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| The Fairy Tale of Link Baiting Posted: 05 Jul 2011 08:51 AM PDT
Link baiting is basically viral link building under a different name. The idea is that you create something new and unique that with a small amount of circulation will grab enough attention to circulate the web and draw in piles of one-way links. The mass influx of links naturally excites the search spiders which in addition to the traffic the new piece of content has drawn leads to accelerating an increased page rank. It sounds easy, but the reality is that going viral is not so easy. The problem many people creating new content face is that they fall just short of going viral. They may get 10,000 views in an hour and then die out. They may get 50,000 views overnight but very few one-way links back to the content which allows the piece to peter out and never fully realize the intended goal. It takes a perfect storm of circumstances to create truly viral content. By some standards, either of those examples would count as viral, but they hardly make a dent in really improving your site. Viral content is loosely considered as: 1 – Amassing massive traffic in a short period of time Examples of this kind of content would be the Numa Numa video and Kobe jumps a car ad. They came on strong and continue to draw high traffic stats even though they are well beyond their born on date. Videos tend to go viral at a much higher rate than printed content which is something to consider should you actually concentrate efforts toward this end. Textual content does at times go viral as well. Usually this is in relation to breaking news – the more scandalous and sensational the better. The problem is that when you go this route you have to be sure whatever you put out there you can stand by long term. This is where going viral can actually hurt your reputation long term even though it provided you with the traffic you wanted. Helium, a notorious content farm, ran an article on their homepage for over one week concerning the BP Gulf oil spill. It generated viral type traffic, but the article was wholly inaccurate with manipulated data created by a layman, not wholly original and intentionally misleading and inflammatory. None-the-less, an executive decision was made to promote that content because the feeling was "our site is in dire straits and any traffic is good traffic." The end result was that even after the content was exposed as inaccurate by other sites and it was added to a collegiate course as an example of irresponsible citizen journalism. The site of origin stuck by it to try to save face (possibly because they employ idiots). As a result, the initial traffic they loved wound up leading to people discovering not just the one piece of bad content but thousands of pieces of bad content which damaged the reputation of the site. The lesson being that link baiting is exceptional and it is something every webmaster should strive for. What you need to keep in mind however is that with increased visibility comes increased scrutiny. If your site is sub-par in some way, it behooves you to have your ducks in a row before you begin a concerted link baiting campaign. |
| Bloggers: Winning Like Charlie Sheen Posted: 05 Jul 2011 07:58 AM PDT
The key is in knowing how to pick your battles. Posting any old content and hoping for the best just because it is new is not the answer. The key lies within walking a submissions tightrope that provides relevant content to your site in a timely enough manner that you get indexed ahead of your competitors and steal a little bit of their thunder. Focus on winning just one day at a time – and here is how. For our example, let's say you own a sports memorabilia store in Atlanta, Georgia. You have a site with a PR3, and the three stores you are competing with in the metro area are each PR6. You have similar inventories, but you offer better deals to your customers. The problem however is that you have too few customers because your site is buried behind the competition. How do we fix this? In this specific example, the first step is adding a feed to your site bringing scores and updates from the sports world. Give your visitors more than just sales copy, keep them connected with what they loved real time. You can choose to go with a feed that limit's the information being streamed to local teams if you prefer. The point is that you have regular relevant updates coming in. If you haven't already, start a blog. Don't limit the scope of your blog to things like upcoming sales or changes in store hours, use it to engage visitors. This is where you can scoop your competition. Use your blog to recap recent games with your own unique commentary. When an athlete dies, eulogize them in your blog (linking back to an item of theirs for sale on your site of course), host a countdown to a milestone record like Derek Jeter's march to 3,000 hits, or flat out rip into the local coach/manager for a boneheaded tactic that cost his team a game. Consider running a contest that draws people to your site. Consider something along the lines of a ticket giveaway. Get your hands on a pair of the "it" ticket of the season and perhaps allow each person that "likes" your site on Facebook, links to you from their blog or site, or otherwise promotes you gets entered in the ticket drawing. This often works because tickets are expensive, people love contests, and they can enter for free – it just takes a click. Before long, word of your contest has spread and you are getting more visitors than you ever had before – and likely making some extra sales along the way. It all comes back to you keeping your site and blog updated and relevant. When your competition is only promoting sales and upcoming shows, you are matching them in that and providing something extra. When you cover recent relevant events as they happen, you increase your chance of building up to being indexed on the Google news feed. Innumerable good things happen if you provide new quality content – you just have to do it. |
| Posted: 05 Jul 2011 07:55 AM PDT
It is not uncommon to get a little arrogant regarding where your links are coming from. So often, it is easy to focus on chasing down links from PR6 sites that the fact that those sites were once starting out from scratch is forgotten. A link from a PR2 site may not blow you away, but it still has value and that value will likely only increase. It is undeniable that links from sites with a strong PR are the most valuable, but they are also the hardest to obtain. On the other hand, incoming links from PR2 or PR3 sites carry less value, but they are usually also easier to obtain. What you need to search for is balance when building your incoming links. When you start looking for links. Start by putting about 1/3 of your time into going through low PR sites. Rather than waste time with old sites that are poorly maintained and may even appear abandoned. Look for new sites. Read some of their content, check their layout and determine whether or not you believe they have staying power. If you think the site is quality, go for a link. Right now they may be a PR2 or even PR0, but if they have a sound site and you can get a relevant link take it. When the site grows and becomes a PR6, that link you got on the ground floor for free may be something that would cost you money later. There is a time when you actually want to turn down links. Link farms are useless for the most part and provide negligible benefit at best. Links from sites that have no relevance are not going to count against you, and sometimes they will help a little bit, but they are not worth the energy to actively seek out. The one type of site you want to avoid at all costs is any site using illegal SEO tactics. Links placed on those sites may actually come back to damage your placement. |
Link baiting is currently the Cinderella concept regarding how to build links. The concept is simple, the execution can be tricky, and the results are not always 100% what you hoped for. With that said, Matt Cutts of Google is still high on 
When you are struggling along with a low PR and cannot figure out how to compete with the big boys, the deck seems stacked against you. You may not be able to match a competitors budget or have the man hours to go on a massive one-man link campaign, but you can compete. The key rests in your content. Thanks to the love Google shows new content, like Charlie Sheen, you can be Winning!!
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Thanks for sharing. I found this tale too interesting. Keep sharing like this.
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