It only took a few hours for us to begin another feast on some linkbait. This time, it’s linkbait about linkbait. From Scoble…

Remember the learnings I put up yesterday. What was one of the key themes that I learned in 2007? That if you want traffic you must cause the metaphorical equivalent of a traffic wreck, right? Remember my seven Amazon Kindle videos? Here, let’s look at them again. Note which one got the most views: the one where I was a real jerk. This isn’t by accident. Human beings are attracted to conflict as stories.

UPDATE: This post is in reaction to this post by Scott Karp which was in reaction to how Gawker Media now pays its bloggers.

Me and Mike Arrington shaking hands at a party? No audience attention.
Me and Mike Arrington yelling at each other at a party? Audience gathers around.

So the question is. Is it linkbait if you’re talking about linkbait? Or is that just a clever way to say it’s not linkbait when it really is?

Robert, good luck to you in the new year with your plan to be less negative. I think that is a good idea, for you, and for others.

What I will say though, is that you are an established brand in your space. For new bloggers and industry people, they sometimes have to go the negative route to build an audience quicker. We’ve all done it. The questions are, how often should we do it and how long before we should stop doing it?

I’m done with it as a tactic, but sometime, you know, you just get cheesed off and have to be an asshat.

More: Dan Blank, Mathew Ingram, Scott Karp.

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