Link Baiting

Link bait can be an incredibly powerful technique to attracts users and convince them you are worthy of a back link.  Matt Cutts defines link bait as: “interesting enough to catch people’s attention.”

C’mere, little fishy!

The two major advantages of linkbait are traffic :

• Increase in readership
• Increase in bookmarking of your sites
• Increase in advertiser or affiliate revenue

And higher ranking in the SERPs :

• more backlinks
• more PR
• more competitive keywords

Link baiting techniques require a wired imagination and the ability to make connections between your product or service and current events.

You can also do tried and true baiting directed at niche audiences:

1. Hold contests or do giveaways. People will spread the word! Social bookmarking sites, aas well as networks like Twitter and Facebook, let people get the word out for you for free – and fast!

2. Develop free tools or widgets. Automatic backlinks! Just embed your code and make it mandatory to have a link in exchange for the download.

3. Publish useful lists. People love to link to lists! You can do top ten, top 100, top seven or top 50 – even the worst, the best, the craziest – the sky is the limit!

4. Be controversial – but not too controversial. People love to hate! (Don’t let this backfire. Being too ugly can cause the mob to turn on you, and you’ll pay for it later.)

5. Scoop the competition. Being the ‘firstest with the mostest’ works in journalism as well as warfare!  Being first also means you have better chance of getting the best and most links, and staving off others from overtaking you on the SERPs.

6. Provide useful, interesting, GOOD content. Tutorials are great for links. So are series – they keep people coming back.

7. Boast about your accomplishments or charity work. If you help out in your community, let people know. Ask local institutions to link to you.

8. Ask other bloggers to write about you in return for an entry into a contest A nod from others in your niche is great backlinks in Google’s eyes.

A link baiting service can provide  very effective promotion – but don’t start abusing as this behavior can hurt your reputation. If you link bait responsibly, you will find that your subsequent baiting efforts do well as you have become trusted. People will get ticked if you don’t deliver, so make sure you have the goods to back up any claims you make.

Everyone remembers link baiting that went wrong – lies were made up, vicious attacks made that started  flame wars, and so on. However, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater – there is still a legitimate place for responsible link-baiting – for example, a pearl jewelry blog can take advantage of the fact that the First Lady wore a pearl necklace to an important State function and blog about it. It’s all in how you carry out link baiting that makes it right or wrong.

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