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Would You Compromise Your Brand’s Integrity for a Little Traffic Bump?

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 04:00 AM PDT

Last week I wrote about how FunnyJunk was threatening to take legal action against Matt Inman, aka The Oatmeal, unless he forked over $20,000 for making “false statements” about their website and for having the audacity to outrank them for searches for their own brand.  Rather than cave to this blatantly absurd threat, Matt instead called for fans of The Oatmeal and eye rollers of frivolous lawsuits to donate money via Indiegogo to the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society. He raised the $20,000 in just over an hour and then some–with five days left before the fundraising window expires, Matt has raised well over $200,000 for charity.

Meanwhile, FunnyJunk’s legal representation, Charles Carreon, has taken Matt’s reaction very personally despite the fact that the bulk of The Oatmeal’s sarcasm was directed towards the website and not necessarily the lawyer hired by them. Carreon has resorted to suing not only Matt, but Indiegogo and, inexplicably, both the American Cancer Society and the National Wildlife Federation. Reactions to the lawyer whose skill set lies somewhere between Lionel Hutz from The Simpsons and Charlie Kelly from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia have ranged from “This man is the most clueless lawyer ever” to “He’s clearly doing this for publicity.” Indeed, one user in a reddit thread I came across had this to say, not just about Carreon but about FunnyJunk in general:

…this is the definition of “any publicity is good publicity.”

  1. Funnyjunk has been losing traffic since their peak in the late 2000′s. Since at least 2010, they have been encouraging site users to bring in more traffic, hinting that the site will be shut down if traffic doesn’t pick up. There are plenty of references to this in comments on FJ posts, FJ tags dedicated to the “save FunnyJunk” campaign, and even a half-hearted Facebook Group.
  2. Last spring, The Oatmeal published a webcomic about FunnyJunk reposting his material. The comic was so popular that it eclipsed FunnyJunk.com on searches for FunnyJunk. It also brought FunnyJunk a spike in traffic, which although followed by a brief lull, increased the number of regular users to their site for the remainder of the year [source]. Although “humiliated” by The Oatmeal, his comic was boon for the site.
  3. Now, a year later, FunnyJunk’s post-Oatmeal traffic boost is starting to wear off, and they have returned to the same sad slide to obscurity. They would love another traffic boosting “Internet event”, but how can they manufacture one? How about lobbing a lawsuit softball to The Oatmeal, who is almost guaranteed to publically [sic] mock it in a comic, bringing FJ another site-saving traffic boost. You can see the new boost in the same Alexa report cited above. If the original lawsuit wasn’t an obvious enough of a publicity stunt, the additional “lawsuits” against the charities should drive the point home — they are serving ridiculous lawsuits because they want to make an interesting enough story that people talk about them and their site.
  4. The fact that bigger news outlets have picked this story up is icing on the cake for FJ. You have to understand that they are a site that desparately [sic] needs traffic, with a user base that’s unlikely to leave because of an inter-site feud. Any publicity, even if extremely negative, will only serve to drive more traffic to their site, a percentage of which will become regular users. They want this story to get as big as possible, and they don’t care how they come off.

I’ve previously written about the slippery slope of scandals and how it brought about one such controversy brought about the demise of an online cooking magazine despite some commenters positing that the negative publicity would be good for the magazine and bring them more traffic and brand awareness. Maybe FunnyJunk is pulling a publicity stunt, but if that’s the case, there are two problems with this strategy:

  1. It’s not a long-term solution. As the reddit user explained, even if FunnyJunk intentionally baited Matt into getting into a feud with them last year for traffic purposes, the bump from the whole ordeal was short-lived; hence their latest stunt. How many times can a website attempt to do something “controversial” before people get sick of them? Will FunnyJunk keep desperately attaching their tentacles onto a popular web figure every six months or year in a sad attempt to gain a few extra page views and signups? If so, that’s a pretty pathetic marketing model.
  2. They’re really shitting on their brand. Congratulations, you’re getting attention for being an asshole. Maybe FunnyJunk is fine with being the Kardashian equivalent of a humor website; after all, with so many funny websites competing with each other for users and traffic, you’ve gotta find a way to stand out amongst the crowd, so what better way to differentiate yourself than by being a mega douche? This may work for some sites, but generally you want to have positive connotations with your brand, not an immediate association with Internet pitchforks and torches. Besides, repeatedly dropping a hot Cleveland steamer on your brand isn’t a long-term solution (see point #1) and will eventually turn more people off than attract new users.

