Advice to Bloggers: Stand Out - Court Controversy.
One of the ways we stand out from the crowd is by our distinctive opinions, and our ability to argue them convincingly. 
According to Brian Clark over at Copyblogger, the way to lead your niche is by being controversial:
You need the courage to alienate the wrong people in order to resonate with the right people. You need to stick to your convictions when people tell you you’re wrong simply because your knowledge doesn’t mesh with their opinions.
Advice from Brian Clark at Copyblogger
If you don’t stick out from the crowd you will fail:
Blogging by consensus is a recipe for failure. Your success will be determined by the execution of your vision. Think about it… if your audience is more qualified to write your blog than you are, why should they read what you say?
It is good to be hated by some people:
The fact is, if no one hates you, you’re doing something wrong. Trying to please everyone is the goal of mass media. That’s why it sucks. We’re supposed to be smarter, right?
And he uses his own blog as an example:
If the old guard bloggers would have embraced me with open arms, I’d have been wrong about everything. Instead, the reaction from certain corners of the community was as expected.
Better yet, the reaction from the right people—the people I wanted to reach (that’s you)—was as hoped. Commercially-oriented blogging was growing up, and people were looking for pragmatic advice.
And he has a good summary:
Focus on the right people, and let the wrong people say what they will. It makes for great publicity when the sanctimonious blast you simply because they don’t realize that things have changed.
Do NOT try to appeal to everyone
He quotes from an interview with Tim Ferris (worth a read - some interesting thoughts about blogging). It has a nice title: “If you had a Gun against your Head to Double your Readership in Two Weeks, What Would you Do?”.
Do not try to appeal to everyone. Instead, take a strong stance and polarize people: make some love you and some hate you. Hate is an extreme, but here’s the gist: what you write, in order to create the highest pass-along value, needs to be “remarkable”. Is it something that is worth remarking upon?
Polarize your audience, elicit some attacks — which create disagreement and rebukes and debate — and be anal about the numbers. Track what works and what doesn’t. Fine tune what works and test it again. Rinse and repeat.
You can read the whole of Brian’s article “Courageous Blogging” here.
My Take - Yes, but know your niche
Do I agree with him?
About 60%.
Why only about 60%?
Blogs need controversial opinions. Otherwise you may as well be a BBC News Programme, and you become a comfort blanket. But you can drive your readers away by being too controversial for your niche.
Of course, Fisking and Swear blogging is its own niche. The rules are different, and they work the other way round. Be too polite, and you lose them.
Ultimately, your readers come because you make them think and they like the personality you have given your blog.
Tags: copyblogger, swear blogging, mr eugenides, how to publicise your blog, niche blogging, politics, political opinions[tags]copyblogger, swear blogging, mr eugenides, how to publicise your blog, niche blogging, politics, political opinions[/tags]
Article Series - How to Lead your Blogging Niche
- Advice to Bloggers: Stand Out - Court Controversy.
…You need the courage to alienate the wrong people in order to resonate with the right people. You need to stick to your convictions when people tell you you’re wrong simply because your knowledge doesn’t mesh with their opinions…
Interesting you quote this. You seem to have missed out on our little “debate” on climate change, Matt but i wonder if this advice above applies to me or to all those arraigned against me.
James, I don’t think this is a reference to your good self. If we all went about agreeing with each other all the time blogpower would descend into banal unreadable goo
Matt, you raise a valid point. Many blogs I come across avoid anything remotely contentious or non-PC with such vigour they are either laughable or unreadable. Good writing needs to challenge the mind and trying to please all of the people all of the time is quite out of the question if you wish to remain lucid and rational.