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