One of the things that makes the web work is links.  Links to content, pictures, videos and more.  When we follow those links and we find interesting content, we read it, watch it, and enjoy it.  From the beginning to the end.

Whether those links we clicked on were from a social media site like Twitter or Facebook, on a search engine like Google, or from within the site itself … this type of activity is called Content Marketing.  It is the act of getting people to engage with content.  It is through the production of great content that is the actual act of marketing for web publishers.

It works, and its great …. (and here’s the but) …. its at risk of not working when users see a headline and picture and are taken to software download sites or bad pages.  Here is a great example:

I was on a site called University Herald, reading an article by Steven Bickard about Elon Musk and top 5 man crushes.  Elon Musk is amazing and has had an incredible year, more on that in another post.

When I got to the end of the page, I saw this set of “related articles” that were highlighted as articles I may like:

The one about Intel Earnings by Seeking Alpha caught my eye.  The link I put in on the previous sentence is where I should have gone.  It has the same title as the icon from the image … but that is not where I was taken.  Instead, I was taken to this page:

Mackeeper … trying to install some software on my computer where they can spam me more.  

This is a big time fail.  These are ads sold by Taboola.  User beware.