The Essential Do it Yourself Guide to Successful Linkbait

The Essential Do it Yourself Guide to Successful Linkbait What is Linkbait? Step 1: Brainstorming Topic Realm and Strictness: The linkbait you create should be related to the topic of your site. Consider the implications of the title of your linkbait, as the anchor text of the links you generate will play a considerable role in the rankings improvements you will see. Type of Content: Linkbait can come in several forms. During brainstorming, try to think of examples of each of the following Linkbait is content created for the purpose of garnering links from other websites, particularly blogs. Why Should I Use Linkbait? types: - Articles - Infographics (like this one) - Quizzes - Widgets Linkbait is one of the most effective ways Cartoons to generate links to your website or blog. By creating interesting content and pro- moting it in the online community, you can create an active base of advocates Generate the Ideas: ? When generating ideas, think of as many as you can and Involve others in the brain- storming process. The more ideas you can come up with, the better. The only criteria for these ideas is that they should be on-topic . In the next step you will narrow down your ideas by testing them for "stickiness." Also consider how "out there" you can be with your ideas. Does your brand require a level of seriousness, for that content that can lead to its viral spread online. Successful linkbait can generate hundreds or even thousands of editorially- given links to your site or blog. These links in turn will improve your site's rankings in the search engines. or can you produce something out- landish without harming your brand? Test Stickiness: 1. Simplicity The concept must be easy to under- stand by your audience at a quick glance. They should be able to quick- ly pick out the benefit they will gain by reading your linkbait. 3. Concreteness 5. Emotions 6. Stories In order for people to share your linkbait, they must care about the idea. Consider your audience and what their primary motivational emotions might be. Empathy might be good when targeting mothers, while irony or sarcasm might be better when targeting teens. In order for linkbait to have the best Your linkbait should have a clear thesis. It should be able to be explained in terms of sensory information. Ambiguity is boring, specifics lead to interest. Stories bring concepts into the real world. Relating your ideas through examples gives your audience a reason to feel connected. shot at success, it should meet the following criteria for "stickiness." 2. The Unexpected Your linkbait should present something new, or present something old in a new way. 4. Credibility If your linkbait smells of spam, or your facts don't add up, you're sunk. Step 2: Production 1. Creating the content 3. Finished Delivery 2. Timelines and Edits Whether the content is created by you, someone in-house or a third party freelancer, it is important to maintain control over the quality and consistency of the content you create. You must keep a careful eye on the content as it goes through production and assess how well it fits the original idea and goals as it is being created. It is important to make sure you give yourself extra time to complete projects. There will be a good deal of back and forth with your writers and graphic designers to end up with a finished product that you are proud of. If you are working with a freelancer, remember that they are probably not on the same schedule as you, so plan your timeline accordingly. A high quality finished product is essential to meeting the stickiness criteria of credibility. Spelling errors, sloppy images or artwork, and lack of sourcing can lead your readers to disregard your linkbait as not credible. 4. Branding It is important to make sure your linkbait is cohesive with your website and/or your brand. Make sure you make it clear who it was produced by, but avoid plugging your product or service as this seems like a sales pitch and will take away from credibility, making you come off as a manipulator or Quality is very important when it comes to linkbait. You've probably noticed the increase in content on the Internet in the past few years. The bulk of it is mediocre. Professional level writing, layout, and design are very important. Don't skimp on production. spammer. Ready for delivery vc VOLTIER CREATIVE Search Marketing + Web Development Spelling Needs revisions errors Step 3: Publication and Promotion: vc VOLTIER CREATIVE If you've created linkbait that meets the guidelines laid out so far, this should be the easiest part of the process: getting your content in front of viewers, and encouraging them to share. Search Marketing + Web Development Main Site Main Site Blog/Static Page Blog/Static Page 1. Content placement: Your linkbait should probably reside within a blog or static page apart from your main site. If you're creating linkbait for a com- mercial web property, putting it within a commercial section of your site is a recipe for failure. Blogs act as a means to reach out to the community in a non-salesy way. Blogs also provide excellent, easy to use tools to enhance the sharing of the linkbait by viewers. 3. News aggregators: Reddit.com, Digg.com, Stumbleupon, and many other social news and bookmarking sites should be your first stop in promotion. You will have a higher likelihood of success on these types of sites if you have accounts that have a history of This one look suspicious .. SU participation. 