Ever found it hard to get other bloggers to link to a new blog? Sure you have, it's not easy sometimes. Even established blogs need to expand their traffic and influence on a regular basis, and linkbaiting is one way to do it. It's not without potential perils, but the time honored tradition of being contrary, in order to get attention is well proved, and done right, it's a killer way to break into a new area. There are also safer ways of linkbaitng, they're just less fun :)
In order to bait a link, you need a hook. Hooks come in variety of flavors, some of the more popular would include:
- News hook
- Contrary Hook
- Attack Hook
- Resource Hook
- Humour Hook
There are others, but you see the point. There are two main types of hook in there, the nice hook, and the nasty hook. I'd say in most cases you can get away with a contrarian viewpoint, but not an attack. No one likes an arsehole, so there's no real benefit, as sure you may get a ton of links from outraged blog peers, but they'll likely ignore anything else you write.
Saying that though, it's a judgement call. I've often slammed someone on a blog, but you need to be able to judge it very well. Go just a little too far, and you'll do more harm than good.
The easiest, and safest is the nice hook. And when i say easy, i mean it. Have a look at some examples of each type of hook i've listed:
Resource Hook
- A comprehensive list of blogs in your niche - link out, and links will come in, i promise.
- A practical/useful or even fun tool related to your niche
- A How To based on your niche
- A compilation of news stories on a theme. Sprinkle a little analysis in there, and you're good to go.
News Hook
- A genuine Scoop. Get to the news first
- A compilation of news, as above, its a resource aswell as a news hook.
- Expose a story for a fraud, or to be flawed. You really have to know your subject to do that, but links flow like water if you can debunk a popular meme
Contrary Hook
- Be the only one in your niche to find something to not like about a story, or like about a story/product.
- On the same theme, post "Why <insert prominent blogger name here> is WRONG about..."
Attack Hook
This works much the same as the contrary hook, you just get to be much, much ruder. It's a tough one, because just posting about such a thing could land me in hot water. But then im not here to play nice, i'm here to talk about gaining traffic, and whilst an attack hook is 99/100 NOT the way to go, sometimes it's absolutely killer, and can gain you credibility and reputation overnight.
Really though, careful with that one. It can just as easily go the wrong way.
Humor Hook
These kinds of hooks are just too easy.
- Search flickr, or photoshop a bizzare pic of your subject
- Post "10 thing i hate about..."
- Post "You know you're a <insert here> when..."
Funny thing is, those things always get links, it's like people never seem to tire of them.
Give and thou wilt receive...
All of the above is utterly useless without being seen by your peers though. Link to them in your post, then click those links if you have absolutely no traffic. You need to get their initial attention.
Send emails, post to delicious, myweb2 etc - just make sure that at least one prominent blogger in your niche reads and links to you and the rest will follow.
Now, what i want to hear is this: What other types of link bait do you use?
Slightly off-topic, but speaking of traffic...
This is a brilliant article and I'd be willing to wager far more people would be willing to link to it from their blogs if you had Trackbacks enabled..
Drupals trackback
Drupals trackback implementation leaves a lot to be desired unfortunately. The spam is just too much to handle Emily....
trackback spam
Ah, and therein lies one of the beauties of WordPress -- with all the plugins that are out there, you practically never have to deal with spam at all
the performancing site
good to come across a site that is full of good information. Especially as i have just waded through a lot of other sites full of ......... Thanks.
good article
I find that how-to articles are the most effective, people are ALWAYS searching for these, just check any keyword suggestion tool.
Shawn G
word of mouth (offline hook)
I've met many bloggers face-to-face and via word of mouth as well. Having promotional cards for your site is helpful when you're out and about.
You'd be amazed and what you can accomplish off-line!
Good point, I use Flickr
Good point, I use Flickr cards from moo - first 10 are free!
On the front you choose a design from your flickr pictures and on the back you can have whatever text you want. I have my flickr url plus my blog and email addresses. It's nice to have a choice of design and they certainly stand out.
Thanks for the tip!
What a great idea! I ordered a 100 to see what it's like. I did 50 photos, 2 of each. When giving out cards, I'll spread them out and let the recipient pick which one they like the best. Adds a personal flair to the exchange process.
I value great finds! It's a little costly for 100 tiny cards, but the uniqueness of each is what gives it merit.
I'll report back on what the overall reception is. Thanks again!
They are really nice and so
They are really nice and so dinky people can fit them in the smallest of wallets or purses. Some people have some done with their own face on so people at networking or business meetings remember you more easily. I just have a variety of what I think are striking images. Everyone comments on them and they are pretty cheap if you don't end up using them. Back on topic, this 10 free offer was *excellent* link bait on the part of the company!
Good Stuff
Great info. I've found the "News Hook" approach probably to be the most effective. I run an autism site and have the majority of my traffic come from people looking for the latest news and stories relating to that particular subject. Thanks.
It was a pleasure reading
It was a pleasure reading your article. From my experience tools aimed at webmasters or bloggers work really well. Here is another excellent article on link baiting.
