The Art of Linkbaiting

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?