As 2025 draws to a close, Oxford and Cambridge dictionary publishers have released their words and phrases of the year.

Now you might recall that a couple of weeks back I did a deep dive into ‘Parasocial’ – Cambridge University’s pick of the year.

You can check it out here.

This week, it’s Oxford’s turn and their pick of the top term is (drum roll please)…

RAGEBAIT!

According to the Oxford English Dictionary publisher, Ragebait is defined as ‘online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive.’

And of course, switched on marketers are using this deeply emotive content to increase traffic to websites or social media accounts.

Yes, it’s cynical, manipulative and borderline unethical.

But I guess it’s just the world we live in – all that anger, division and frustration.

To be honest, it’s nothing new.

In fact I wrote a WRMM issue all about how you could turn everyday frustrations into a side income way back in 2016.

Rather than Ragebait… it’s more Mildly-Annoying Bait… something that connects with the audience’s shared experiences.

I remember, people enjoyed reading it, so I thought this would be a good time to dust off this ‘classic’ issue and share it with you today.

Enjoy…

I’ve got to get this off my chest…

And look, if you ride a bicycle then I’m sorry, okay… I am sure you’re a responsible human being.

But, actually, I’m being far too nice…

…I’m not sorry at all!

Because… and I just have to say this and put it in big red capital letters…

CYCLISTS ARE IDIOTS!

Aaahh, that’s better. You’re going to think:

“What’s wrong with you Nick, have you been on the ultra-strong coffee today?”

Well yes I have – FOUR shots and no milk to soften the hit – but that’s not the point.

The thing is, where I live and work in London, some cyclists take it upon themselves to ride on the pavements… not cycle lanes… but pavements… the things that people are supposed to WALK on…the things that, unsurprisingly, are full of people walking.

Thanks to wonderful town planning, pavements are almost always conveniently placed right next to – yep, you guessed it – roads…. you know, those long things made of tarmac that CYCLISTS ARE SUPPOSED TO RIDE ON…

So what are those two-wheeled helmet loons doing in my face and up my backside while I’m walking to work?

For instance, this morning I was tail-gated by a cyclist down Jerusalem Passage (Titter ye not! It’s a narrow pathway near my office in Clerkenwell, London!)

After what felt like ages of his front wheel being inches away from parking itself between my buttocks, I told him to get off his bike as it wasn’t a road.

He refused.

He said people had been cycling along this pavement for a long time.

If I’d been quicker I would have countered that I don’t think there were any MAMILS (Middle Aged Men in Lycra) in 12th century Clerkenwell.

But I didn’t, I just fumed and told him he was an idiot.

When I got back to my office, instead of getting on with the work I was supposed to do, I wrote this ranting email instead.

When I told Heloise I was going to send this to you, dear reader (hopefully NOT a pavement cyclist) do you know what she said?

“Hmmm…not a huge amount of learning for the readers from that…other than you are a Victor Mildrew type.”

“Ha!” I countered, almost knocking over my four-shot coffee as I leapt to my feet. “Well that’s where you’re WRONG!”

And she is wrong.

(NB: This is not usually the case. Most of the time she’s annoyingly right. But this time I had her!)

You see, my ‘radical pedestrianism’ has got something to reveal to you about starting and growing a successful business.

This spark of rage and irritation is precisely HOW some people have started successful business, and I’ll show you them in a moment.

Because whether you think I’m right or wrong, grumpy or reasonable, insane or a noble crusader, the truth is, I have a passion for defending the pavements from two-wheeled intruders.

So much so that I sat down today and wrote an email post about it.

I’m sure I could write plenty more, week after week.

This is the kind of content that writes itself – you just have to go outside and walk and write down what happens (or video it!).

In fact, if I wasn’t already up to my eyeballs in writing commitments I would seriously consider creating a humorous, passionate blog that ranted about urban cyclists… MAMILs, couriers, city boys on those stupid bikes that look like toys…

I’m sure that while some people would be left cold and others would LOATHE it, I’d gather a dedicated tribe of like-minded pavement warriors.

Together we could right the wrongs and fight back against what irritates us.

I know I’m not the only one who feels this, because in a 2014 survey of ‘the 50 most annoying things about modern life’, this is what number 30 says:

‘People who cycle on pavements’

It’s a pretty sure bet that if I were to create a website, blog, email, Twitter account and Facebook page focused solely on this powerful irritation, I’d pull in fellow gripers as if I had a Death Star tractor beam.

