Frequently, being controversial is recommended as a way to get more traffic and comments to your blog.
Last week, I decided to try this and see what happened. Now what I posted was not ALL that controversial. It wasn’t as if I was discussing gay marriage or taxes. I did, however, feign outrage at a direct message being paraphrased publicly. Well, I was a little annoyed when it happened and ranted at my friend Jim, but I wasn’t outraged or particularly offended. After finishing my rant, I was slightly amused and decided it would make a good topic for an article.
And boy, did it ever. In 24 hours it became my most commented upon and popular article. Traffic to it has slowed but for three days it was getting a lot of visits. And it is currently in top place for most comments. People who have never visited before, or at least never commented, stopped by. Some just to tell me I was completely wrong.
Was I dishonest for fabricating offense? Yes, a little. I still think personal messages should be kept private but in the scheme of things it’s trivial. I also, on top of everything else that has been happening, am very concerned about my mother’s health and needed to distract myself with a ridiculous conflict.
So, does writing a controversial post drive traffic to your site and increase comments? Well, based on this experiment, I would have to answer a great big giant YES. Would I do it again? Definitely, as long as there was a topic that warranted it. Generally the things I write about, such as a particular use of a WordPress plugin, are not at all controversial. The new interface in WordPress 2.7, however, might be.
And I have no plans to start blogging about gay marriage or taxes ;-)
So, how about you? Have you ever tested using controversy as a means of driving traffic to your site? Do you think it invites comments or drives others away? Do you think we have enough conflict in real life and that this is all kinds of ridiculous?
photo credit: Cishore
Hehehe – here’s what you should have done. You should have PMed that question to your twitter contacts and then posted their private responses on your blog ;-)
But yes – people seem to love a bit of flame-bait. I suppose having a blog to ‘troll for suckers’ is much less effort than going looking for them… (The field of trolls?)
It must be about time to coin the ‘blograge’ term…
But yes – controversy works – not done any of that on my personal blog yet – but have generated a lot of traffic by giving readers the option to be blatantly polemic on a couple of work blogs ;-)
nommo’s last blog post – The girl effect
I can’t speak for other countries but Americans feed on controversy. As much as I like to think I don’t, I’m drawn to it. I think I give in to minor controversies as a way to get away from a lot of the more major problems going on in the world. As you saw I think healthy controversy is good, it gets people involved and talking and debating with each other. Agreement can be really boring sometimes. As far as sites go, I think that as long as what is causing the controversy isn’t something terrible then it won’t drive people away from a site. I think if a minor controversy did, then there were likely other things that were pushing them away too or the person is just too thin-skinned. It would be pretty stupid for someone to disagree with one minor thing on a site they otherwise liked and call it quits. One thing though, I think this post might be more controversial than your last controversial post. Or was that point. ;-)
Ron Obvious’s last blog post – Charlie Chaplin made this speech in ‘The Great…
You know, you could have been more controversial with your title. Something like:
Using Controversy Always Attracts Blog Comments From Thin-Skinned Pantywaists
But I know you’re too nice for that.
andymurd’s last blog post – Programming Collective Intelligence
I think it all boils down to the “Using Controversy” phrasing of the topic.
If you write passionately about a subject, and it ends up being viral to the point of generating comments, then I think it’s a good thing and it’s not “using controversy”.
If you do it just to comment-bait, then you are “using controversy”, you are a troll and deserve whatever happens.
Cheers
George
Tumblemoose’s last blog post – I will NOT work for free!
I’ve found it to be very effective if applied sensibly (in other words, provide value to your controversial remarks). One case was how I did a nine point critique of a subject. That provided for plenty of discussion and argument, perhaps because it went against a lot of what had gone before. Contrast that with a recent post providing nine positive points on the same subject, which got hardly any reaction.
James @ Organize IT’s last blog post – How To Deal With The Obstacles In Your Life: Part 1
@Nommo – Thanks for visiting and for commenting. No, I would never use the personal messages of my friends without permission. Even yesterday someone sent me a question via direct message and I asked him if it was ok to ask others for the answer before doing so.
Blograge is a great term – thanks for that. :-)
@Ron/Jim – Well, since we worked in tech support together, we MUST enjoy controversy and abuse. I didn’t intend for this post to be MORE controversial but can now see how it would be interpreted that way. Oh well.
