I hate to think that blogging has become much more like Hollywood. Sad to say but hypocrisies, scamming, controversies, lies and all sorts of attention “whoring” is all over the place. And quite surprisingly, those who are popular and successful are those who resort to these strategies.

Just look at what attention whoring has done to John Chow or how much money were pocketed by scammers claiming to have earned thousands of dollars over a month or so. And yes, the shitty ebooks they wrote about how they made lots of money online are still on demand. The worse part of it is that, despite the negative publicity that these blogs / bloggers get, they remain to be flocked by advertisers and readers. Should it not suppose to be the other way around?

This brings us to the question whether any form of publicity, be it positive or negative, is good publicty. The same points lead us to ask whether we should embrace the same strategies to become successful online.

What’s Negative Publicity

Negative publicity, in the context of blogging, are promotional strategies that undermine sincerityand honesty for purposes of achieving certain objectives, which compromises one’s image and reputation. This includes but is not limited to, lying about your product, false claims about your blog, misleading your readers, taking advantage of your gullible subscribers, concocting unrealistic earnings of your blog, building a bad reputation as a blogger (nasty-basher-blogger) etc…

Negative Publicity Is Still Publicity

Although others may argue that online success is not defined by statistics, it is still the most widely used yardstick to measure one’s success. Hence, a blog with a higher traffic or a lower Technorati and Alexa is considered better or more successful. This fact has led others to conclude that any form of publicity that leads to a spike in traffic is good. Regardless of, whether it’s a negative or a positive publicity. It’s all about the bump in traffic really.

Another fact, which I believe you’ll agree with, is that negative publicity works a lot better in generating traffic, links and buzz for your blog. I guess bloggers are more inclined to write about negative things or bloggers are just naturally attracted to write about stuffs where they can throw their sour criticisms. This reality only proves that negative publicity works well in traffic building.

Here’s a proof. If you were to click on the two links below, which one are you more likely to visit? Which one are you more likely to write about?

1. Darren Rowse and Yaro Starak : Liars!
2. Blogging for a Cause.

Negative Publicity - Is It Right For You?

Considering that negative publicity works well in improving your blog statistics, should you plunge in and get a share of it? Should you start fabricating your blog earnings? Should you join the rest of bloggers who wrote their own rubbish e-books? Should you make a fool out of yourself just so other will talk about you and laugh over your stupidity? Should you start bad mouthing others so you’ll get their attention? Should you start assuming authority on your niche even if you’re not?

I believe the right question you need to ask yourself is, whether negative publicity is right for you? Negative publicity is proven to work but do you think:

• You can handle criticisms (sometimes extreme criticisms)… lots and lots of them?
• You are capable of handling harassment? Sometimes, even death threats.
• You can withstand ridicules from others?
• You can manageand win a you-against-the-world situation?
• You are capable of lying and scamming others?

If you’re answer is yes, then negative publicity can be an effective route for you. Just remember that their are a lot of consequences. If not, then don’t force yourself. You will only end up feeling sorry about yourself.

So, will your resort to negative publicity to win the Blog-o-sphere’s attention? If you’re using it, have you been successful? I’d really appreciate if you share your experience through the comments.

Thank you for your time.

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