Under the guise of anonymity, faceless/photoless/videoless trolls frolic around the YouTube community leaving thousands upon thousands of comments ranging everywhere from incoherent to shockingly obscene. While the psychology behind this may be fascinating, it is irrelevant (for the sake of this post, anyway).

If you’re the type of YouTuber who puts up videos of yourself playing your favorite Beatles songs on your old guitar, then you probably don’t welcome the above mentioned types of comments. However, if you’re a skilled YouTube marketer, then you should embrace them.

It’s quite simple really. Negative comments get negative attention. Not just from you, but also from others who view your video. Over-the-top negative comments are the ones most likely to be responded to, and in many cases, they can spark a mini textual battle between two or more YouTube members. Why is this valuable?

Every time someone has their comment responded to, they are notified. Whether it be via email or in their YouTube inbox, they get an alert telling them that someone responded to their comment. In order to view that response, what do they have to do? View your video! Every time that hopping mad YouTuber returns with smoke coming out of his ears to leave his next rebuttal comment, you get another view.

That’s not all. Videos that receive high volumes of comments get awarded “Most Discussed” awards. Receiving honors can help your videos get additional exposure as well as improve their YouTube search result rankings.

Now that you see the benefit of having a war of words take place on your comment board, how do you go about igniting that sort of fire?

Cast the First Stone!

That’s right. If there is no drama, simply create it. By now, you should already have several YouTube accounts. Use one of them to leave a couple nasty comments on your videos. No replies? No problem. Simply use another account to reply, and open a dialogue with yourself. As mentally unstable as it might sound, arguing with yourself on a YouTube comment board is perfectly safe.

Now get out there and make some waves. While you’re at it, make some money too.