@Andy – Hi! LMAO at pantywaists :-) Can you write my post titles from now on – please? hahaha And I’m starting to wonder about this whole “nice” thing.
@Tumblemoose – Thanks so much for visiting and for commenting. I completely agree with you. While I was upset and do think direct message should be personal I was not that outraged or offended. And I was curious as to whether being less nice would generate more traffic, which it seems to do. Would I feign outrage for traffic? No – it’s too exhausting. Will I post about controversial things if they are pertinent and if I care? Definitely.
I’ve noticed that people do the same thing in the comments – blow things our of proportion to generate even more controversy.
@ James – Thanks for that example. That’s an excellent way of using controversy to generate interest in a post. Plus, GTD is almost a religion to some people so I can see how you could really tick some people off by saying it sucks. I think being productive and organized is overrated. It’s as if people are waiting for some sort of zero inbox nirvana.
To me, there’s a vast difference between posting something controversial because you’re passionate about it (your post), and deliberately being controversial to draw readers.
It’s a fact that controversy draws a certain type of reader, but are these the readers that are your intended audience? Some people deliberately try to be controversial continually, and if they satisfy their readers and can keep it up, more power to them. For the rest of us mortals, controversial posts are not planned, indeed they are almost accidental.
The most controversial post I’ve written deliberately has been very popular over the past three months, but has generated zero comments! On the other hand, a post I worked hard to make non-controversial has been my top post and has drawn more comments than all my other posts put together. The comments have made the post controversial! Go figure.
Mike Nichols’s last blog post – “What if I’m the ONE?” Intolerance of Uncertainty, Worry and Anxiety
I goof on people and I don’t really understand why. Maybe I’m a bad person.
Black Hockey Jesus’s last blog post – Shipwreck
I didn’t think your post what that controversial. I think others were making a bigger deal out of it than I though, but we are all passionate about different things/subjects. I had to stop reading some of my favorite political blog comments because they were starting to get to me. I run from flammable topics because I don’t have the time or energy for it. I never liked debates because I figure your mind is already made up.
Carla’s last blog post – For the Mommy to Be (Green and Chic small giveaway)
@Mike – I wish you had left the links of the articles that you were referring to. Was the controversial one about smoking having positive benefits?
The comments on my article definitely created more controversy than the article did. I was basically compared to a racist because I insisted that there are standards and norms that we must adhere to in order to function as a society.
I think my point here though is that I wasn’t quite as passionate about the topic as I claimed to be ;-)
@Black Hockey Jesus – Thanks for visiting and commenting. I’m assuming you followed me over from my comment on The Bloggess today. I’m proud of that comment and it’s a completely true story.
When you goof on people are you mean or funny? I think being mean for the sake of being mean might make you less likable but doesn’t necessarily make you are a bad person. Anyone who gives their kid a rootbeer float for dinner seems like a pretty decent person to me ;-)
I wouldn’t take a stance on something just to attract comments. As you can tell by visiting my blog, not very many comments. :) But if you do feel real strong about something and you want to write about it, go for it!
malathionman’s last blog post – I Put My Pants On Today
I’m glad that you weren’t really offended – I was a little surprised.
I never tried to be controversial intentionally, but this post on fashion mistakes turned out to be highly controversial and attracted a lot of traffic as a result.
Wow, you fooled me, congratulations. How fun to make your readers look like suckers for believing that you made a genuine post. I may be naturally controversial at times but I don’t lie just for the sake of creating controversy, and to be honest I feel that you’ve broken my trust just a bit with that ruse. I’m glad it got you so much traffic.
@ Carla – A lot of people don’t like controversy. And I know what you mean about not reading comments on certain blogs. I’ve gotten much more upset by comments then by actual articles.
@Malathionman – It’s not a good idea to do it just for the sake of comments. I didn’t notice if you had many comments or not but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read on your site so I don’t think it matters too much.
@Vered – I’m not saying I wasn’t annoyed at the time but I certainly wasn’t outraged. I’m sure if you had comments today, people would have been pretty upset about crocs being listed ;-)
@Wesley – I wasn’t trying to fool anyone. I still think that personal conversations should be kept private and I was very annoyed when it first happened. But outraged? No. I reserve that for things that really matter like schools being bombed in Iraq or Darfur.
