Have You Heard The Term “Link Bait” Too Much Lately

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

I know I have. The concept of “link bait” is now sweeping the vacuous hallways of the internet marketing universe with a verve generally reserved for one of the “7 Ideas That Shook The Universe”. The only problem I see with this is: the concept of link-baiting is hardly revolutionary. In fact, like many ideas in the internet marketing arena, link baiting has been around for years and is now getting a second wind as a “meme”.

So what is this link bait stuff and how do I do it?

The whole key to link bait is “knowing how to do it”, and the answer will vary, industry to industry. Obviously, someone “link baiting” the SEO community would take a much different approach then someone looking to bait the “celebrity” keyword category. Many of the common techniques to “link bait” are actually universally applicable to any SEO effort.

SEOs have been link baiting for years.

All the best SEOs have always known how powerful organic links won from link-baiting could be. When SEOs realized just how easy it was to link bait in the blogosphere, they quickly became bloggers. And with the power of social networking websites, they went further, driving their concept of link baiting to the masses, all the while amassing tons of incoming links due to their efforts. The bait works, but you still have to know how to lay it.

What type of link bait can attract links? Luckily for you, the list of what can be considered link bait is also something your familiar with if you’ve studied internet marketing at all.

The general principles of link baiting (and fundamentally good internet marketing) are:

1) Build something unique, that generates excitement. A tool comes to mind.
2) Cause a controversy. For instance, argue the existence of a popular “straw man”. Be insulting, if you really have thick skin
3) Make something funny. Obviously, videos that are funny can do exceptionally well virally.
4) Give something away for free. The word “free” has a powerful hallucinogenic affect even on sensible people.
5) Build a website that is just so friggin’ great that Jesus himself would come down from the Cross because of how impressed he was with your work.

The list can go on and on, but since this is a blog, I think we can end it right here. The main gist is that pouring effort and orginality into your blog SHOULD just be enough to get you the right attention, and the right link profile, that you’re looking for. If you design your website primarily for the users, the job of promotion becomes that much easier.

I’ll cover more about link baiting in future articles, because the subject isn’t going anywhere.

If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to the Sootle RSS feed!.