I could imagine easily getting thousands of followers on social media, and huge amounts of traffic to a basic website very quickly.

In online business terms, this is a powerful thing indeed, because you don’t need to set up an advertising campaign – your followers and subscribers spread the word for you.

And the kind of loyalty and trust you get from those people is potent because instantly they feel they know you and share your world view.

This is why strong emotions and passions are at the root of many businesses.

They’re the kind that even Victor Meldrew types can profit from. In fact, the Meldrews of this world are ideal.

So take that, Heloise!

If you look at it, many items on the list of ‘50 most annoying things about modern life’ could be the foundation of a fantastic little online project.

Here are the top twelve… (I’ll list the rest at the end for you, or you can check the article out here)

• Your laptop/computer freezing
• PPI calls
• Slow Wi-Fi
• Being stuck in traffic
• People who take up two parking spaces
• Public transport delays
• Junk mail
• Waiting on the phone for the doctors
• When people chuck their rubbish out of the car window
• People who don’t use their indicators
• Pot holes
• Stepping in dog muck

Taking just one of those examples… there’s already an app called Pothole Watch – so that’s already a business in the making.

Or let’s look at another one. For instance, Junk mail.

There are plenty of scamwatch sites and websites that analyse and criticise junkmail. In fact one of our key aims with What Really Makes Money is to protect our readers from junk mail scams!

Plus there’s a fantastic series of books by Robin Cooper called The Timewaster Letters in which he writes back to spammers and scam artists, leading them on a merry dance in increasingly hilarious ways.

Or here’s another example of this idea in action…

Back in 2013, a man called Nigel Clark, got sick of calling companies only to end up being pushed through endless recorded options.

He dubbed call centre menu options the ‘modern equivalent of Dante’s circles of hell’ – a fairly strong view, I think you’ll agree.

After ranting about this for years, he decided to take action.

So he went and catalogued all the phone option menus of the 130 leading call centre-based companies, with all the possible combinations.

Then he put up a series of shortcut codes for people, meaning they could just punch in a series of numbers and get directly through to their desired department.

No waiting, no listening to pre-recorded voiceovers or boring legalese and marketing!

As this was something so many people feel strongly about, the newspapers got in on the story and he was profiled in many tabloid papers like the Daily Mail.

What amazing free publicity!

The reason papers were happy to effectively promote his business was that he had a clear and noble cause in the interests of the public… even though he was also going to profit from it.

So what about you?

Do you have any pet hates, irritations or bugbears in life? Do you think there are others out there like you?

Then you could have the key to a cracking little business idea that ties in with your passions and personality – and which will attract others who share your view… your tribe, if you like.

It doesn’t just have to be things that anger you, it could be a cause or ideal that you’re passionate about. For instance…

…You’re a vinyl purist who hates music downloads

…You’re passionate about buying fair trade goods…

…You’re crusading for awareness of an under-represented problem (perhaps an illness or disability)

…You’re a consumer champion, looking to pass on bargains, recommendations and product warnings (as another example, this is how Martin Lewis founded his highly successful business www.moneysavingexpert.com)

Whatever your cause, your anger or your personal issue, there are many ways you can put your project into action.

You could do one or all of the below……

Find a niche annoyance and put together swipe files of complaint letters, templates for fellow complainers to use, useful contact details.

Set up a campaign website, with an email sign up form to get names so you can send them details of activities, events and news. You’ll be amazed at how many people will give you their email address when it’s for a cause they believe in.

Create a mini email course, video course or series of reports that help your fellow angry tribespeople take action to solve their problem, or fight back against the common enemy. You can either offer this for free to try and make it go viral, or offer it in exchange for email details.

Create a twitter hashtag and get it trending to build a buzz and a following. #KeepCyclistsOff or #BanCyclists would be examples of my particular crusade. If it lends itself to a visual medium (i.e. you can take regular photographs) then set up an Instagram feed and use hashtags to attract the right viewers.

Capture incidents or examples of your irritation on camera then upload them to YouTube – ask others to upload or send you theirs, thereby creating your own channel with subscribers. You can also embed these videos into your blog posts as regular content.

Set up a Facebook community page as your own forum and get people to join, share their thoughts, images, videos and posts. This way you can build up content without doing anything yourself.

I could go on, as the options are endless. But I’ll leave it here for now. If you have an idea for this kind of business, or want to know more, send me an email and I can look at fleshing out a more detailed plan in the future.

As for me, I’m off to get a coffee – and see if I can find a cyclist to shout at!