How to create blog traffic using controversy

Posted on August 1, 2007, 2:25 am, by ABaN, under Blogging.

Several hours ago I was doing my daily read through several RSS feeds that I subscribe too throughout the blogging world and came across a comment on a Ryan Shamus dot Com blog entry that caught my attention. It wasn’t so much for the content of that particular comment, but the possibilities it presented. Before I go any further the comment seems to have been deleted (or I did a poor job of bookmarking the page) so I won’t be linking to it, nor will I be providing a direct quote of it.

It goes like this

The blog entry was a review of www.onemansgoal.com and the comment was posted by someone with a very similar name to One Man’s Goal which was basically saying that One Man’s Goal was good, but if you wanted the real deal go and check out this other blog. My initial thought was that this was just someone trying to piggyback on the success of One Man’s Goal in the blogging world. Then I actually started to give it some thought and realized what an ingenious marketing angle this could potentially be if pulled off right. It would do three things in very short order.

A Blog about Nothing - Ram fight

Create controversy
One of the greatest secrets of getting visitors to a newly formed blog or website is to generate controversy so that people will come along and check things out, choose sides, and get involved.
Generate buzz
People love something juicy to talk about. It’s part of our human nature. We love to choose a side, and state an opinion to all the world. Given a choice between gossip and food I’m of the firm belief that many would choose gossip until the last possible moment.
Drive traffic
The controversy and buzz generated by this would certainly cause an infusion of traffic which is the lifeblood of any internet venture.

I decided to do a little bit of preliminary research before I made my mind up about what was going on. The first thing I did was compare both of these blogs side by side.

  • First post on One Man’s Goal is 6/28/07, first post on the other blog is 7/4/07
  • One Man’s Goal was registered on 7/2/07, and the other blog was registered on 7/3/07
  • One Man’s Goal has a public whois record, and the other blog’s whois information is protected
  • Layouts on both sites are similar, but NOT exact matches

I will leave it up to you the reader to decide what you like about the situation pitting One Man’s Goal and One Year Goal against each other, but I do find the whole idea interesting.

Comment (RSS)  |  Trackback
  • LOL

    Thanks!
  • I pointed out that you had posted first on the 28th of June but registered on the 2nd of July for your domain name. I figured that took care of the letting people know about the free blog thing. Otherwise how could you have posted a week before you had the name?

    As for you two being the same, I don't think so. Writing styles aren't even close. You're warm and friendly, One Year is, well, not so much.
  • I wish OneYearGoal the best. But I must say that it was truly a classless act. You would never catch me publicly denouncing another blog.

    I want to add this to your "controversy". I registered my domain on July 2nd... and his was a day after. However, In case you hadn't followed from the beginning, my goal actually started on a free blog at Blogger.Com on June 28th.

    OneYearGoal has a great thing going, and I hope we both succeed. I just wish he could show a little class, and maybe some respect for other bloggers.

    And I really hope you aren't trying to say that we are the same person. That would be a slap in the face.
  • Very true Blackysky - we do indeed thrive on controversy. That's why I think something like this could work so well.
  • This is normal we are humans being. we like things that surprise us , that hurt our feelings. Every superstar need controversy to stay alive and be popular ... go ask that to britney spears ahahahha she is a controversy pro ahahah same thing in the blog world we like to discover new stuff.. be unique ...
  • Let me clarify, I'm not suggesting that anyone do something like this nor am I accusing the two blogs I mentioned of doing it. I was just pointing out how effective it could be in a marketing sense if someone wanted to do something like this.
  • Interesting idea. I think it might be better to write something controversial as opposed to doing something similar to the example. In any case, I would be careful. Controversy can get you caught up in the middle.
  • Glad you enjoyed it, but what are you glad works out to my advantage?
  • I enjoyed reading your articles and you have a good idea about causing controversy and driving traffic to your blog this way cause its true people like good gossip and trouble. I hope it all works out to your advantage. Listen I also added you to my tech favorites and I hope you will also add me to yours and I stumbled you and I hope you will go and stumble my blogs as well you know how to do it.
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