Thread: Link Baiting

Link baiting is an effective link building tactic. The primary goal is to obtain as many relevant inbound links to your site as possible. Although link baiting is somewhat of a gray area, this goal is often achieved by presenting and marketing your site in a manner that captures or �baits� someone�s attention enough that they are motivated to link to it.

A few examples of link baiting:

Informational - Provide content a reader will find useful. People don�t care what you are selling unless it is somehow relevant or beneficial to them.

Content will usually present a means of eliciting an emotional response such as that derived through humor, anger, etc.

Article writing and submission would fall under this category.

Jokes - Be it audial or visual, people like to laugh. Humor sites tend to draw people's attentions and earn you links.

Note: Optimal results achieved for originality.

Tools - will typically fill a niche market that provides either new functionality or functionality that is �superior� to any utility that is currently available. For example:

Write a script and post it on a website. If it's useful people will link to the site.

News - Become your own original news service. Challenge today�s media with interesting substantiated facts in a refreshingly enticing manner.

If it's an election or inauguration year, scrutiny tends to run rampant, so there should be no shortage of ideas.

Attacks - Although ad hominem attacks tend to be bad form and could potentially get you sued, they can be an excellent link baiting tactic and will possibly garner your site quite a bit of attention. It may be a tad more useful to attack an idea.

Please feel free to add to the list....

Excellent post! Developing webmaster-related content is more likely to gain you some linkbacks than normal-stuff. Readers of normal stuff generally don't own Web sites that they can linkback from -- unless of course they spread the words through forums, which generally do not provide dofollow links.

I am sure ATTACK works best

The biggest thing missing from the list:
Promotion.

If you have great content but can't let anyone know about it, you're screwed.
If you have average content, but can make the front page of digg, you're golden.

Originally Posted by ari

The biggest thing missing from the list:
Promotion.

If you have great content but can't let anyone know about it, you're screwed.
If you have average content, but can make the front page of digg, you're golden.

Great addition!

Originally Posted by Charles

Excellent post! Developing webmaster-related content is more likely to gain you some linkbacks than normal-stuff. Readers of normal stuff generally don't own Web sites that they can linkback from -- unless of course they spread the words through forums, which generally do not provide dofollow links.

How can we go about that when our site isn't webmaster related? Aren't most webmasters "greedy" with linking? Won't they just "rewrite" the content?

I'm really happy to merit a nofollow link in a forum.... if it brings some clicks

I (am kinda "dumb") don't understand the ATTACK thing mentioned in post one.

Originally Posted by vanderkitty jones

...don't understand the ATTACK thing mentioned in post one.

Don't beat yourself up. You're doing fine.

Put simply, an ad hominem attack is when Person A makes a statement/claim and Person B decides to attack the character of Person A instead of addressing the actual statement/claim.

Attacks work well because people seem to enjoy watching other people fight.

If your website makes a public statement that Pastor Rick Warren is a closet homosexual, and you happen to post incriminating evidence (photos) proving your claim, that could be construed by some people as an attack against Pastor Rick.

It would fall also under "News."

Great Post Alex!

I'd add Develop Flash Games to that list. It's a pretty good way to get viral imho.

Originally Posted by Shenron

Great Post Alex!

I'd add Develop Flash Games to that list. It's a pretty good way to get viral imho.

Excellent suggestion!

Originally Posted by menj

Putting up YouTube videos with your URL inserted in them works too.

Another good idea!