8 reddit 2. Enable Easy Sharing: There are dozens of tools to help your readers share content they enjoy with others. Facebook integration, twitter integration, social news voting buttons, and any other sharing facilitators should be used. For infographics, include easily copyable snippets of code for bloggers to use to easily syndicate your content to their blogs. 4. Blogger outreach: With hundreds of thousands of bloggers, it is likely there are several hundred or even several thousand bloggers with moderate readerships within your niche. By creating linkbait content that would appeal to the audiences of these bloggers, you will have a very easy time con- vincing them to post your linkbait. Present yourself as a seasoned reader of the site simply passing along an interesting piece of content you found that you thought their readers would enjoy. 5. Twitter outreach: Similarly to blogger outreach, twitter outreach can help spread your content far and wide. Target only the top 50-100 most popular twitter accounts within your niche. Those with few followers won't be able to spread your content There is a big one near here... very far. twitter Step 4: Reviewing and Enhancing: Step 5: Measuring Results 1. Piggybacking: If you're getting solid traffic from linkbait you've recently promoted, use that traffic to help you launch your next piece. It is smart to have at least two pieces of linkbait in the pipeline for just this reason. It is surprisingly easy to piggyback one success on the back 2. Getting all the links you deserve: Many people online who share your content may not provide proper attribution or links to you as the creator. This is especially true when creating and promoting infographics. Use sites like Tineye.com to track down and find bloggers who have taken your content without linking back. Email them and get all the links you deserve. (1. Social Sharing How many diggs, reddit votes, facebook shares, tweets, and so on did your linkbait receive? 2. Links The final step in the linkbait process is measuring your results. The following metrics should be recorded and compared to other attempts at linkbait success: Once you've created and begun promoting your linkbait, there is still work to be done. The best linkbaiters out there squeeze the most out of their linkbait in the following Links were the main goal, so how did you do? Yahoo Site Explorer, SEOmoz's Linkscape, Webmaster Tools, and others should all be utilized to track your links as they are created. of another. ways: 3. Key Sharers Look through your referral logs and the links you have built. Were there any extremely prominent people who shared your content? Any celebrities or top bloggers? Use this as an entree to starting a relationship with these key influencers. VOLTIER CREATIVE Search Marketing + Web Development Voltier.com I VOLTIERE VC [> [> The Essential Do it Yourself Guide to Successful Linkbait What is Linkbait? Step 1: Brainstorming Topic Realm and Strictness: The linkbait you create should be related to the topic of your site. Consider the implications of the title of your linkbait, as the anchor text of the links you generate will play a considerable role in the rankings improvements you will see. Type of Content: Linkbait can come in several forms. During brainstorming, try to think of examples of each of the following Linkbait is content created for the purpose of garnering links from other websites, particularly blogs. Why Should I Use Linkbait? types: - Articles - Infographics (like this one) - Quizzes - Widgets Linkbait is one of the most effective ways Cartoons to generate links to your website or blog. By creating interesting content and pro- moting it in the online community, you can create an active base of advocates Generate the Ideas: ? When generating ideas, think of as many as you can and Involve others in the brain- storming process. The more ideas you can come up with, the better. The only criteria for these ideas is that they should be on-topic . In the next step you will narrow down your ideas by testing them for "stickiness." Also consider how "out there" you can be with your ideas. Does your brand require a level of seriousness, for that content that can lead to its viral spread online. Successful linkbait can generate hundreds or even thousands of editorially- given links to your site or blog. These links in turn will improve your site's rankings in the search engines. or can you produce something out- landish without harming your brand? Test Stickiness: 1. Simplicity The concept must be easy to under- stand by your audience at a quick glance. They should be able to quick- ly pick out the benefit they will gain by reading your linkbait. 3. Concreteness 5. Emotions 6. Stories In order for people to share your linkbait, they must care about the idea. Consider your audience and what their primary motivational emotions might be. Empathy might be good when targeting mothers, while irony or sarcasm might be better when targeting teens. In order for linkbait to have the best Your linkbait should have a clear thesis. It should be able to be explained in terms of sensory information. Ambiguity is boring, specifics lead to interest. Stories bring concepts into the real world. Relating your ideas through examples gives your audience a reason to feel connected. shot at success, it should meet the following criteria for "stickiness." 