Any publicity is good publicity, and you'll take inbound links at any price - right?
Link Bait is content on your website or blog that stirs up a discussion or a debate. It comes in many forms: resource lists, controversy and humor to name a few.
The point being to create content that gets people talking, and sharing the link to that content with others. It can be an incredibly powerful strategy for gaining valuable backlinks and a surge of traffic...
Jim Westergren has a great resource for ideas on link baiting. See: Link Bait - definitely worth studying & bookmarking. Not only is it a great resource, but it also serves as an excellent example.
It takes a bit of creativity to come up with a great piece of link bait, or content that will really get your readers stirred up. While brainstorming those creative ideas, keep in mind that what you put out there is going to attract a specific response - and you should put special consideration into what it is you're actually fishing for with that bait.
Before you go thinking up all sorts of wild ideas, you should know your objective. Ask yourself these questions upfront:
- Who do I want to attract?
- What response do I want to induce?
- How do I capitalize on this response?
With a truly great "link bait article", your content will be linked to all over the web. It will be read by hundreds, or even thousands of people. It will stir up emotions and responses, and it will leave its mark in your readers mind above and beyond anything else you have written - or will write in the future.
So knowing your objective becomes an incredibly important step.
This type of content can have a long-term effect, and directly affect your readers perception of you, your relationship with them - and ultimately your reputation. For good or for bad.
Link Bait is an excellent marketing strategy, of course. But as with all things, it should have its purpose. It would be pointless (and possibly detrimental) to come up with some wild & wacky link bait idea just for the sake of getting attention & links - and with no forethought into the desired results.
Like throwing it on the wall just to see if it will stick. All you end up with is a big mess to clean up.
Ask yourself those 3 questions, know your objective and your strategy, and study the tips linked to below to come up with some great ideas for creating incredible content!
Resources:
- Drinking the Link Bait Kool-Aid?
- The Link Baiting Playbook: Hooks Revisited
- 3 Link Bait Lessons From a Master Baiter
Best,
Just for you, Rick... I couldnt resist 😉
About Lynn Terry
Awesome topic Lynn!
Thanks for the great resource and for the list of 3 questions. You've inspired me to sit down and plan out some link baiting topics.
I was talking with Deb and JP Micek last night about the topic of stirring up controversy and that it's actually a good thing to upset some people as long as you are exciting a bunch of others.
JP mentioned that if you write something controversial it's probably something that is on other peoples minds but they are just afraid to say it. Once you put it out there, it gives them something to agree on and say, "That's exactly what I was thinking."
In my niche of fitness and my mission of obliterating obesity I've raised the controversial topic of parents being responsible for their overweight children.
Many people agree that it's the parents fault for allowing their children to eat like crap, sit in front of the television, or playing video games all day.
This also puts some parents on the defense and they get mad at me. I'm cool with that. My ideal customer is someone who is willing to accept personal responsibility for their actions and is willing to take action in a positive direction towards their health.
If the parent is going to continue to blame everything and everyone else for their children's obesity problem then I can be of no help to them.
Thanks for another thought provoking blog post Lynn!
Scott Tousignant
http://www.UnstoppableFatLoss.com/blog
hahaha,
You said "master baiter".
I remember when I was on the fishing boat, I had graduated to a "master baiter".
They say I was the best "master baiter" they had ever seen!
Anyhow,
One piece of link bait that I've seen quite often recently is when people slam guru's and successful people online.
And in my opinion, I think this is a bad move most of the time.
Here's why...
It attracts a low quality viewer/prospect who is very likely to be a whiner himself, and the likelyhood they'll refund skyrockets.
Now I understand some people's frustrations online, but putting the blame on Guru A, or Guru B, only seems to attract Refunder A and Refunder B, and Big Hassle Customer A & B too.
I'd rather focus on the positive things that people do online and attract others that feel the same way.
Sure, there'll always be some hustlers and swindlers online, but I doubt I'll be spending much of my time link baiting those people because the following that comes with it is often more hassle then it's worth in my opinion.
I think people should just learn to write something interesting instead of having to always result in link baiting.
Cheers and beers,
J-Mo
Excellent point Jason - definitely something to consider when developing your content strategy. Its all about WHO you attract...
Somewhat off topic, but love the picture. My 3 year old son has an 8-foot long flexible pencil he calls his 'hooker'. Lots of jokes to be had with that one.
LOL Stephanie - I imagine so 😉
Hey, great to see Moffatt on here!
Lynn I feel like your following me around sometimes because I will be researching, or brainstorming on a topic and you almost always write a post related to my thoughts within 24 hours.
I was astounded by a particular "master-baiter" move displayed by shoemoney a while back. A simple post that completely put plentyoffish.com and Markus Frind on blast. Shoe ripped into him relentlessly, made crazy remarks, with no regard. I read through the 30 something + comments and thought to myself "wow, this is one big strategic circle jerk"... The amount of back links he got was just short of riding on the special bus. Brilliant, but questionable.
http://www.shoemoney.com/2006/05/08/plentyoffish-marketing-101-when-all-else-fails-just-lie/
I don't know what to think. But I'm with J-mo overall. I tend to stay away from master-baiting...
Good points, Scott and Jason!
A little more thought into what they write would help a whole lot of people.
Positive comments about negative posts are the better way to go...
I laughed for about 5 minutes after reading this post Lynn. I love your ironical humor;-)
Great tips too- gets me thinking of creative ways to write content.
Thank you Eren 🙂
@Elijah - thx for the link, I missed that one so I'll check it out. And no - I'm not following you (lol) but if you ever run into anything you want to suggest for possible discussion here, feel free to send me an email 😉
I think stunned says it all for me.
I never thought I'd be reading about master baiting on a marketing blog!
Just look where this web2.0 is leading us,
hook, line, and sinker.
Gary McElwain
LOL Gary 😆
For the record, I never said it... I just linked to it 😀
Bad enough, huh? hehe
Hey Lynn,
Thanks so much for the links about baiting.
I was on a team call about 2 hours ago and that is exactly what we were talking about but, none of us were sure as the 'best' way to go about it.
I have sent them here to get started so, we can come up with some ideas.
Thanks for helping us out!
I'm glad it was timely & helpful, Sheryl - thanks so much for passing it on. I hope it proves resourceful for the group in getting some link-worthy ideas for your content map!
If you have a good quality site with useful and compelling information you already have a site prime for baiting links. Great content is paramount to a successful link baiting campaign.