Don’t let the Haters bring you Down
April 18, 2007 | Comments (6) | Filed under: Blogging
A friend of mine recently started her own blog (no link cause she doesn’t want people to know I’m talking about her) that has started to pick up a bit of steam in terms of visitors. She recently had one of her articles reach the front page of Reddit and as a result has seen her traffic quadruple over the last few weeks. However, in addition to her new influx of traffic comes the inevitable influx of haters.
For anyone who has a blog that even gets remotely popular, you know exactly the situation my friend is in. Sites like Digg, Reddit, and StumbleUpon can bring you a ton of traffic, but a good portion of it is just angry people looking to flame whoever and whatever they can. This can come as a big shock to someone just starting out, like my friend, who wasn’t really a big web presence prior to starting her own site. If you’re not a regular visitor of other blogs or community sites like those mentioned above, you might not be prepared for the onslaught of insults that popularity might bring. In the beginning, it is tough not to take it personal.
As I mentioned in a previous post, inflammatory comments are one of the most underestimated ways of generating interest in your new site. They can increase commenting, help you stand out, and also cause a little controversy which always feeds further discussion. However, there is a difference between inflammatory comments and straight up insults. Unfortunately, the anonymous nature of the web makes it simple for people to drop an insult and quickly vanish without a trace.
Understandably, when my friend first started getting comments like “This site is garbage and the writer knows nothing” and “Don’t quit your day job, this trash won’t get you anywhere” she was a little upset and wondered whether running her site was even worth it. What I tried to tell her though is that even if you wrote the Lord of the Rings as your blog post, someone would eventually stop by and call it crap.
The key to success is to not let these haters bring you down, and actually look at the bright side. Two posts at Bookmark Bliss recently made the front page of Digg, 10 Lessons 300 Can Teach You About Online Business and 10 Tools to Help You Select a Web 2.0 Color Palette. If you look at both of these posts here and over at Digg, they are marvels of insults. Probably 2 out of every 3 comments are insulting and inflammatory in some way. Did this bother me?
Not in the slightest.
Why? Because 95% of the people who trashed on my article also took the time to Digg the post up. Most of the people commenting are simply posting because they feel they have to. For the most part, it is never anything personal. Once you realize that and the fact that these insults are actually benefiting you with more traffic, you’ll see a smile start to form on your face.
If you look deeply, it’s really is a case of the most vocal minority being the haters. From a post that received more than 1000 diggs, maybe 40 people posted negatively. While 40 is a fair chunk of the 60 comments received, in the scheme of things it is clear more people enjoyed it then hated it.
Bottom line. Haters will hate no matter what you do. The best you can do is post what you think your readers will enjoy, and don’t let the haters bring you down. When you get over taking it personally, you’ll really start to find that the Haters really have zero impact on anything that happens to your site. It is at that point you’ll start to figure out ways to use them to your advantage and that will be the day you start your quest to take over the world!
What are some of the best examples you guys have seen for people just hating on a post for no reason at all? I find people who visit your site directly generally offer good responses, but some of the people who come through other sites can be really venomous. No press is bad press they say, and I guess in the blogosphere things are no different.
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6 people have left comments
The sole reason I’ve never attempted to get Dugg is the flood of idiot Diggers it brings to your site. The comments I see on other sites was more than enough to make me decide that it wasn’t worth it. I’m probably throwing the baby out with the bathwater, but I’m not blogging for a living, so I don’t have to have the traffic. I’d rather just avoid the headache altogether.
Also, I definitely wouldn’t lump StumbleUpon users and Digg users together. They’re two totally different animals in my experience.
Yeah, Digg definitely brings in a lot of bad traffic but I can say for sure, there is not much of a faster, cheaper, and better way to build links to your site then getting a front page Digg article.
Within a 24 hour span, dozens and dozens of blogs will link to your article and which causes a sort of chain reaction of even more links. Even weeks after the digg article has slipped away, you’ll still get traffic from the other blogs that linked to you.
I don’t know. If you have a thick skin when it comes to criticism, Digg can be very powerful.
So Diggbait for links, not necessarily the traffic? I think could buy that argument.
It depends on what you are writing as to which you are digged for, I guess. Some diggers think they have seen it all (by digging), and they think that they are some big shot when they make those comments. But it’s still acceptable, overall.
Good post. I think I actually found your site through that 300 post on Digg. I remember that most of the comments were highly critical. Glad you were able to see the benefit of the Digg and ignore the negative comments.
I actually think that the Digg crowd in general is highly negative. It’s almost as if they like nothing better than to Digg something up and comment it down. I still stop by Digg once in a awhile to see what’s new but I’m doing less and less commenting over there because it feels more like a flame war than anything else.
It must be disheartening to get such comments.
But for a new blogger, to get lots of comments is a great thing. No matter how many are negatives. At least your friend managed to get her visitors engaged.
As for digg users, most are tech-savvy teens. Thus, angry or uncensored remarks from them are nothing new.
It’s okay. Tell your friend to keep blogging.