Controversy! Does it work?

Recently, an article was published on Newsweek that said about “Badges of Secrecy“. The article profiled some badges used in the US military that were totally out-of-the-box and bizarre. Some of them had images of aliens on them, some of them had mythic characters. And in the article, the author, defined the meaning of almost all the badges. Some of them, according to him, were used for operations concerning extra-terrestrial beings (aliens). Some of them were used for Top Secret super-weapon experiments. Some of them were used by computer hackers – all in the US defense.

Some people call this a hoax and some conspiracy theorists like me, we aren’t too surprised with his findings. People argue, but the bottom line is, because of this article, Newsweek had a humongous online exposure and in turn, the author, sold his book. The book and the article was two of my most controversial finds in the recent past.

Controversial bloggers

A blogger being controversial – does it work? Well, according to my experiences, it does. As long as your posts have controversy in them, people will actually care. Like the Newsweek article, people do not actually care whether it’s wrong or right., as long as the headline says “Scientists fear, the apocalypse is near”.

Some controversial bloggers in my niche, like The University Kid and John Cow have done very well for themselves in a very short time with their controversial nature. True enough, they get a mass beating once in a while from their readers for being too controversial. But I guess it’s all in the game. As long as it gets you going in the direction that you want to, controversial bloggers are happy with what they get.

Preventing the backfire

Even when you have all the proof you need, unless you’re very sure, just do not bother to offend another party. If the offended party is strong enough, they can do you a lot of harm. And I’m just not talking about the negative comments. On the other hand, if you have facts to back it up, it might be worth a try.

I can remember imod’s attack on lushable for his 30-day 1000 subscribers. imod pointed out that there’s no way lushable can get 1000 subscibers in 30 days considering his traffic and so on. But lushable disagreed. And finally, it got too hot for lushable, so he actually gave in. Now if you visit his blog, you can see actually 88 subscribers are there in comparison to the 1000; 30 days ago.

Always know whether the juice is worth the squeeze. Because most of the time, in the blogosphere, it isn’t.

Controversy creates cash

Yes it does. That was from the former WWE RAW Chairman Eric Bischoff. He had a NY Times Bestseller in the name of “Controversy creates cash”. According to him and many others, the multi-billion wrestling empire of WWE was built on controversial reality TV. And in his book, he explains how a business can actually profit from controversy. And, he is right.

In a blog niche where so many bloggers are doing the same thing, being controversial is the high-road to the top of the food chain to eliminate some competition. But the downside is someone always gets hurt. Is it ethical? It depends. If you’re willing to go the distance of actually offending someone, make sure that person being offended very well deserves it. You won’t do much good off hollow controversy. Don’t you think?

4 Responses to “Controversy! Does it work?”

1. Blogie says:

   April 23, 2008 at 10:39 pm

   Controversy sure does work for bloggers who want to become instantly famous. Take the case of this Aussie guy who blogged about how his ex duped him off his money, and about how the ex’s friends are like this and like that… He published so much trash against the ex and his friends that people flocked to his site and, reportedly, he’s now getting millions of hits.

   IMHO, creating controversy to increase your blog traffic is underhanded. It works, but it’s not ethical.
2. Chris M says:

   April 24, 2008 at 12:44 am

   Great article and thanks for the mention. The lushable debate went on for a long time, but since then I have actually made friends with the owner and all matters are resolved

   The juice was most definitely worth the squeeze!
3. Nadeesha Cabral says:

   April 24, 2008 at 9:17 am

   Yeap. I do agree that it’s not ethical. But taking the number of spam comments I receive daily, I can say that not much ethical people are left around.

   Thanks for sharing this story. I might dig more into it.
4. Nadeesha Cabral says:

   April 24, 2008 at 9:19 am

   Thanks Chris. I know you’ve made friends with Jason. And glad to know thay are resolved. But just had to mention it