2. The Unexpected Your linkbait should present something new, or present something old in a new way. 4. Credibility If your linkbait smells of spam, or your facts don't add up, you're sunk. Step 2: Production 1. Creating the content 3. Finished Delivery 2. Timelines and Edits Whether the content is created by you, someone in-house or a third party freelancer, it is important to maintain control over the quality and consistency of the content you create. You must keep a careful eye on the content as it goes through production and assess how well it fits the original idea and goals as it is being created. It is important to make sure you give yourself extra time to complete projects. There will be a good deal of back and forth with your writers and graphic designers to end up with a finished product that you are proud of. If you are working with a freelancer, remember that they are probably not on the same schedule as you, so plan your timeline accordingly. A high quality finished product is essential to meeting the stickiness criteria of credibility. Spelling errors, sloppy images or artwork, and lack of sourcing can lead your readers to disregard your linkbait as not credible. 4. Branding It is important to make sure your linkbait is cohesive with your website and/or your brand. Make sure you make it clear who it was produced by, but avoid plugging your product or service as this seems like a sales pitch and will take away from credibility, making you come off as a manipulator or Quality is very important when it comes to linkbait. You've probably noticed the increase in content on the Internet in the past few years. The bulk of it is mediocre. Professional level writing, layout, and design are very important. Don't skimp on production. spammer. Ready for delivery vc VOLTIER CREATIVE Search Marketing + Web Development Spelling Needs revisions errors Step 3: Publication and Promotion: vc VOLTIER CREATIVE If you've created linkbait that meets the guidelines laid out so far, this should be the easiest part of the process: getting your content in front of viewers, and encouraging them to share. Search Marketing + Web Development Main Site Main Site Blog/Static Page Blog/Static Page 1. Content placement: Your linkbait should probably reside within a blog or static page apart from your main site. If you're creating linkbait for a com- mercial web property, putting it within a commercial section of your site is a recipe for failure. Blogs act as a means to reach out to the community in a non-salesy way. Blogs also provide excellent, easy to use tools to enhance the sharing of the linkbait by viewers. 3. News aggregators: Reddit.com, Digg.com, Stumbleupon, and many other social news and bookmarking sites should be your first stop in promotion. You will have a higher likelihood of success on these types of sites if you have accounts that have a history of This one look suspicious .. SU participation. 8 reddit 2. Enable Easy Sharing: There are dozens of tools to help your readers share content they enjoy with others. Facebook integration, twitter integration, social news voting buttons, and any other sharing facilitators should be used. For infographics, include easily copyable snippets of code for bloggers to use to easily syndicate your content to their blogs. 4. Blogger outreach: With hundreds of thousands of bloggers, it is likely there are several hundred or even several thousand bloggers with moderate readerships within your niche. By creating linkbait content that would appeal to the audiences of these bloggers, you will have a very easy time con- vincing them to post your linkbait. Present yourself as a seasoned reader of the site simply passing along an interesting piece of content you found that you thought their readers would enjoy. 5. Twitter outreach: Similarly to blogger outreach, twitter outreach can help spread your content far and wide. Target only the top 50-100 most popular twitter accounts within your niche. Those with few followers won't be able to spread your content There is a big one near here... very far. twitter Step 4: Reviewing and Enhancing: Step 5: Measuring Results 1. Piggybacking: If you're getting solid traffic from linkbait you've recently promoted, use that traffic to help you launch your next piece. It is smart to have at least two pieces of linkbait in the pipeline for just this reason. It is surprisingly easy to piggyback one success on the back 2. Getting all the links you deserve: Many people online who share your content may not provide proper attribution or links to you as the creator. This is especially true when creating and promoting infographics. Use sites like Tineye.com to track down and find bloggers who have taken your content without linking back. Email them and get all the links you deserve. (1. Social Sharing How many diggs, reddit votes, facebook shares, tweets, and so on did your linkbait receive? 2. Links The final step in the linkbait process is measuring your results. The following metrics should be recorded and compared to other attempts at linkbait success: Once you've created and begun promoting your linkbait, there is still work to be done. The best linkbaiters out there squeeze the most out of their linkbait in the following Links were the main goal, so how did you do? Yahoo Site Explorer, SEOmoz's Linkscape, Webmaster Tools, and others should all be utilized to track your links as they are created. of another. ways: 3. Key Sharers Look through your referral logs and the links you have built. Were there any extremely prominent people who shared your content? Any celebrities or top bloggers? Use this as an entree to starting a relationship with these key influencers. VOLTIER CREATIVE Search Marketing + Web Development Voltier.com I VOLTIERE VC [> [> The Essential Do it Yourself