Although they occasionally get a strong challenge from NewsOK.com, the kings of clickbait in Oklahoma City are the social media bandits at KFOR.com.
Each day, they pander to their 150,000 Facebook fans by posting Buzzfeedesque stories to the KFOR.com website in hopes of luring in a couple thousand page views and unique visitors, and in turn, and extra $10 in advertising.
The stories are generally mindless reposts grabbed from other outlets and offer no local context, opinion or substance. They serve one purpose and one purpose only: generate cheap and easy web traffic for KFOR.com.
So far, the strategy has paid off. Check out KFOR.com's growth since 2013 from Alexa.com:
That's pretty impressive. In fact, the growth has landed KFOR a US Alexa Rank 3,629. Generally speaking, that means out of all the websites in the world, KFOR is 3,629th most popular in the United States. That's a lot a better than our rank of 26,452.
Out of all the national topics that the KFOR Social Media Bandits like to hook people with, stories about animals seem to be the most popular.Since we now want to get rich and see our pageviews grow, we decided to take a page out of the KFOR playbook. Here are the 10 Most Inspiring Adorable Stories posted to KFOR.com:
1. WATCH: Baby ducklings take ‘flight of life’ to reunite with mother
We all know the chicken crossed the road to get to the other side.
But why did these little ducklings take what is probably the biggest jump of their lives?
This video explains it all.
It’s a scary start but a very happy ending for this mama duck and her little babies.
Unless these ducks are jumping off a diving board to swim in a room full of coins-Scrooge McDuck style, I totally don’t care about their jump. And the smart phone video was taken in Ireland. Not that Ireland can’t in some way affect Oklahoma, it’s just that I sincerely doubt their ducks will.
Also, they didn’t really jump so much as fell over the edge.
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2. HILARIOUS! When the owner is away, the dog will play
The house rule is, the dog isn’t allowed on the bed.
You’ve heard, “when the cat is away, the mice will play?”
Well, when the owner is away, the dog will play… and play it does.
The pup goes hog-wild after the owner leaves.
Little does it know, its master has set up a camera to see what happens when the pooch is home alone.
Needless to say, the dog is going to have a lot of explaining to do.
Wow. You mean dogs play when they're home alone all day and bored? Adorable!
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3. Teen attempts selfie with squirrel … fails with hilarious consequences
A selfie gone wrong – going viral across the world.
At the center of this story – a squirrel that apparently does not like selfies.
Once this moment with nature was snapped – the squirrel jumped from a fence onto the back of a teenager who took the picture.
Look closely, you can see it under his shirt.
The teen sent the photo of the encounter to a family member who posted them online.
The kids are still taking selfies, right? People search that term all the time, yeah? How can we capitalize on the selfie craze by using some anecdotal story about when a selfie goes wrong? Squirrels.
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4. Old dog left with heartbreaking note outside shelter to be reunited with owners
LOS ANGELES - An elderly couple who is struggling to make ends meet had to make a hard decision when it came to their 13-year-old dachshund.
The dog was found tied to a basket outside the Baldwin Park Animal Shelter with a heartbreaking note attached.
The note said, “We are both seniors, sick with no money. We cannot pay for vet bills, or to put him to sleep. He has never been away from us in all those years, he cannot function without us, please put him to sleep.”
They should probably have put the dog's owners to sleep instead.
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5. Heart-wrenching: Young bear survives arrow to face for almost a year
NEW JERSEY - A black bear was returned to a remote part of New Jersey Friday after veterinarians removed a large arrow from its face.
New Jersey wildlife officials had been searching for the bear since last fall.
That’s when people reported seeing it walking around with an arrow in its face in New Egypt.
The bear was about three years old and weighed about 220 pounds.
A wildlife official said it should have weighed more – but it was malnourished because it didn’t have full use of its mouth.
In all fairness, this one does have a local connection. According to sources, the bear was shot by Christina Fallin while she was playing cowboys and Indians with Wayne Coyne.
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6.Incredible video: Man lures injured dog from busy freeway with sandwich
HOUSTON, Texas – An injured yellow Labrador has a quick-thinking man to thank for his life.
KHOU reported Rickey Young was in his truck when he heard about the injured dog on the radio.
He drove to the dog to check on it and what happened next was all caught on traffic cameras.
The video shows the dog backing away from Young until he pulled a sandwich from his pocket.
The dog came to Young who took it to the vet.
I'd do the same thing for a sandwich.
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7. Adorable Reunion: Dog waits 8 days outside hospital for sick owner
PASSO FUNDO, Brazil – When it comes to the bond between pets and their owners, it can be almost like the relationship between a parent and child.
When a homeless man was hospitalized, the staff at the center were surprised to see a constant visitor outside.
According to the Huffington Post, Lauri da Costa was taken to the hospital after being hit in the face.
Doctors soon discovered he had melanoma and needed surgery.
While he was in the hospital, his dog waited for him in the parking lot.
I guess that' adorable, but what's the damn hospital doing letting some dude's dog hangout in the parking lot for 8 days. Take him to doggy day care or something.
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8. Reporting for duty: Dog summoned for jury duty
BRIDGETON, N.J. (CNN) – Many pet owners will tell you that their four-legged friends are a part of their family and community.
A dog owner in New Jersey believes that is true but wasn’t prepared for what arrived in the mail.
At first glance of a jury summons, Barrett Griner was shocked by the name on the letter.
It said IV Griner was due in court.
I think the real story should be how the dog got out of jury duty.
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9. WATCH: Two dogs, one ice cream cone; Lick, lick, lick… CHOMP
A dog is many things; loving, loyal, steadfast… but apparently patient isn’t one of them.
Watch what happens when you have two dogs and only one ice cream cone.
Lick, Lick, Lick… CHOMP.
Proof it only takes a few licks to get to the center of the cone, for dogs anyway.
Yep, the KFOR Social Media Bandit who wrote that headline went with the "Two Dogs, One Ice Cream Cone." I'm sure there's probably a sick video somewhere about that.
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10. Awww, two-legged dog’s first trip to beach is so cute you’ll cry happy tears
Meet Duncan Lou Who, he’s a Boxer with only two legs but you would almost never notice.
According to the Huffington Post, Duncan’s legs were removed because of a “severe birth deformity.”
But that doesn’t stop him; he has a wheelchair but would prefer to walk, as you can see in the video above.
What if you cry sad tears? Is that okay?
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Anyway, that exercise in clickbaiting was fun. Hopefully you made it all the way to the bottom and shared it with your friends on Facebook. We need all the pageviews we can get.
