Have you checked out your website’s stats recently and noticed that the number of hits on any given day is relatively flat and no matter what you do, no matter how many times you submit your content to Digg or Reddit, you just can’t seem to jump start your traffic?

It turns out your site’s traffic has probably got a lot less to do with how you market it and a lot more to do with the fact that you’re probably just too bland.

When it comes to creating or promoting your website you can essentially choose one of two paths:

1. Be like every other “dime a dozen” website and have bland content, be very politically correct and essentially try to not rock the boat
2. Be controversial, be different, get people talking and create a buzz

Of the two, which do you think is going to generate more traffic, both one-time and repeat?  If you said the different, edgy site, you’re probably correct.  However, if you said the vanilla, try and make everybody happy site, you need to get out and live a little.

Look at sites like The Onion and Fark, television shows like The Daily Show and businessmen like Donald Trump - all of them can attribute a vast majority of their success to their ability to create a buzz and, on some level, some controversy.  Love them or hate them, you know who or what they are.

I realize creating a buzz is a lot easier said than done, which is probably why so many blogs and sites fail.  That being said, it’s absolutely critical that you find something that gives your site an edge and differentiates it from all of the other sites out there.

Take my site, The New Business Blog, for example.  For a long time I struggled to get regular readers.  No matter what I wrote about, people just weren’t coming to my site.  Turns out, it was probably because I was writing about the same dull junk as every other business related site out there.

But as soon as I started to write about somewhat sensitive topics - like why and how Digg needs to be fixed - magically I start getting tons of traffic, offers for advertising deals, people asking me to write articles on their sites, etc.

Long story short, nobody wants to come to your site and read the same rehashed garbage they can get at any other site, but if you differentiate yourself, create a substantial buzz and stop trying to please everyone, I think you’ll be abosolutely amazed with the jump in your website’s traffic.