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Admittedly, I also found another type of headline construction that works really well, and it’s describing something that’s usually big (RVs) and saying it’s smaller than something everyone knows about (pickup trucks). I’m not sure why the Internet gods that be seem to love that so much.
I joked that one day we should have a headline that says “This Harley-Davidson Is Smaller Than An F-150 And Drives Like A Car” which had me laughing for a good 10 minutes straight.
Also, train stuff sometimes does weirdly well, which I’m so happy about.
It could also be fun to lean into the opposite and reference things that are a little more obscure:
“The new Honda Civic Si is faster than a Toyota 6BPU15 and handles better than a New Holland TC 5.80 SCR”
I think “Some Geniuses” works because it’s ambiguous. Is it in the Einstein/Stephen Hawking meaning? Or the “Hey Gladys! Some geniuses just got caught on fire by the sparklers they were holding!”
Oh Internet, I love thee.
Perhaps you found a term that no one else did, and you did well with it. I also agree to create a banner thingy for it for the topshots. Also, you said it yourself, meter out the posts. For stuff that isn’t time dependent, it should be easy to plan things out better than you are (no offense). Are you familiar with Microsoft Project?
Nice to get another look under the hood at what makes this site what it is. Thanks for that.
I wanna read about the genius who shoves a Wärtsilä RT-flex96C into a Civic.
It’s absolutely the specific combinations of certain words that spark likely reactions from like groups of people. I won’t try to explain in depth, but it’s very obvious to me why ‘Some Geniuses’ works with Autopian readers. However, the ‘Some’ part is key because it implies extra insight and recognition of something special and exclusive. A quality I would say many of the readers here pride themselves upon. People like to think they’re smart and that such makes them extra capable of recognizing the overlooked genius only they can discern because of their own genius.
It dovetails perfectly with Weird is Good.
I do like reading about the exploits of people smarter and more driven/daring than myself. But to me the “Some Geniuses” trope reiterates and exemplifies the camaraderie and supportive nature of this site that I appreciate so wholeheartedly.
I honestly thought for a moment this was going to be about that weird (but thankfully brief) fad of ‘Don’t get mad yet…” or “Prepare to get mad…” article headlines that popped up across multiple car sites simultaneously a while back. That’s rage-click bating and it hit a nerve with me. I’m glad y’all walked away from that one.
I will add an nth approval for the idea of coming up with a ‘some geniuses’ banner similar to the ‘holy grail’ banner and use it for future articles. Those kinds of unique phrases/in-jokes, whatever you want to call them, adds to the feeling that we Autopians all belong to something together, and not just some website that we click through from time to time. That’s the good stuff.
Some Geniuses found this one weird headline hack that Google doesn’t want you to know, and it’s better than it has any right to be!
This Bud’s for you, you Real Autopians of Genius.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsC3ni7A88M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn5BhnYr8WY
This is the play IMO – it makes it clear that it’s a series and the repetitive headline is deliberate, rather than an accident arising out of lack of creativity. That said, as a data point: whether or not I click on these articles has very little to do with the headline and a lot to do with my interest in the topic. I’m a sucker for wacky engine swaps and will read about them every time.
Only geniuses like (dry) timing belts.
Rebranding that article promptly…
So you’re saying there’s a “special trick” to writing click bait headlines?
… that Google doesn’t want you to know!
Along with 3 simple tricks to lose belly fat.
Some Geniuses Created a Killer Headline That Drives Engagement!
As long as you avoid the “Genius Hack” headline, I’m not that bothered. Though the thought of having there be standard banner makes sense, showing it to be a series of sorts.
Also, I hope you never do the $Q%@(* slideshow thing…
Counterpoint: I tend not to click on the ‘Some Geniuses’ items because I found the September batch of headlines annoying. (IIRC all three of them were posted within 1-1.5 weeks, so pretty close together.) I also don’t think most of the engine swaps approach “genius” territory but that’s JMO.
I think DT’s approach makes sense here: use a specific topshot for the Genius stuff and pretend it’s a series/regular feature to take some of the ick out of the repetition. 🙂
That’s a shame, it would be the perfect medium for The Morning Dump.
Autopian branded toilet paper. I’m in for a few rolls.
It can’t be the red logo though :yikes:
Ok but only if it’s 2-ply because I’m sensitive 😉
Whats funny to me is at the end of this, i still cant tell if the Torch fact is joke or not. Because ‘Torch using a selfie stick to document working on the Marshal in a speedo’ seems plausible.
Some geniuses think this will be the holy grail of comments.
I’m genuinely surprised that this is a great basis that will change this most bonkers comment forever. It’s not that I have questions, I’m just saying it looks like a pretty good deal.
You can buy this sweet COTD.
Wait.. what?
Yeah, for a while it did kinda get old for me…but now that I know it works great for you and is helping the site…that’s so AWESOME. Thanks Mercedes!
One of the business articles about accountants in the auto industry should use the phrase “Sum geniuses.”
I’ll give you the Dad joke
Gold
I think I speak for all of us, or at least most of us, when I say I’d rather put up with Torch’s wrenching nakeys than listicles. You know, if you guys decide to go in that direction. Uh, just seeing that word listicles gives me shivers, I HATED those on the old site.
The stupid listicles is what finally drove me off that site for good. Also, I have never heard the term listicle, and when it came shortly after talking about Jason in the buff, it definitely registered as something related to testicles, which I guess is apt.
listicles make you walk funny
Iisticles is just a way to game the clicks, it adds nothing to the site/content except for gaining ire.
Jalop’s slideshow format had a weird effect of multiplying clicks. Normally, you got one click for a single reader even if you had a list of items in the post. But if you did the slideshow format, you got a click every time someone hit the next or previous button. Put 17 slides in the article and boom, an easy way to tons of clicks.
I have it on authority that Jalop’s new owners aren’t fans of slideshows, so that’s why they’ve dumped the format in recent days.
Jalop is still a thing?
They were just slow to load and the next/prev button didn’t always line up so you’d have to hunt for them each time you wanted to hit the next image but about halfway through I’d just get fed up and close the tab. I really gave up on all of the Kinja sites primarily because of the listicles.
What surprises me is that they have any readers left – at least on my iphone 12, Jalop is all but unusable – get 70% through the article and it reloads from the top – almost every time. It is worse when reading comments, too much crap – if they had less ads, maybe they could get more $/ad be targeting ads that are more tailored to the audience. My guess is that the Jalop audience is likely an attractive one for many advertisers.
Private Equity don’t care, just squeeze that website dry until it don’t $ anymore. But you’re 100% correct, all the kinja sites are next to unreadable on mobile these days.
Listicles also, somehow, sound pornier than Jason’s tasteful Beetle nudes. That’s unless someone else wants to add more content to this tag. https://www.theautopian.com/tag/porny/
Hey!!! Some genius put me in an article!!! I’m all for making it a series banner though.
Some Geniuses created this website. I think I’ll be a member
^^^^
Some geniuses like that headline