When I wrote the article I wasn’t even sure that it *would* generate controversy. And my primary goal was to discuss the issue, see if people responded, and then follow up. My goal is not traffic anyway as I do not earn money from this blog.
Hi Kim – I think I would blog about it too if someone paraphrased a private message I’d sent them. I’ve used controversy by accident before. I blogged about the StumbleUpon freaks – not realising that some folk didn’t mind admitting to be one and to cut a long story short I was banned from SU.
Hi Cath – I’ve heard bits and pieces of the Stumble problem that you had but am going to have to read the whole story. Before that I didn’t even know you could get banned from stumble. Now I get all nervous if I stumble the same site too often.
Tonight I’m complaining on twitter and people who send direct message auto-responders with a link when you follow them. I should have known better about this person because he did the same thing when I first followed him.
I suppose there’s a fine line in there. My personal take is that I feel comfortable delivering a potentially controversial opinion by playing up the controversial aspect. I can usually anticipate if a certain opinion of mine is going to be controversial or not.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t post something controversial just to attract attention. If you get traffic for doing that, well, you have to keep that up, don’t you? ;-)
ari
Ari Koinuma’s last blog post – What Can I Achieve If I Blogged Full Time for a Year?
My take is you can be as controversial as you want — as long as you are yourself.
For instance, I write all of my blog posts in a similar personality and structure. Some are longer than others, but I have a distinctive voice (or so I’ve been told). If I’m myself, controversial or not, it will be noticed.
The oddity is my latest post about commenting tips has received more comments than in recent history. Nothing controversial about it. I think I know why, though.
Ari Herzog’s last blog post – 3 Tips to Keep Me Commenting on Your Blog
I guess bashing a famous person, the system or rule will always attract attention :) however, sometimes you should be prepared to suffer the consequences.
In the blogosphere it is a common thing to trash John Chow or Shoemoney though this trick is a bit passe now. You need to continuously find new targets :lol:
I haven’t been controversial with the content so far though a couple of times I used controversial post titles. In principle when good things happen nobody crib, but people are always react to bad things, controversies, sensational news etc. And that’s why there’s 100 times more news about people like Paris Hilton than a Nobel Laureate.
Ajith Edassery’s last blog post – Web Hosting Geeks – Reliable web hosting review and rating site
Hi Kim – I’ve heard that writing controversial posts can bring traffic, however, that’s not my style, so I don’t aim for that. I have written posts on topics others felt were controversial. One was on profanity in blogs. My commenters respected my views, and didn’t protest on MY blog, but did go on to do blog posts of their own saying they have a right to free speech.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post – NSNBOTWs – 2 Gals From Down Under
Oh, most definitely…works every time whether it’s MMR, copyright, or whatever. I’m planning to do a rather contrarian post on ADHD and Ritalin soon…and that’s definitely going to rile a few people, I hope ;-)
David Bradley’s last blog post – Sciencebase Siblings
@Ari K – Good point! I had thought about how someone could possibly be controversial all the time. I think it would be exhausting to maintain.
@Ari H – C’mon – topograms vs. holograms is a very controversial topic ;-)
You do have a distinctive voice as well as great ideas, which is why I read your articles.
@Ajith – I don’t think I would have the guts to bash a famous person. I suppose that is a good way to get attention. Wired magazine recently got a lot of attention by announcing blogs were dead. I suppose if you take a subject people are passionate about and tell why it’s stupid or outdated people will respond and a controversy will start.
@Barbara – Do you not like profanity on blogs? I will have to go back to your site and find that article. What people fail to understand is that your blog is not the US government and you do not have to abide by the first amendment. It is your blog, so you get to make the rules – right?
@David – I suppose it depends on that you say about ADHD and Ritalin. I’m definitely going to watch for that post.
I’m doing some background work on PubMed at the moment and looking for the main names to interview…
David Bradley’s last blog post – Scuppering the Program Pirates
I was basically compared to a racist because I insisted that there are standards and norms that we must adhere to in order to function as a society.
YOU were not compared to a racist. That was an illustration to show how what is “socially acceptable” today may not be so tomorrow. The fact you continue to harp on that, without seeing the truth in that you “feign(ed) outrage” to begin with, proves you have a hypochondriac mentality.
