Forget the hype, the person who the world loves today will be forgotten tomorrow – do what you love and forget what the world things. There is a market for just about everything – just look at the pet rock.

@Quais – consider me warned

@Miriam – yes I had a little email debate with him, he is a good bloke

Just wanted to say that he really does read his emails and respond. It would be interesting to hear his explanation as to why he doesn’t allow comments. I’m guessing it has to do with the amount of comments he would get, and how it would be very time consuming to manage them.

But seriously, what the heck is a niggle?

Not since Sting has anyone sent me scurrying off to the dicitionary.

Okay, just kidding again…

A few others that come to mind:
Family Guy
Bil O’Rielly
American Idol
WalMart
Star Wars
etc.

Great post.

The way I put it to people who want to be successful bloggers is that nice is nice but edgy is cool. Push people’s buttons, make them think, make them stand up and shout even if it’s at you. Have no fear!!

Loved the post. Telling EVERYBODY about it.

@Cory – tips will be coming soon

@Marc – there is nothing wrong with middle of the road, but pushing the outside of the envelope means accepting you will cause some to hate what you do

@John – yeah what arouses passion in you will not necessarily be the same for others – people get passionate on Digg all the time but it tends to be in “my operating system is better than yours” debates or “GWB did this that or the other”

@Bonnie – courage is very important, I was shell shocked when I first started writing how much anger people would have over the smallest of slipups or misunderstandings. I have flame-retardant kevlar pants now I will do a post on tips soon

@Jim – gee thanks

@Kate – I forgive you, I was raised in England so fully understand Blogland surely is a cruel place but there are ample warm and fuzzy folds if you look for them

@Mark – where would we be without emotion? Living with Mr Spock I guess

@Jhay – Yup if you get that treatment you know you are doing something right

@Mark – har har, another comedian

@Jen – agreed, words can be very powerful. With the ubiquity of sound and vision in todays world it is easy to forget that words on a page have so much impact.

@Ahmed – another comedian, I guess I get the readers I deserve

@Quais – to be honest I am a little surprised nobody has put together a campaign to boot me from the web yet

there you go, feel successful yet?

I found the advice similar to a song lyric I mentioned here:

http://www.45n5.com/permalink/marketing-advice-from-a-female-teenage-popstar.html

I do know what you mean though. I wonder if maybe it partly comes down to most people opting for being liked over being controversial or rocking the boat, and because of this they would find being hated a strange thing to deal with. Even if an equal number of readers loved their blog. You have to be quite brave to raise your head above the battlements, and Blogland can be a cruel place. Does that make sense?

ps: Sorry if you get this twice, my browser went a bit strange when I tried to post before.

lol, kidding