Do Bloggers Preach What They Teach.

I expected that much when I posted that “Bloggers are Big Cheaters”. I kinda knew i would be stepping on some toes, or tails if you like it phrased that way and I was surprised that it took so long for someone to come and contradict what I wrote. Maybe that’s because there isn’t many reading this blog or maybe bloggers have become so feeble that they don’t like opening up and sounding out their opinions anymore.

I was very happy that finally, Jenniffer Mattern took it upon herself to present her personal opinion on the issue of my views on “top ten list” and the abuse of good linkbaits and good copy writing. Now it is not my intention here to start a blog war, no matter how effective it is in garnering some publicity, but I think Jenn sort of took my post too personally to really ponder over what was written before she posted “More Bad News on Blog Stupidity“. Now, if i was to be petty, I would say Jennifer is calling me stupid, but like I say, let us not take posts too personally. She did not specifically called me stupid. She just implied that bloggers like me are stupid.

Now let me clarify a few things. I did not say I was against Linkbaits and catchy titles. In fact I am all for them. Read paragraph two. I said I take baits willingly if I know there is something bigger at he end of the string. I go through all the links given out by Problogger. I lap up tips lists by Dosh Dosh and I religiously go through the whole “top ten list to blog the easy way” by Seth Godin. That’s just 3 of all the top blogs that I visits regularly. Why? That’s because I know the links provided by these people have a certain quality in them. I trust them to have gone over the links themselves, found it worthy, before presenting them to me or to us. If that is so, why then am I pissed about being baited?

The problem started when too many bloggers joined the bandwagon. They come up with lists after lists that they themselves have not gone through or maybe even visited, copying the list from someone else’s blog and dumping them into their blog before giving it the all visitor inducing title of “Top Ten Tips about XXX”. Now tell me, don’t you feel at least a little piss out if you come across post like this once too often? Don’t you feel cheated? Don’t you feel you were unfairly baited? And what do I do when I come across such posts? Like Jenn commented,

There’s a simple solution though… if you don’t like it, don’t click the link. Leave the blog. It takes less than a minute out of your life to just leave. And if the post really does lead you to something informative and worthwhile that you may otherwise have not found, then there’s really no reason to whine about it, now is there?

I leave, never to go back again.

I hope my short clarification here ends this controversy. I am not a very good blogger, maybe stupid even, but I try to learn along the way. One tip that I learned one day when I accidentally stumbled upon a blog with a domain that is almost identical as mine is sometimes a ” Contravercial Blog Posts are a good Thing” because the author said, among the 5 good things she listed,

Controversial blog posts often work well as pieces of link bait. They have a natural viral quality about them… if people hate what you say, they’ll link to you when they bitch about you on their own blog; if they love what you say, they’ll link to you to show support against all the naysayers.

I rest my case.

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