A simple strategy to increase your blog readership by 25%
Pawan invited me to be a guest today to write about growing the readership on my blog.
I haven’t had as much success as Pawan but I’ve increased my readership 25% in the last month. One of the strategies I used is: Writing blog posts on controversial topics.
Writing blog posts on controversial topics is relatively simple. Just like any good blog post we start with the title. The title should include a couple of keywords and some really opinionated adjectives and adverbs to catch the reader’s attention.
Keep in mind I’m in the Home Business niche but here are some example headlines:
“Local Ad Link – Scam? or Legitimate Advertising Opportunity?”
You’ll notice a few things about this blog headline.
- It is incorporating the name of a “hot” online business, Local Ad Link.
- It uses the word “scam” as a trigger word, and also uses a phrase that people are searching for on the internet: “local ad link scam.” People investigating the Local Ad Link business opportunity want to know whether or not Local Ad Link is a scam.
- I also use question marks in our title. By starting out with a question we’re beginning the process of asking for comments. I could have re-written the headline and made it a statement of exclamation but instead we chose to write it as a question.
The body of the blog post highlights several reasons why I don’t like Local Ad Link. I also provide an example of my father’s business who we buy PPC advertising for and how my dad get’s a lot more bang for his buck by not using Local Ad Link. If you look through the blog post you’ll find no less than 7 question marks. Again throughout the entire post I am asking questions. So this leads the reader to want to write their opinion about this. Also at the end I don’t come right out and call it a scam. I leave the final decision to the reader. Again this encourages the reader to leave a comment.
If we look today at the results from this article we have 78 comments on this post. My average posts gets anywhere from 0 to 3 comments and no article has had this many comments! Several of the comment posters are bickering and fighting with one another… which is GREAT! Why? It’s great because people are coming back to the blog over and over again. They are returning to find out what Joe or Frank said. Best of all my readership has gone up from around 225 to 291. (Measured by feedburner.)
One strategy which is often overlooked is that it takes more than simply writing a controversial topic. You still want to go out and promote your blog as much as possible. You want to find other blogs that have written on a similar topic and leave comments linking back to your article. You might want to consider sending out free press releases using sites like PRLeap. You want to link these to the specific controversial post NOT the blog home page.
There is also a secret strategy that I don’t often hear people talk about. This trick is immediately follow up your controversial topic with some of your best free content the very next day. I usually have the follow up articles already written and scheduled to be posted in quick succession. When I do this I am hoping some of the readers are going to come back to check on the blog, comment on the previous article, etc. I want to follow up with some of my best articles to keep their attention and convince them that this blog is a blog that they want to subscribe to. If you write a controversial article and then miss a couple of days in between you are missing out on a golden opportunity. You need to keep consistency in your blog as you want to keep and engage as many of these new readers as possible.
Writing controversial topics and inviting my readers to comment and engage (even to bicker and fight a little bit) has proven successful for me. It has proven so successful I have grown my readership by 25% over the past month. I will continue to use this strategy to post controversial topics to my blog in the future.
Ben Fitts
Home Business Blog
Hallo and thanks for your Tipps. First sorry for my english its not so good. But what you are write only focus for english speaking Blogs. In german it always your be banned if your headline is in the middle of good and heavy. See my last article i have comments in the next time i published it. But NEW Readers i miss. The Readers il be happy don’t click on any Adverts and so my earnings not grow.
I have a look on your tipps always and hope you get a look for my too.
Thanks
Thomas
Thanks for these tips benfitts – there’s moer to growong a blog than just blogging!
Writing about scams is a good way of attracting people. But more of it will definitely make a blogger look pessimist or a supicious kind of blogger.
But then this kind of writing can a cursory one where it will definitely increase intrest among the readers. Best of luck to all.
May the best blogger be heard
I always cherish the chance to post a comment on this blog, as it always brings people (Visitors) to my blog to see what I am babbling about today.
Generally I am trying to get people to realize that the health of their body is the most important thing in their lives, but they don’t think it is addressed to them, or about them.
I was that way for 40 years, thinking I was invinsible and I had a iron clad gut, then one day I was having problems with bowel movements, and went to the doctor and had an exam, and found out I had colo-rectal cancer.
The next 4 years were the most memorable of my 75 years. Now I spend most of my time trying to get people to think about their bodies and to feed their cellular system exactly what those cells require.
This country is under the control of fascist corporations that intend to keep you ignorant about your health and our government is passively going along with them.
So creating curious blog posts are a good thing to bring interest to your posts , as people are very curious about many things and this gives them a chance to look into something they were not looking for in the first place.
