Why Bloggers Should TOTALLY Encourage Hypocrisy

As with most of life’s problems, the issue of low readership can be solved with a simple display of dishonesty. Being the avid reader that I am, I happen to follow a lot of blogs. But of all the bloggers that I’m currently following, my favourites are the ones whose posts are sprinkled with lies and inconsistency. They always make me feel special somehow.

Can you imagine how touching it is to see bloggers who don’t know me personally compromise their credibility just to help me — poor, insignificant me — become a better person? Of course, it’s possible that these bloggers don’t care about me, at least not primarily, and that in their zest to amass a large following, they simply formed the habit of telling their readers what they want to hear, even though they neither trust nor act on the advice they dish out.

But even if that’s the case, this still speaks volumes about how little these bloggers value their credibility, and how much of it they’re willing to sacrifice just to add value to the lives of their readers. If this isn’t heroism, then I don’t know what is.

Come to think of it, which of these two bloggers are you more likely to follow? The boring nerd who only talks about the video games that they actually play? Or the ardent meat lover who only preaches about why you should stop eating meat, then goes on to share some vegan recipes that they swear are nice, even though they’ve never tried them out before?

I would go for the latter because, unlike anyone in their right mind, I appreciate being lied to. As long as the lie encourages me to eat healthier, blog smarter, or become more productive, I’m totally fine with it. I guess this is why most people look up to bloggers who share advice on how to reply to comments but don’t reply to the few comments their readers leave them anyway. After all, nothing says “I’m credible” like a blogger who acts in ways that don’t align with what they preach and isn’t ashamed of it.

While it’s a constant struggle for me, I’m consistently working on building my confidence to the level of these fearless, successful bloggers. And, perhaps, you should too; not just because it would help you grow a thick skin to shun constructive criticism, but also because lying is clearly the fastest way to build an audience for your blog.

Granted, at some point, a reader would notice the hypocrisy of your actions and probably write a blog post about it. Maybe this blog post would tarnish your reputation; maybe it wouldn’t. But in the end, it won’t matter — you would have already built a large following by the time anyone who matters notices anything.

The end always justifies the means, am I right?