Don’t be afraid to be controversial

Disclaimer

The tips in this chapter come with a price.  While I can personally guarantee that following the tips presented here will increase your traffic tremendously, you might want to ask yourself if you can handle the repercussions that come along with them.

Sitting in the center of a war of words will almost surely lead to a lot of negative commentary directed at you. You’ll need to quickly develop a  thick skin to handle the storm that this type of writing can cause.   Sure you’ll get visitors, but you’ll very likely make a few enemies in the process and the Internet has a very long memory.

There’s Traffic In Controversy

Controversy will bring in visits in a hurry. whether it’s because you’ve posted your view on a controversial subject or because what you’re writing is making people stop and ask “What did she just say?”, being in the middle of a controversy is a sure fire traffic builder.

There are several ways to approach this type of blogging, one aggressive and one passive:

The Aggressive Method:

In the aggressive form, you would poke around other blogs in your niche and find a topic that is being actively discussed, and which many people are discussing passionately.

Write a post on that topic that disagrees with or pokes fun at the popular opinion.  Then you go post a comment on a popular blog telling them that you disagree or think they are overreacting and add a link to your own post so that you can back up your comments.

Note: Don’t tell the blog author that he or she is an idiot for posting their opinion.  This is slander and is not tolerated well in the blogging community.  People who run around posting only inflammatory comments are known as trolls and will quickly be banned from posting comments at all.

While this will definitely drive traffic, it will also most definitely get you labeled as a troublemaker unless your posts are written extremely well.  If you’re going to go down this path, make sure you’ve done your research.  Failing to do so will make you a laughingstock.

The Passive Method:

The passive form of this method is less likely to get you branded as a nut-job or troublemaker, but may take a little more time to get traffic coming in.

In the passive form, you still write a post on a controversial topic.  That post must still be well written and you will still link to it in comments on other blogs, but you must take care to make sure that you are simply stating that there is another side to the discussion.

Remember; Going the passive route means that you are not trying to anger anyone with your actions.  The goal here is to stimulate discussion, not start an argument. (although that will probably still happen if your post is written well enough and people are passionate about he subject.)

Whether you choose to be passive or active, you have to be careful never to cross the line and personally attack or slander another blogger. The topics you go after depend on your niche, but make sure they are topics that already have heated discussions going on around them. the goal is to get some of that passion directed at your blog, not to make everyone so angry that they avoid visiting.

The Power Of Pomposity

Another way to bring a lot of scrutiny your way is to make claims that fall just short of impossible.  There are several very notable bloggers in the blogosphere right now that started this way; some by claiming to be the smartest guy on the block, others making outrageous claims as to their intelligence.

Be warned if you choose to go this route.  You will quickly be required to either prove that your claims are the absolute truth, or make it well known that your claims of being “the most intelligent person on earth” are just a catchphrase that you use to make your readers smile.

In either case, make sure that your posts are well written, extremely informative and researched to death.  Sub-par posts will get you labeled as a comedian at best and a fool at worst.

Snark Sells Almost As Well As Sex

If you are really interested in driving traffic to your blog and are willing to suffer a barrage of hate mails and unflattering comments, this last method may be for you.  Pick a celebrity or well known figure in your niche and rip into them on your blog.

Be vicious.  Point out their flaws, rate their wardrobe, comment on their mannerisms.  Be spiteful and hateful.  Stop just short of having legal action taken against you; then sit back and wait for the hits to roll in.

This method works.  I have personally used it in periods of slower traffic on my cooking blog.  In these instances I picked a television food celebrity whom I personally find  particularly annoying and simply laid into her every move.

Did it bring in traffic?  You bet it did!  it also brought out a slew of this particular celebrity’s rather rabid fan base who summarily vilified me in every venue they could find.  Damage control was a bit of an issue, but I eventually survived the fallout.

In total, that series of posts netted me upwards of 20,000 page views and about 100 comments, some of which had to be deleted in their entirety.  I can tell you with complete authority that this tactic does indeed work, it can also be the source of a lot of negative commentary directed straight at you.  You’ve got to be thick-skinned to weather it.

Popularity: 1% [?]