Is controversy good for business?

Sure, a lot of link-bait type articles follow this concept.

You do need to find a happy medium, though. You want to write something that will get people fired up and talking, but you don't want to come across a complete jerk and lose a bulk of your readership.

Controversy might get you short-term attention, but in the long-run you dont want your business to be under the spotlight for questionable reasons...

Google killed this for companies that got a lot of complaints. NYTimes ran a story on one particular eyewear company that was getting an SEO boost due to people posting negative blog posts about them.

Have you heard in the news, Rockstar Games's GTA series that sparked a huge controversy?

It helped them sell a lot more copies and become one of the popular game series. Now recently it has been revealed that Rockstar actually paid their PR firm to write negative stuff about them

So yes, it helps!

Controversy always works but only if it's executed properly. For instance, a while ago a blog named returnofkings.com launched a "fat shaming week" on twitter. They got a ton of heat and even got covered on buzzfeed in a "look at the bad guys" manner. In the end though, the blog built instant readership and is now attracting loads of traffic.

Yes, controversy can be good for business. However it depends what type of business you are into.

In the late 80's my favourite comedian was Andrew ''Dice'' Clay. He caused a lot of controversy.

He made millions of dollars and was the first comedian to sell out Madison square gardens. But, quickly as he was on top of the world playing arenas his crude and controversial behaviour led to his demise.


Bill


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Controversy has always worked extremely well for celebrities. Look at Justin Bieber. Like a car crash, you can't help but look.
In business I think it can be useful but only if toned down suitably. More like 'stirring the pot' to create an active debate is the angle I think of. If its intriguing to my readers, they'll check back more often.

I have a forum in a very controversial niche. It has grown gangbusters and currently at 30,000 uniques per day with an average of 14 minutes on the site per visitor. I've had requests for interviews from CNN and been featured on some TV shows. Sounds great right? Unfortunately because of the controversial nature, I can't run Google Ads. And most other ad networks pay peanuts.

So yes, I have a lot of traffic from being controversial. I just can't monetize it precisely because it is controversial.

I think a little controversy can be good, to a point. If you use it too much, it'll be off-putting and people will just start ignoring you. Or, it'll lose it's effectiveness. If you look at political commentators who say outrageous things (ie Rush Limbaugh), it plays well to their base, but doesn't do much to appeal to new listeners.

The 'Duck Dynasty' controversy is interesting because since then the show's ratings have actually tanked. But there's no doubt that they probably saw an increase in their main business from loyal supporters.

In the end, I think it's unpredictable and depends on what the controversy is about. It can help, but there have been numerous cases where it did more harm than good.

Proceed with caution.

This probably isn't the best example, but the rapper Emenim once said he loved it when his mom sued him because it increased his record sales. Lol.

We had a member who posted in multiple forums that he was angry about something we allegedly did. While we never were able to verify his claims, neither were thousands of others who visited our website, many of whom ordered services.

I was tempted to thank him for the 33% increase in business, but thought it best not to rub it in his face and simply enjoy the results. That however, is not recommended in all cases.

In a nutshell yes. There is no such thing as bad publicity. It should work like that but it does.

Controversy is potentially good when it gets people talking about you or your product that isn't "This is a scam," or "this is going to kill you" and that there are people who agree with your stance, disagree with your stance, and most importantly people who don't care and are curious to find out more about you because of this.

A really good example of that being beneficial here in the IM community is the story of a blog getting a really nice boost in traffic. This guy posted an article on what kind of woman you should look for and how to get one. The type of woman he recommended is was pretty akin to your stereotypical 50's housewife and he claimed that wives should only be used for cooking, sex, and raising kids.

The feminist community blew up about this and posted several articles calling him an asshole, sexist, etc.

But in the end it ended up boosting his traffic and his sales increased dramatically and it also helped his site get ranked even higher than it was before.

Since I personally disagree with the blog owners viewpoints on women, politics, racism, and gender roles strongly I am not going to post the name of the blog.

Although I will say he does have great articles on motivation, mindset, and everything else a successful entrepreneur needs its overshadowed by all the hateful crap that he spews out.

It's like the dark side of the force. Is it powerful? Sure. Does it work? Sure. But once you use it, there's no going back. You'll have less friends and the friend you do have will be of a meaner breed.

Really depends on what type of audience you are going after. It works for some people. Negative press for a while may boost traffic temporarily but long term it will leave a bad taste in people's mouths. Personally, I don't go there. But it all goes back to who is your target audience and your overall goals with your business.