Controversy Traffic at Manila Standard Today

With the controversy surrounding Malu Fernandez, People Asia, and the Manila Standard Today, it's no wonder that traffic to the MST site went up. I wonder, however, if the people who are calling for the boycott of The Manila Standard are contributing to the boost in web site traffic. Let's have a look at those Alexa traffic charts.

Here's a snapshot of the daily reach of MST for the past six months:

And here's the daily reach chart for the past one month:

Here's a chronology of events based on posting dates:

Jul 30, 2007: Am I being a diva? Or do you lack common sense? (ManilaStandardToday.com, Malu Fernandez) -- "I don’t want to be someone to bridge the gap between socioeconomic classes. I leave that to the politicians in my family who believe they can actually help. Now I seriously ask you, am I being a diva or are people around me just lacking in common sense? Perhaps it’s a little of both!"

Aug 8: Mahaderang Matapobre sa OFWs (selvo.wordpress.com, Nomadic Thoughts) -- "I seldom come across articles that bring my blood pressure up to a record high. This article by Malu Fernandez has led me to set a new personal record." Josel Gonzales posts scanned images of the People Asia Magazine article of Malu Fernandez.

Aug 16: Malu Fernandez, Manila Standard Today, Bigotry In The Media (Tingog.com) -- "For her part, in her 'apology', Malu Fernandez addressed the emails responding to her article. However, the apology, was nothing more than another attempt to take a jab at Filipinos and to once again assert that she’s an elite that those in lower socioeconomic classes just fail to understand or comprehend her 'wit'."

Aug 17: Fire Malu Fernandez, Boycott Manila Standard, and People Asia Magazine (AboutMyRecovery.com, Noemi Dado) -- "This blog is not a political or Philippines’ news blog but I just want to help Tingog.com call for help."

Aug 18: The Malu Fernandez Index (AWBHoldings.com, Arbet) -- "I urge the readers to control your emotions and please watch your words. Show that you are better than her. Prove that she is wrong. You are only proving her correct by calling her names. Sure she had called you names and insulted to, but returning the favor will actually validate her assertions! Thank you." [Comment: The post provides links to other blogs that talk about Malu Fernandez.]

Aug 23: Columnist quits after courting ire of droves of OFWs (GMANews.tv) -- "Malu Fernandez, lifestyle columnist of Manila Standard, resigned from the paper and the travel magazine she used to write for after getting the ire of readers, particularly Filipino overseas workers in Dubai, a statement posted on blogsites and sent to the GMANews.TV email said."

Aug 23: Where humor ends (ManilaStandardToday.com, Connie Veneracion) -- "What is truly mind-blowing is that non-OFW sectors of the Philippine blogging community are in on the act too and demanding far more than what levelheaded migrant workers are asking for. In the e-mail I received, and this was circulating among OFWs, the demand was for an apology. There was no name-calling such as what has been going around in Web logs posts and comment threads where Malu Fernandez is referred to as..."

Aug 29: It's Official: The Divatrocious Returns (Annalyn.net) -- "An insider said: while Malu Fernandez indeed has submitted her resignation, her resignation has not been accepted by higher management, hence we will continue publishing her column."

Aug 29: Babe Romualdez issues statement regarding Malu Fernandez (Tingog.com) -- "Yesterday, we were made aware of The Statement made by the Publisher of People Asia Magazine, Babe Romualdez. His statement follows, and it is very telling that indeed our voices reverberated even into the offices of higher management itself."

Sept 4: DDoS Attacks launched against MST. The blog post was dated Sept 4. I don't know when the attacks were actually launched.

Analysis of Controversy Traffic

In a nutshell: Bloggers can help drive traffic to your site. Even if they dislike your site enough to ask others to boycott you.

Let's look at the events: June 2007 issue of the People Asia Magazine, Malu Fernandez issues July 30 apology, then Boom! Traffic at the Manila Standard Today web site spikes up after Josel Gonzales posts scanned images of "the article" on August 8.

For some reason, traffic continues to climb. Then on Aug. 16 Tingog.com writes about the issue and other more popular bloggers write about it in their blogs and in their Twitter posts. This quickly spreads the news to even more bloggers.

The growth in traffic is not as fast, though, as that experienced during the mysterious Aug 8 to 16 period.

(NOTE: Google trends shows an increase in searches for "Malu Fernandez" starting Aug 20, and for "Manila Standard" starting Aug 22.)

Traffic goes up again when mainstream media and local TV pick up the initial story, as well as the subsequent resignation of Malu Fernandez.

From Aug 25 to 28, traffic steeply drops, perhaps from topic fatigue or the possible DDos attack? Note, however, that traffic levels are still above June and July figures.

Traffic goes up a bit in late August, when news of Malu Fernandez' return spreads in various blogs. Then it slows down again towards the close of the month.

Why is traffic going up again in early September? It's probably from the renewed call for the boycott of the Manila Standard Today by bloggers.

The lesson? Controversy traffic works if you can get the attention of bloggers. You don't need to catch the eye of A-List bloggers. You can start with the not-that-popular bloggers, especially if their readers are very passionate about your topic.

The A-List bloggers can later follow, and that will help catch the attention of mainstream media. Once that happens, expect traffic to drop off after 2 to 3 days when the whole thing starts feeling like yesterday's news.

Afterwards, you can count on bloggers to once again drive traffic to your site. Their anti-marketing campaigns (i.e., website badges, blog commenting, Twitter tweets) will help increase curiosity once again for your site.

How long will the resurgence of visitors last? Perhaps about 7 days. Unless something new comes up, of course.

(Hmmm... there's a JC evil thought: Get a band of negative marketing bloggers riled up for instant short-term traffic.)

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Manuel Viloria is your energetic multimedia internet publishing coach who helps you make $100 a day online. Whether it's through blogging, podcasting, article marketing, videoblogging, email listbuilding, or even through Web 2.0 or social network marketing, you can increase your website visitors today. For more information, please visit Affiliate Marketing Tips | ManuelViloria.com.

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Posted by Manuel Viloria | Filed in: Web Traffic

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