It doesn't matter what the critics say.

[contract]

Felt like I should make a thread on the subject...

Because I deal with this shit all the time.

When I first started out people would yell, "SPAM", "Garbage", "F-ck you", "That sucks", "Learn how to write idiot", "Pathetic"... I could go on and on and on...

I really don't want anyone here on BuSo to get discouraged by that.

Fast forward a few years, and I STILL hear the same things today. The haters are relentless.

A long time it made me wonder: Was my content really that bad? Was I really spamming? Did I forget to spelling something correctly? Was my advice on the topic bad?

We're all taught customer feedback helps us solve problems, but you've really got to shift through a lot of shit from shitty people.

It's really easy to second guess yourself; when in reality you have done absolutely nothing wrong.

You might even decided to stop promoting in certain places. (Don't do that)

Eventually I realized none of that mattered. You can write the best piece of content in the world and still be shamed and hated for it. As long as you are focused on the goal, it's honestly, hard to fuck up.

It's truly amazing how a Buzzfeed article on 10 tips to finance your next car will receive 1000x more praise... (Those 10 tips could be all wrong by the way) Than say, someone who's been in the financial industry for a decade and has decided to put together a well-written list of 200 tips. People will still find something wrong it it.

AKA: "I've been investing my salary from work for the past year, and I KNOW #199 on your list is wrong! I'm earning more than enough!" (In reality, this chump has put $500 in a savings account at 0.19% interest). (Your advice could have been to invest it in an index fund at 7%)

If they can't find anything to argue over, they'll try to hate like the basic bitch they are, "That was terrible", "That was awful"...

....

Interestingly enough, if you look at 99% of the gurus today, the ones with large followings, they all share one thing in common: They give out really watered-down advice. I mean, a single article could explain everything they have ever talked about since they first started being a Guru. Yet, people flock to them regardless.

Which brings me to my next point:

While 99% of all the up and coming gurus are ALL talking out of their ass, the same deal expands to a lot of niches. Business, SEO, Fashion, Finance, Health, Fitness, Cooking, etc. No one is born an all-star.

It doesn't matter how good something you put out is. What matters is that you actually put it out!

....

I'm not sure where I'm going with this to finish things up as my ritalin is wearing down here. But you get the point.

If I had listened to all the haters over the years, I wouldn't be where I'm at today. If I had stopped sharing my content at places where 90%+ of the comments where negative, I wouldn't have gotten all the free promotion value and eyeballs. There are places I still share my content on, where only 1 person out of 100+ will say something positive or thank me.

These haters are jealous, envious, and you better believe they pray every night hoping you will come back to their level. They just don't have it in them to do what you're doing. They are filled with lots of laziness and bellies full of fear.

I know this all probably sounds like, "Yeah, okay I get that"... But for the guys that are just starting out, this shit doesn't just happen from time to time, it happens often. Don't get sidetracked by it.

If you are promoting something you feel is of value. It's NOT spam! PERIOD. There's a HUGE difference between sharing an article in a community and sharing links for great deals on Viagra.

So there you have it.

ps. Just remember.... The people who really appreciate what you're doing, 9/10 times will stay silent. There could be a LOT of them... Don't let the haters determine your end success rate just because their more vocal. They truly don't matter.

 

[CCarter]

People will complain about anything, haters will complain you didn't comb your hair the same in a new video - jeez, really. You can't spend any time concerned with what haters say. There is a HUGE chancee they are trolling you, and trying to have you doubt yourself. Haters HATE YOU. So they have ZERO reason to want to see you truly improve or become better at your craft; therefore when you really put it together anything they say is literally to screw you over and have you stop rising higher and higher. Never take advice or criticism from a pure hater ever.

The key is to recognize actual feedback versus random gibberish from people that want to hear themselves talk:

^^ In the first panel you see a critique that makes sense to the owner of the orange juice store. You can tell the genuine attempt at trying to correct a problem. Those are not haters they are attempting to help and want to see you succeed.

In the second panel what the Hater is saying adds no value to YOU or your CONTENT. It's mostly centered around them and their own reality of the world. People that go out of their way to lash out or waste time have nothing going on in their lives and create no "value" to the world. In that scenario they want to at the same time not see anyone else add "value" to the world so they say something that will not in ANYWAY help you become better at your craft.

Margaret Cho had a great critique about this:

The name of the game is understanding whether you can take any value from what the user said and improve yourself. If there is nothing specific, then they are just wasting their own time trying to make sure you do not rise above them.

 

[miketpowell]

Very good point.

Pretty much all the copy I write gets made fun of in comments. "Who wrote this a 3rd grader?"

If I got butt hurt about it and wrote the copy at a higher level it would covert worse, I know because I run split tests and make decisions based on data.