Hello, Thanks for this
Hello,
Thanks for this incredible head up. Strong ideas and strategies no doubt. Someone on a popular recommended this resource and I am not disappointed.
I guess, I will have to go back 'home' to implement few ideas to my weight loss, skin care and affiliate marketing stories blogs. Another reason I really like this resource is the fact I was recently thinking if link exchange websites like linkMetro and LinkMarket are advisable.
I hope someone will say something about this.
Thanks.
Use Flickrize Image Search
Photos are great. they are even better if you can search those right from the admin area of your blog. Use Flickrize Image Search to search images in your blog or at Flickr.
Yes!
I posted a free font, named Rockwell. Well, it gave me lots of traffic, and lots of haters!
Oh well, now hellyeahdude.com is big! Real big!
Link baiting with authoritative articles
I find an excellent way to linkbait is to write a really good authoritative article on a particular subject within your niche, eg I wrote an article on a particular fish called a tigerfish found in Africa on my website about Safari Holidays in Africa and not only did I find that many websites and blogs started to link to it, but someone also added a link to the article on wikipedia and I was on the front page of Digg for a day - someone wrote an article about a "scary monster fish in Africa!" in their blog and linked it to the photos on my site!
great infos
excellent informations about th etopic linkbaiting, not only in the article, the same in the comments. thank you for this great "tut" for better linkbaits.
Hey I ripped your ideas!
Hi Nick,
I love the repackaging of hypercontent into linkbait and you seem very good at it so I submitted a few of your ideas at LinkBaitWorld, my startup site, and I have added performancing.com's feed to Port80 SEO News.
Thanks,
Bompa
Great Info!
Thanks for a great post!
I have noticed that resource lists often get a lot of traffic. For instance I have a post on my blog on 90 places to find Wordpress themes and it gets a lot of traffic to this day.
This is great. As a
This is great. As a relative newbie all knowledge is especially useful. I will try to implement these ideas.
Thanks Nick
Good information, well presented
I found this information very informative, while still creating ability to brainstorm while reading. My blog is just starting to generate links, and this will help to expand the purpose. Keep up the good work...........
Will it also work for tight niches?
Thanks for these tips, I will try them in my tight niche. IMO it's very hard to find a lot of blogs for my niche at all.... not to talk about high page ranks. So, hopefully it will work.
This Link Baiting Article is Link bait!
Thanks for the info. I'm going to utilize some of this information. I've just created my blog and I'm at a loss right now which direction I'm going. Unfortunately, I have a lot to say about so many issues, but I know I need a focus--in order to create material that will eventually find a comfy niche in the blogosphere.
For now, though, I'm going to bookmark your site and read it up.
Sofa King Smart blog
Nice to the point article
Great article. Nicely written and the comments left are really useful as well. That's always the sign of a good article.
I especially like the comment above about putting your face on a business card so that people can remember you. Clever.
Cheers
Mike
Nice article!
Pretty nice article!
I'm a noob in this, and I'll try to implement this to my blog.
Thanx again!
Good Tips
Thanks a lot for a fine read and a bunch of good tips. I look forward to reading more on the topic in the future.
Keep up the good work!
Awesome Tips
Great Link building tips. I'll be sure to use this as a future resource.
ooo Great lets try it Thanks
ooo Great lets try it
Thanks for your tips
Nice Info
This article is just awesome.
i am sure it becomes a link baith :D
NIce article to read about
Thanks for the tips dear. I am surely gonna use them n my link making strategy
My site shugle.com needs links badly to improve its ranking in search results
regards
Shugle
Life is not a joke
Great info. thanks!
This must be very good SEO today. At least for google I think.
Thanks for this info.
I think that building WordPress Theme must be a great way to get links fast today.
It is easy and hard.
It is both easy and hard to make some links with other better blogs. But my main problem is my blog is not personal story writing or discussing blog. I collect free stuff offer on the net and put them on my blog. So it is not easy to make people discuss about the free stuffs. I have to find some other way to attract people.
Hard
It sounds do easy to do, but is incredibly time consuming and damn hard. But I am going to take your tips to heart and see what happens.
5 worst hotels in Southern Africa coming up on my blog www.honeymoon-africa.com ....!!
Overland Park Links - what I use
Hi Nick,
Great post. Well Written. I have been using market updates on a subdivision level instead of a city or county level. So put in LionsGate Market conditions as the title and then include whatever the market stats are for that subdivision at the time.
Thanks!
Ken Jansen REALTOR Overland Park KS
Beauty Salon Equipment Linkbaiting
A very informative article, but there is always that problem of applying the information to a particular niche.
It would be great to know what kind of linkbaiting could be used for promoting beauty salon equipment.
Overall - very good article
:)
A nice article on link baiting
I personally suffered a lot because of the google sand box theory and how to get out of it? Link baiting is the only option especially when your niche is highly competitive. Go for posting controversial articles and backing it with some logic and sure you will get the required attention...
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