But that’s just my opinion. What about you? Would you be willing to compromise your brand’s integrity or professionalism in exchange for a little traffic boost, however fleeting it may be? Are you cool with being ridiculed or hated to a huge extent so long as you get some attention? After all, we’re living in an age where celebrities are borne from shameless reality TV shows without having any discernible talent aside from a lack of shame or integrity. Is this just a sign of the times, or do you hold out hope (as I do) that at the end of the day people will continue to reward talent and hard, honest work over a short-lived controversy or scandal?

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Choosing a Niche for Your Website - DailyBlogTips

Choosing a Niche for Your Website - DailyBlogTips

Choosing a Niche for Your Website

Posted: 19 Jun 2012 07:56 AM PDT


Choosing the niche, the very core topic of your website is an important step, since you’ll be stuck with it and if you don’t choose wisely you’ll soon abandon what you doing because of the simple fact you’ll not enjoying it. You have to be prepared to work for a year or two without, or with very little, financial compensation. Only handful people can do that. Are you one of them?

Brainstorming

If you want to create and manage a website, to become a webmaster, you’ll have to find your true passion and spend a great amount of time and energy in creating a good content, promoting your website and be prepared to learn something new every single day.

99% of the people, who try to make money online by running a website, they fail. There is no “get rich quick” scheme. Creating and especially managing a website is a long learning process and if you don’t enjoy it you’ll certainly fail. For that reason finding a niche that will keep you “alive” for several years is a must do.

So grab a pencil and a piece of paper and brainstorm some ideas about your new website. Ask yourself the following questions:

What I usually enjoy when I have a conversation with my friends and family?
In which field I’m considered as an expert?
What do I like to read the most?
What do I watch on TV the most?
What can get hold of my attention for a very long time?
Simply what is the true passion in my life?

Research

Now you certainly have some general ideas about what you want to do on Internet. Now fire up your browser and do some research about your “ideas”. You’ll be amazed of the fact that almost nothing is “new” on Internet. Whatever you think off, there is someone else who is already doing that. There is someone else who is already running a website based on your “ideas”. Whatever you think off, there will be a dozens of websites with the same “idea” behind. A truly great idea comes once in a trillion. Often that is a new technology employed by a group of people finding its way through the vast see of goods and services on the web (examples: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc.)

So what we are going to do about that. Nothing. There is a room for everyone. If you'’re good enough you’ll find your way.

Narrowing

So far so good, you have some ideas, you did your research on Internet and you narrowed your choice on two-three topics you are passionate about. That’s good but you have to be aware of one more thing. If you choose some broad, general topic (example: writing about “life”), you’ll lose the focus, you’ll face fierce competition, your site will be full of seemingly disconnected articles and probably you’ll have a hard time ranking well at search engines.

However if you narrow your niche to much (example: writing about “Australian cat grooming products”), you’ll have a very few people interested in this topic, thus a very small number of people searching for it on the web. Also you’ll probably run out of content very soon. Simply there is not much out there to write about it.

Profitability

It’s always good to check if the niche is profitable or not. For example the niche “insurance” is one of the most profitable niches out there, but in turn it’s very competitive. Google AdWords Tool is the best destination to check if the main keywords for your niche are profitable or not. Also you can check if they’re competitive or not and how many people are searching for them on a monthly basis.

Playing with the this tool will roughly tell you if you’re going to make some serious money in future and how much competition you’ll have to face along the way. For example the keywords related to “insurance” cost around $15 per click. That means if you decide to advertise your website with those keywords, you’ll have to pay a lot of money.
But, that also means if you place an AdSense ads on your “insurance” website you’ll earn good amount of money with every single click. However as I said it’s a very competitive niche and probably you’ll not make your site prominent and often visited, thus you’ll not earn much money from it, unless you’re genius in that field.

Wrap Up

Choose your niche wisely. Make sure it’s not too much competitive, that you have enough inspiration for it, it can bring fair amount of money, and the most important part, make sure you really enjoy the process of writing or creating the content for it.

Vlatko is the owner of Keen Talks. Visit his website to see talks, lectures and interviews with insightful people.

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Original Post: Choosing a Niche for Your Website
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