Over the past few weeks, I have been researching the meaning of “linkbaiting” and its effect on blogs and what it might do to assist a newer blog in getting off the ground. As we all know the popularity of your blog goes hand in hand with how many links you have back to your content from other sites. This of course helps out your Google PageRank as well as your Technorati authority and rank; which is also key in bringing your site and its content higher up the ladder for searched terms.

Throughout my research I came to a realization about the term linkbait; there are two school’s of thought about the subject and also two types of linkbaiting. There are those that believe that linkbaiting is a way to trick other bloggers into linking you. The term “baiting” gives off a sense of it being a dirty or underhanded activity; which, in some cases is an accurate belief. Others believe that if the content is well-written and informative, by all means it should be linked to.

I have found that the idea of linkbaiting is a tightrope walk that could go either way…good or bad. I found a great Introduction to Linkbaiting by Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) where he summarizes the idea of linkbaiting being good or bad as “My own opinion on whether link bait is good or bad is that it depends upon the type of link baiting that you’re talking about. I think some techniques that people use are just good standard blogging techniques - while other things that people do in the pursuit of links are destructive to the blogging community and I’d argue against them.” In an essence some linkbaiting that borders on the destructive path could be construed as spam or malicious to the community.

Two Types of Linkbaiting

As I alluded to earlier just as there are two sides of the linkbait debate; there are also two types of linkbait. Each one in its own manner, if done correctly will produce link backs to your content. I’ll lay it out for you in two detailed examples of the term linkbait:

Creating Content That Gets Attention Based on Valuable Content

That is quite a broad definition, but I will go deeper. In my experience there are those that offer up great content that is valuable and should be shared with the blogging community. If you create something so fantastic that other readers find value in the content they are going to link to it and share it with their readers. This is the type of linkbait that would be classified as “GOOD”.

Example:
Tutorials/How To Content: The beauty of the human race is we all (well most) want to strive to learn new skills and broaden our horizons. If you can write a “How To” guide for your readers you are certain to have a successful blog and gain many links and readers. I have found that writing quality Photoshop Tutorials are great for delivering a quality amount of link backs to GrandmasterB dot com. I have been amazed by the increase in traffic to the site after having three major sites link back to my tutorials…quality stuff!

Shock and Awe Content

Writing this type of content is purely for the link backs. While not all examples of this method cross the line into malicious or spam-like material; there are those that do and this is where the term linkbait receives that negative connotation. This type of content is generally negative and deragotory, with only one goal in mind…to create provocation and get a reaction from the readers. Shock the readers with the title and content until they are provoked into responded either by comment or link back. I actually found some great examples of this type of linkbaiting under “The Attack Hook” on a post called The Link Baiting Playbook: Hooks Revisted on StuntDubl…definitely worth a look.

How Do You Create Linkbait? Good or Bad

Unfortunately, there is no sure fire way of creating content that will get notice, drive traffic to your site and get the link backs you so desire. There are however, a few guidelines that you can follow to lead you through your journey and assist you in your quest. I recently came across a post on Copyblogger that addresses this very issue called The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging. If you use the methods or “laws” as they refer to them you should be well on your way to creating great linkbait content. I’ve briefly summarized the five laws for you, but I highly recommend checking out CopyBlogger for more details on all things related to blogging.

The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging

1. The Law of Value: Give your readers what they’re looking for…make it fresh and original.
2. The Law of Headlines and Hooks: Make your title stand out amongst the masses.
3. The Law of “How To”: Show your readers how to do it. This is a prime example of the tutorials mentioned earlier.
4. The Law of the List: Create a list that is valuable to your reader. Example: Seven Wordpress Plugins You Can’t Live Without.
5. The Law of the Story: Everyone loves to read about life experiences. You have the classic elements: problem, solution and results…a perfect combination.

I think that if you follow along these five laws, you will be creating great link-worthy content in no time at all. This of course is just the tip of the linkbaiting debate and what you can do to build up your links. I stumbled onto the idea of linkbaiting quite by accident. Being a new blogger, I wasn’t really familiar with the term or what it was about. It wasn’t until I researched it more that I found my more popular posts were in fact linkbait of one kind or another. If you would like to learn more about linkbaiting, I highly recommend reading the Golden Rules to Linkbaiting from Smashing Magazine.

~ GrandmasterB