Linkbait - The Chicken or the Egg?

As with many things in life, trying to figure out how to create great linkbait (content or ideas that attract links from other web sites and blogs) can be difficult and downright confusing. My personal feeling is that you have to believe in your idea and create great content or something that is worthy of people spending their time on…or be a great liar. Since I don’t like to lie, I will focus on the first two in this post. IMHO, you are better off spending more time creating one great post or idea than spending a little time creating a bunch of junk. Some of my most successful (in terms of attracting links) posts on this blog took me the longest to create. My intention, in most cases, was not to attract links, but was to help other people who were having difficulty trying to figure out what I just spent a lot of time figuring out. Giving something of value away for free is probably the easiest way to attract readers and liniks. Now, let’s talk about some of the problems people face when trying to create linkbait. “Paralysis of Analysis” can become a very real thing when trying to conjure up a great way to attract links. There are a few issues that many people get stuck on:

1. You don’t have a big readership
2. You don’t have a lot of money to promote your idea
3. You wouldn’t link to a lot of things, so why should you think anyone will link to you

You Don’t Have a Big Set of Readers or Subscribers

While having a big base of people that read your website or blog on a regular basis makes generating inbound links easier, it is not the only way to attract links. This just means that you are going to have to be more proactive about getting your message in front of people with websites and blogs. So, how do you do that? This is the internet, there are a bazillion ways and here are a few:

Press Releases

Yeah, I know, press releases are nothing new. But, that doesn’t mean that most people have probably not submitted them and if they have it was some lame attempt at getting some inbound links or getting into Google News or something. If your content or idea is not something worthy of you talking to someone about on the phone, then a press release is not the way to go. But, if you are pumped on your idea and it is your life’s work, then by all means spend some time learning how to write compelling copy and press releases. You can even shell out a few bucks and have a pro copywriter put one together for you if you have the funds.

Communities and Forums

Most people who have spent a lot of time on line have found themselves browsing a forum or two. Forums are a great place for like-minded people to share ideas, ask questions, and interact with people who are interested in similar subjects. Just about all of them are free to join and most allow you to post links to other websites. NOTE: Don’t just join up and post a link to your website or blog in your first post. If you don’t know why, then do yourself a favor and vow not to post a link to anything for 30 days. Then spend some time on a few forums and read their Terms of Service and posting guidelines to find out their preferred methods of posting information, questions, and links. Forums are a great way to get people who are already interested in your field interested in your idea or linkbait.

Blogs on similar subjects are probably a dime a dozen these days. Interacting on these blogs and even emailing the blog owner with some information about your idea or linkbait is a great way to get a free “promo” on their site.

Social Networks

Websites like Bumpzee, Sphinn, specific Google and Yahoo Groups, and other social “networking” sites are great places to get interested readers, bloggers and web site owners to check out what you have to say as well. Many times you can join groups or communities and gain instant readers. You can also include your linkbait or idea in your signature on email lists like you would on a forum. Again, the idea here is not to barge into a conversation and say here is my linkbait, learn the medium first, then pounce by asking people their opinion or feedback. This way you are promoting your idea while not sounding like it.

Craigslist

I had to mention Craigslist here as not a day goes by that I don’t wonder what that site is really worth. It is incredible what kind of traffic you can send to a site simply by posting something on Craigslist. Try the community pages on CL or even post in a relevant category. You may be shocked to find that you get some readers out of it.

You Don’t Have a Lot of Money to Promote Your Linkbait Idea

Well, as you have just seen it doesn’t really take any money to go out and attract readers and potential links…it takes time. To most of us, time is money. If you have a wife and kids you have even less of both, so work smart and efficiently. Money is great to help jump start things, but many time it is not the best idea. You may want to plan out specific actions you would like to take to promote your linkbait and then pay someone to carry them out, if you have the chachi.

You Don’t Link to People, Why Would They Link to You?

At the end of the day, there is only one way to find out if you have what it takes to attract links. You may be writing about something that nobody cares about (doubtful). I used to think that I am never going to link to anyone else’s website, after all, I am losing PageRank. Well, at some point a few years ago I realized that the whole point of the internet is to share information…linking to relevant information helps the world go around. If you create something of value (something funny is valuable to people, how to articles are valuable, a way to make money is valuable, etc), people will find it and link to it. If they don’t, let me know and I will link to it.

Ideas for Linkbait

So, now that you have a few ways to promote your linkbait, what is your linkbait going to be? Here are a few ideas to help get the linkbait juices flowing:

• “How to” articles - Have you ever spent a few hours trying to figure out how to connect your phone to your laptop? Tried to figure out a new road bike circuit to ride in a particular city? Tried to figure out how to fit a square peg in a round hole? There are an infinite number of things to write about when it comes to “how to” articles. Not only are they very helpful to people, they are easy to write if they are something you are very interested in.
• “Why” articles - This may sound silly to some of you, but to know it alls like myself, it does not. Do you know why something is a bad idea, policy, law, bill, etc? Write an opinion piece or why article touching on the specific reasons why it is a good or a bad idea. Send it along to your newspaper’s opinion column. Many of you would be surprised to find out how many people are looking to argue over things on line. An argument usually means links.
• Studies - Many of you have spent a lot of time working in a particular field. While you may not have realized it, you have probably amassed a lot of specific information. You can condense a lot of that knowledge on a particular subject in a white paper or conduct a study to find out how people will actually react in the real world. This is a great way to attract links from authority sources.
• Funny Pictures - Posting a funny picture and writing a descriptive caption or description can attract a ton of traffic and links. One thing to watch out for here is remote linking from little kiddies on Myspace and other forums. This can bring your webserver to its knees in short order…trust me.
• How to Make Money Ideas - While this is nothing knew, it seems that the world has an insatiable appetite finding the latest and greatest way to make money. Some of the biggest bloggers today have built their readership by posting information on how they made/make money.
• Freebies - Yes, people love free stuff too. Give things away or even hold a contest. People are attracted to free, don’t believe me? Go to Costco on any day of the week and watch people climb over each other to get that dentist office cup with a lick of chili in it.
• Stick to What You Know - If you are an authority on something, become one on line. Some of the most successful (monetarily and in terms of traffic) people that I have seen on line have positioned themselves as an authority in a particular field. This is not a simple one-shot linkbait idea, but you should have a longer-term vision IMHO than just a one-shot linkbait.

  So, there you have it. This is not the end-all-be-all of linkbait posts, but it should give anyone reading a few ideas on what they can do to create a linkbait idea, how to promote their linkbait and overcome some of the most common hurdles when it comes to creating linkbait. Good luck and let me know how it goes.

  tags: how to, internet, link bait, link popularity, linkbait, links, marketing, online

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