I don’t believe you faked any of your outrage. I believe you were hurt and wanted your sycophants to make you feel better. Then when that didn’t turn out the way you wanted… you grabbed onto the next best thing that you could find.
A comment that held the feet of your argument and justification to the fire… and burned you. Hopefully you’ll grow some thicker skin back.
NYCWD’s last blog post – Bad Bagger
@David – Great!
@NYCWD – I suggest you go back and reread your original comment as you liberally use the word “you” throughout it. If the “you” did not refer to me, than who did it refer to?
And if you, and yes, I mean *you* knew me at all you would know what I really find outrageous as my “sycophants” do.
I thought you were the “watchdog”. Are you also a mental health professional?
Do you think you comments “burned me”? Do you really think that I care what you think?
And, um, most people did agree with me about personal messages being private. You were one of three people who disagreed. The others, however, were capable of disagreeing in a constructive way.
Kim,
You need to start an Anti-Social store. First item for sale: http://www.customink.com/designs/proofs/9914890-2069015/front.jpg
The awesome Blade Runner font is kind of lost in the preview image but its there….oh, its there. :-)
Ron Obvious’s last blog post – Charlie Chaplin made this speech in ‘The Great…
@Ron – Sorry, but you have just proved to be the biggest sycophant of all. Good thing you don’t live in New York.
It may work for that post, but for the overall health and longevity of the blog, I would say no. Anybody can ruffle some feathers and have a heated discussion…just think evolution vs. creation, there would be an uproar over the topic or even roe v. wade. after it dies down, people move on.
Natural – I couldn’t do it all the time. It would be exhausting.
I have never taken this approach, but I think so long as your post is something you believe in and can defend if it does cause a lot of controversy, then I’d say go for it. The only thing I would worry about, which doesn’t apply in your case, are the bloggers who do those kinds of posts that make people angry. One could lose subscribers that way.
~ Kristi
Kikolani | Poetry, Photography, Blogging Tips’s last blog post – Using Demotivators Posters to Find Motivation
HI Kristi – I think it’s probably best when you’re really passionate about something. I’m think I did make some people angry though but thanks.
I always admire bloggers like you who take the time to even plan such a move. I’ve never done it intentionally but I’m open to anything. The sweet spot for me would be to give great value for my target market in addition to the controversy.
Friday’s post on Sciencebase.com will be on the highly controversial subject of vitamin D – to D or not to D, that is the question…
David Bradley’s last blog post – Sciencebase Siblings
I agree with Mike. I’m always surprised at which posts of mine people find controversial.
Wesley’s last blog post – Jan Blencowe was going to offer a discount painting, but changed her mind.
I feel that Controversial topics are can sometimes lead to a very healthy discussion that be good for a blog.
Madhur Kapoor’s last blog post – Remove Unwanted Programs from new Computer/Laptop with PC Decrapifier
Madhur, are you a first time commenter?
Wesley’s last blog post – Jan Blencowe was going to offer a discount painting, but changed her mind.
@Tom – Don’t admire me :-) I’m intrigued by your comment about value. How could I give value in the midst of the controversy? I’m not asking you to answer that – you’ve got me thinking. :-)
@David – lol Looking forward to Friday then.
@Wesley – The same goes for popular. I’ve posted something that I thought was filler or not my best post and people are more responsive to it then something I spent a lot of time on and thought was really great.
@Madhur – As long as people argue in healthy ways.
@Wesley – I’m not sure if Madhur will be back today and see your question. He’s been commenting here for quite some time now – one of my first commenters. Unfortunately, he recently dropped off the Top Commenters list. He’s also one of my soccer buddies on Twitter – mako77
@Wesley
No, Been following this blog since a long time
Madhur Kapoor’s last blog post – Search and Download Subtitles with Sublight
@Kim – I know. That happened to me just recently. Everyone was all over the reference to my Twitter page where I said I was surprised at which Tweets generated the most responses (where I mainly just took some screen shots), but no one really cared about my retelling of Cinderella in which I questioned morals that most people take for granted. Go figure.
@Madhur – Okay, I was just asking because I’ve never seen you before.
Wesley’s last blog post – The Happy Ending
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language ;)
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
Hi Raiul – Thank you for visiting and commenting. I’m glad you enjoyed the article.