Take a break and visit my blog and see what you are missing that is going on in the world of nutrition, and how you are being led down a path of destruction as far as your health is concerned, especially now about the Swine flu and the dangerous vaccines they are about to inflict on your health. You will suddenly realize you can be vulnerable and take a quick decent into the realm of the sick and miserable.
My advise is to never get a shot in the arm, as it could change your live for the rest of it, and that is not a good thing.
See what you have been missing now, just click on my name above.It may just save your life.
Nice tips
nice information…
Great tips here as usual. I will try the press releases. I have never done this before. I will give it a try…
Great post, I have tried getting ranked for the “scam” keywords but never had much luck with getting comments that were relevant for a clickbank review site I own. I will try to incorpoate this into some of my posts.. it really does sound like it will work.
thanks,
its picture of indonesia
“Local Ad Link – Scam? or Legitimate Advertising Opportunity?”
Advertising has always been a big part of a business and advertising may also
determine how successful the business would become.
Using scam related trigger words, no doubt about it creates controversy which is a powerful tactic; however it depends on the target audience.
In making this choice you should keep in mind the market, and by making a clear choice on what kind of customer you want or choose to do business.
the problem for me about prleap is that is not free …
My nature is not to be controversial but I know exactly how such a post can draw visitors and comments.As for Thomas in Germany,yes,you have to protect yourself against slander laws in your country but asking a question in a blog title still works wonders.Instead of using the ‘scam’ word imply the pros and cons of a program or product as you see it,making sure to ask for opposite opinions.Even in Germany this is still legal.You don’t live in the middle east.If you want some relevant articles ,my site has a fairly good translation service.Just click on the German flag and wait about 120 seconds and the whole page in front of you turns German.[To revert ,click the English flag.My database keeps the German version for your future readers to link to if you wish.]
Back on topic: a well known blogger recently wrote a very controversial post and received feedback for weeks.He may even have ‘temporarily ‘lost some followers but gained a ton more.Because he followed up with some of his best posts,including resurrecting some old gems,his popularity has exploded.Some notable guest bloggers took over to add to their fotunes so he could finally take a vacation.Everyone won.
owwww.. but I don’t like U hmmm
I confusing
25% is not bad at all! Congrats on that.
Some folks may like this strategy, some won’t, but I think if it works for You, by all means do it.
Hi Ben,
I used this same tactic on a recent blog post that got me an additional 50 readers of that post than is the norm. I also created a video on the same subject that got over 300 views on youtube in 12 hours.
The subject under discussion was Mike filsames latest project Affiliate Jump.
I simply advised my readers NOT to buy into the hype and I explained why.
Even I was amazed at the result of that post.
So controversy works because people are always looking for an opinion. I just gave them mine and found a growing number of supporters who shared that opinion.
thanks for sharing.
Kevin
Actually….it’s not 25% but rather can be upto 500% depending on the topic and niche!
Exactly what I have been doing since the last few months. From 200 visitors daily to now 1500 daily. Keep it up you too mate.
I was thinking about using this topic, but felt I might offend some of my readers. Some of them have been loyal readers for quite awhile, and they have never seen me write about anything controversial.
Anyway, I enjoyed this post and will think about including a few “opinionated” posts as well as my regular ones.
Thanks for sharing the tips. Agree with the post that controversy topic attract reader most. Let’s give a try with my blog..
Thanks a lot, i agree with Ben to create controversial posts to attract readers.
but i thing it could also damage our reputation if we bubble on something which in the end readers will mock on us.
controversial must mean that the point we are emphasizing is the truth, or say an honest view, not for the sake of making controversy.
This is timing because I just posted something controversial today –> “Google Adsense Et Al. Not Working”
Shox blog
Controversy or not, the crux of the matter lies in branding your personal tone. Frank Kern is one example with his laid-back tone. But you sure love to watch people fight over your blog, don’t you?
what a good way to me..
i want to increase but i donk know how.
but your blog tells me…thx a lot my fren..
I like the idea, thanks for the strategy.
I will try.
David
Thanks for some great ideas to apply to my wealth-4u2 Connection Blog. I have to say that the readership is really starting to climb. I would like to invite everyone to stop by and visit my blog and if you feel like leaving some comment please do.
To Your Success and Thanks Ben
Mike – Wealth4u2
I’ve discovered I love my blog and love to comment and write also.
At 53 years young I am very opinionated about certain subjects and will verify that google loves controversy about popular topics in the news.
I also make a decent income which is growing with my main business so I’m not worried crazy if my blog makes me money yet.
I have though come into the top 5 million web sites with Alexa rankings and my blog is only 6 months old.
I just add content consistently about things I like since it’s my blog and it’s about MY Passions ,Insight and Thoughts.
So yes controvery is good ,consistency is important and lastly I have my social sites coming in and out of my blog with all the right plugins.
Just be yourself.