Link Bait 101: What, Why, How?
Link bait is rapidly becoming an extremely effective and powerful way of bringing in visitors from other blogs, and although it is very common, many bloggers are unsure how to write good link bait but mainly how to get it noticed.
This will be a 2 part series on Link Baiting.
What?
Link baiting is the term given to articles, contests, events, or any other material that easily catches the eye of other bloggers and makes them want to also blog about what you have written. This generally will include a link back to your original bait… hence, we have the term link bait. Link baiting is done for 3 main reasons:
1. Links (kind of obvious isn’t it)
2. Traffic
3. Exposure
When building up a blog, it is important for it to gain exposure among the higher ranks of bloggers, as if you also have good content, you will gain more loyal readers.
Why?
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, link baiting is done for three main reasons: traffic, links and exposure. The importance of these in the success of a site is huge, so don’t shy away from producing some good link bait, thinking it won’t harm your blog.
Throughout the day today a singe thought/quote had been popping into my head. Now, I don’t know if this is a famous quote or something I came up with, but I will give it to you:
“To be a big gun, you have to mix with the big guns” 
Now, all day I have been thinking about how relevant this is to all aspects of everyday life. Guess what?…. this includes blogging. It means, to have your blog known and successful you have to make it known to the rest of the world that it exists and that it is good. This includes the big guys in your industry. If they like it, they will be the ones to get you seen and noticed.
How?
This is where most people struggle. How do I create link bait? Well, there are a couple of ways in which link bait can be created. Some examples are:
- Hold a contest – this will get you a large amount of traffic, and if held correctly, can result in many new suscribers and links to your page. For example, holding a contest that requires entrants to suscribe to RSS or for them to blog about it.
- Make a top 10 list – these lists are enjoyed by people and do extremely well in getting to the front page of social bookmarking sites, such as Digg and Propeller.
- Write a post disagreeing with another bloggers views – this will create a bit of controversy and get people talking about your site
- Give something away – this can be something as small as an ebook or a link on your site. It will attract readers.
Check back soon for Part 2 in this series, ‘How To Get Your Link Bait Noticed‘.
Oh, and I want to hear your success stories writing link bait. Please do share
Day 2: Progress Update
OK, so I think I have done quite well so far. Here it what I have achieved:
- Approximately 26 directory/blog directory submissions (for 2 of my sites)
- Approximately 30-35 DoFollow blog comments including some .edu blogs
- 40-50 posts on DigitalPoint forums
- Done one sitewide link exchange
- Received one one-way sitewide link because I did someone on the forums a favour
I have seen a much greater amount of traffic from the DigitalPoint forums, but that is the only thing I have noticed so far.
My Daily Advertising Schedule: Challenge For Success
I’m a regular reader of the DigitalPoint forums and so about one month ago I decided to join up and start posting. About a week back, I found a thread made by a member named silveraden explaining her daily advertising schedule that she uses to promote her blog, which is quite successful. She wrote a post about it here as well. Anyway, I got inspired by the thread and decided that I needed to set myself a daily advertising schedule and so I have challenged myself that for the next 30-60 days I will follow a set schedule.
In the thread at DigitalPoint, silveraden tells that she spends hours each day promoting her sites. I don’t have that kind of time, I have to study, but am going to duplicate the schedule on a smaller scale.
What I am going to do on a daily basis:
1. Forum posting – Each day I am going to made at least 20 posts on DigitalPoint, NamePros and Sitepoint for backlinks and traffic. This should take 30-45 minutes each day.
2. Blog Commenting – Each day, I will spend 10-15 minutes commenting on about 10-15 DoFollow related blogs related to this blog. This is also done mainly for backlinks but also for a bit of traffic as well.
3. Directory Submission – I plan to submit my blog to 5-10 directories each and every single day with varying anchor text, probably using those directories DigitalPoint members promote in the forum.
4. Social Bookmarking Each Article – I guess I am doing this for a bit of a boost in traffic, a few links and also to establish myself in a network of other bloggers using social media sites such as Twitter (my username on twitter is: simonspurr)
What I am going to do on a weekly basis:
1. Article Submission – I don’t have much time to fit in extra article writing, but will try to make time for it an an attempt for some extra backlinks and good, targetted traffic. I will probably try to submit 2 articles to the main article sites each weekend when I have a bit of time.
2. Advertising in Advertising Forums – Never tried this before, but will give it a go. It should bring in a bit of extra traffic.
As a bonus to my readers, I am also going to be running competitions on a random time basis with prizes such as free banner advertising, free links and free reviews. (I will make a post announcing competitions).
To keep track of my progress, I plan to make a post on here every day or two with my progress which will probably keep me motivated as well.
Wish me luck
Is It Worth Submitting To Link Directories Anymore?
Submitting your site to link directories used to be one of the fastest ways to gain PageRank, send traffic and boost your Search Engine Rankings. However, recently, many link directories have had their PageRank stripped and all importance taken. They are seen as link farms by Google.
At the same time, the benefits of DoFollow Blog Commenting have been revealed and many more people would rather focus their time on more natural ways to gain backlinks, such as link baiting and article writing.
So is there a need to waste time submitting to multiple directories when time could be used instead to help other link building strategies. I have first hand seen the benefit of focusing my time onto DoFollow blog commenting on one of my other sites, which has gained me sitewide backlinks from high authority blogs and much more traffic than I receive from all directories combined. You are still able to use anchor text and this will help you rank higher in the search engines.
Forum posting is another extremely worthwile link building strategy. I find forum posting so great because not only does every post I make count as a backlink to my site (from my signature), nor because it brings great traffic, but because I also learn more about the topic of the forum I am participating in. All of the information you can ask for on many topics is contained within forums.
The Do’s And Don’ts Of Link Building
Do
- Comment on DoFollow blogs regularly
- Post in multiple forums related to your topic with a link to your site in your signature
- Write unique and interesting articles for publishing to your site, then rewritten to article directories such as EzineArticles and ArticleDashboard
- Create link bait by writing interesting and controversial articles and publishing them on your site
- Always search for new ways of link building
Don’t
- Spam blogs, whether NoFollow or DoFollow
- Submit to link directories (your time can be better focused – if you are going to then I recommend paying someone to manually submit your site for you
- Have your site linked to on any spammy pages or sites completely unrelated to yours
The Importance Of Domain Names In SEO
Many competent SEO advisor’s usually rate the importance of a relevant and keyword rich domain name as around the third most important optimization technique behind other techniques such as the title of the pages, H1 tags and some even anchor text. However, my view on the importance of a domain name for good search engine optimization is that it is probably the biggest or second biggest factor influencing rankings.
When a domain name is indexed it always ranks well for the keywords in the domain, unless it is a single or two word generic term with millions of competitors. Even then, when developing a website on that domain, the benefit is huge. Having the keywords targeted in the domain name WILL make the difference between a top 10 ranking and a ranking on page 5. It will make the difference between having an online business see profits or go broke.
However, the exception to this is in brandable domain names, such as my own here at otooo.com. If you can create your own brand then the top rankings seem less important. They are still a great asset though.
Like most people in SEO would agree, the other major top contributor to rankings is the title. In small, untapped niches with low competition, to gain top 3 rankings it is only required to have the exact targeted keyword in the title. All other SEO techniques will benefit and seal that top position in.