree that the same techniques work on everybody. Screening technique exists exactly for that - to screen people on who the techniques won't work.