Lots of people will over react to small amounts of data if it touches them emotionally. We have that problem with certain employees. They will get a call or email from a customer or two about some issue and bring this up as urgent to managers and how we gotta fix it ASAP. What they don't see is 1-2 customers having some issue is no big deal and we have much more critical issues we can see it site usage statistics and our raw data. But emotional element of numbers coming out of Google Analytics isn't the same an upset customer personally contacting you. It's actually for that very reason companies keep the "decision making level" completely away from any customer contact. YMMV of course based on industry and company size.

Make decisions based on data not on who is being mean to you that day.

 

[ryandiscord]

If you are promoting something you feel is of value. It's NOT spam! PERIOD.

That really resonated with me. The whole post is very encouraging!

 

[Ryuzaki]

For sure... you have trolls who set out to do things like this. Then after that, you have the vocal minority that can't shut their mouth about negativity. Then the silent majority is clicking and buying and viewing and putting cash in your pocket.

The thing online too is that most of the time, these negative idiots end up helping you. They push your thread back to the top of a forum and get you visibility. They comment 100x in your thread which outweighs the harm of their single downvote.

Engagement of the good or bad kind is a million times more valuable online than praise. Which is why there's so many people getting filthy rich off of polarizing content.

Take YouTube for instance... a Thumbs Down is a positive ranking signal... It means the viewer is engaged and more likely to stay on YouTube. Same goes for everywhere else with an intelligently written algorithm, minus the 1-5 star rating ones, which are ripe with abuse.

I had some one compare one of my article to a certain publisher that's been grinding since the 50's, as if it was a bad thing. Lots came in afterwards and repeated the sentiment, lending it more credence. It was a huge compliment. This is an 8-Figure business you're comparing me too, which has easily cleared 9-Figures in it's time of operation. Thanks for the compliment, idiots!

 

[Andrewkar]

Interestingly enough, if you look at 99% of the gurus today, the ones with large followings, they all share one thing in common: They give out really watered-down advice. I mean, a single article could explain everything they have ever talked about since they first started being a Guru. Yet, people flock to them regardless.

Because people like EASY way, and this is what GURUs are supplying (and how public is conditioned in general). One good way is to separate itself by presenting totally different point of view (professional one), or to get users engaged by kind of guru shit in the first place, and then funnel them down.

Getting emotional is a huge mistake, some of those "haters" just don't understand what's going on, but after a while they will get back to you, and maybe even buy. It's just like @miketpowell said, they are being emotionally challenged, but it doesn't mean they won't click at some point in the future.

I think that creating controversy and offending as many people as possible, without actually offending them, is the best way to promote stuff online (and not only online..).

 

[Inhibition]

Holy fuck. You have no idea how close to home this post hit me.
Thank you.

 

[Krass]

I was the opposite of this. My posts were so well thought out and balanced that in the end nobody cared.

Nowadays I try to get at least a negative comment so that I know I'm not being too PC

 

[Samedi]

Perhaps the ONLY person's criticism that matters?
You're going to roll with your project, or you're not.
Best be prepared to own it, yeah?









Keep in mind that j.dauhmer,a.hitler, et al felt they were faultless

 

[Marko]

People are good at talking. Most prefer talking, very few actually do something or even mean what they say.

They're opinions and thoughts are changing every second and you can see that with anything.

 

[Jared]

 

[Capital]

Only think that matters is revenue.
CPM rev doesn't hinge on quality. Only outrage/sentimentality.

 

[contract]

Only think that matters is revenue.
CPM rev doesn't hinge on quality. Only outrage/sentimentality.

I like this...

A LOT.

 

[Ryuzaki]

I like this...

A LOT.

Me too. This is critical in obtaining the shares. Another aspect is obtaining the initial click through curiosity.

Watching this evolve is interesting. Your typical clickbait extinguishes its usefulness over time, where people go from curious to not only skeptical but rejective of what's behind that "curiosity wall."

It will always work but it's magnetism may be reduced to only the core, passionate users of that niche.

If you keep your eyes peeled, you'll see masters of "micro-copy" pull off the curiosity clickbait in ways that goes completely unnoticed. And now with websites like Facebook writing algorithms to reduce the exposure of clickbait links, and Reddit users creating sub-reddits to spill the beans in the title instead (like /r/SavedYouAClick), you better get your game together.

• 17 Blah's to Blah Your Blah [INFOGRAPHIC]
• You Won't Believe What Happens Next!

The listicles and cliffhangers and whatnot still work. But their reach is being increasingly stifled among the savvy internet users, and while they aren't critical in getting you mass shares for CPMs, they are the ones that get you the GOOD links.

Not sure that I had a point. It's a lot to think about and a lot of fun to conquer. Reddit is a fantastic training ground for this. Not only overcoming specific demographic's barriers and triggers but anticipating the userbase at large too, so you can reap the big traffic.