There’s
been a lot of talk about LinkBaiting in the blogosphere,
and I’d like to weigh in.
First a little background: Google gives more ranking
weight to what they call authoritative sites and pages.
It defines those sites as having many outbound and inbound
links.
So now having links to your site is important to
your success online. More simply, inbound links also
drive traffic to your site.
So now we have link exchanges and link sales
and link finding software. We have free articles
on anything you could possibly think of that all
contain links back to the author’s site. There are 437
free articles in my Inbox right now, including Rubber
Floor Mats or Carpet Floor Mats and The Lowdown on Laminating
Film.
LinkBaiting is viral marketing for links, and we love
viral marketing. Like all viral marketing, the goal
is
to get people to write about and pass around your link
so that you get free exposure and traffic. You need
to give
people a reason to mention you in their blog or on their
website, and you need something newsworthy or at least
write-worthy to get a news source to mention you.
The best treatise on LinkBaiting comes from Nick Wilson
on Performancing.com. Nick says that all good LinkBaiting
relies on a hook, and he’s come up
with different hook categories:
News hook
Contrary Hook
Attack Hook
Resource Hook
Humour Hook
The goal is to offer something so unique and mentionable
that other sites will link to your site for free. Other
sites will
see that mention and add their own in true Viral Marketing
fashion. Making you think? Me too.
Here are six LinkBaiting ideas:
1. Come up with a simple free tool for people in your
subject area to use, and spread it around. 2. Watch the
RSS feeds like a hawk. Jump on and cover a good news story.
Comment on a blog or two to get things rolling. This has
worked for me. 3. Write a funny list or post in your subject
area. 4. Find some funny pics related to your subject
area. 5. Come up with some original research (the 10 Most
Profitable Programs on Commission Junction This Week was
the most popular post on this blog). 6. Give away a free
web template, WordPress plugin or graphics file.
Whatever you choose to do, remember that
Viral Marketing needs an index case. So go plant the
virus somewhere, like at a prominent blog site or two
in your niche, or at a forum site, or both.
Matt DeAngelis runs AffiliateBlog.com - A resource
for Affiliate Marketing and Internet Marketing. Matt
is the former CTO of Modem Media, a pioneer in the Internet
ad space. As a foot soldier in the Internet revolution,
Matt devised the technology behind many of the most
successful ad campaigns of the time.
AffiliateBlog is his latest venture, and was started
as a resource to help site owners and bloggers get more
revenue from their sites.
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