Guide to Successful Linkbait What is Linkbait? Step 1: Brainstorming Topic Realm and Strictness: The linkbait you create should be related to the topic of your site. Consider the implications of the title of your linkbait, as the anchor text of the links you generate will play a considerable role in the rankings improvements you will see. Type of Content: Linkbait can come in several forms. During brainstorming, try to think of examples of each of the following Linkbait is content created for the purpose of garnering links from other websites, particularly blogs. Why Should I Use Linkbait? types: - Articles - Infographics (like this one) - Quizzes - Widgets Linkbait is one of the most effective ways Cartoons to generate links to your website or blog. By creating interesting content and pro- moting it in the online community, you can create an active base of advocates Generate the Ideas: ? When generating ideas, think of as many as you can and Involve others in the brain- storming process. The more ideas you can come up with, the better. The only criteria for these ideas is that they should be on-topic . In the next step you will narrow down your ideas by testing them for "stickiness." Also consider how "out there" you can be with your ideas. Does your brand require a level of seriousness, for that content that can lead to its viral spread online. Successful linkbait can generate hundreds or even thousands of editorially- given links to your site or blog. These links in turn will improve your site's rankings in the search engines. or can you produce something out- landish without harming your brand? Test Stickiness: 1. Simplicity The concept must be easy to under- stand by your audience at a quick glance. They should be able to quick- ly pick out the benefit they will gain by reading your linkbait. 3. Concreteness 5. Emotions 6. Stories In order for people to share your linkbait, they must care about the idea. Consider your audience and what their primary motivational emotions might be. Empathy might be good when targeting mothers, while irony or sarcasm might be better when targeting teens. In order for linkbait to have the best Your linkbait should have a clear thesis. It should be able to be explained in terms of sensory information. Ambiguity is boring, specifics lead to interest. Stories bring concepts into the real world. Relating your ideas through examples gives your audience a reason to feel connected. shot at success, it should meet the following criteria for "stickiness." 2. The Unexpected Your linkbait should present something new, or present something old in a new way. 4. Credibility If your linkbait smells of spam, or your facts don't add up, you're sunk. Step 2: Production 1. Creating the content 3. Finished Delivery 2. Timelines and Edits Whether the content is created by you, someone in-house or a third party freelancer, it is important to maintain control over the quality and consistency of the content you create. You must keep a careful eye on the content as it goes through production and assess how well it fits the original idea and goals as it is being created. It is important to make sure you give yourself extra time to complete projects. There will be a good deal of back and forth with your writers and graphic designers to end up with a finished product that you are proud of. If you are working with a freelancer, remember that they are probably not on the same schedule as you, so plan your timeline accordingly. A high quality finished product is essential to meeting the stickiness criteria of credibility. Spelling errors, sloppy images or artwork, and lack of sourcing can lead your readers to disregard your linkbait as not credible. 4. Branding It is important to make sure your linkbait is cohesive with your website and/or your brand. Make sure you make it clear who it was produced by, but avoid plugging your product or service as this seems like a sales pitch and will take away from credibility, making you come off as a manipulator or Quality is very important when it comes to linkbait. You've probably noticed the increase in content on the Internet in the past few years. The bulk of it is mediocre. Professional level writing, layout, and design are very important. Don't skimp on production. spammer. Ready for delivery vc VOLTIER CREATIVE Search Marketing + Web Development Spelling Needs revisions errors Step 3: Publication and Promotion: vc VOLTIER CREATIVE If you've created linkbait that meets the guidelines laid out so far, this should be the easiest part of the process: getting your content in front of viewers, and encouraging them to share. Search Marketing + Web Development Main Site Main Site Blog/Static Page Blog/Static Page 1. Content placement: Your linkbait should probably reside within a blog or static page apart from your main site. If you're creating linkbait for a com- mercial web property, putting it within a commercial section of your site is a recipe for failure. Blogs act as a means to reach out to the community in a non-salesy way. Blogs also provide excellent, easy to use tools to enhance the sharing of the linkbait by viewers. 3. News aggregators: Reddit.com, Digg.com, Stumbleupon, and many other social news and bookmarking sites should be your first stop in promotion. You will have a higher likelihood of success on these types of sites if you have accounts that have a history of This one look suspicious .. SU participation. 8 reddit 2. Enable Easy Sharing: There are dozens of tools to help your readers share content they enjoy with others. Facebook integration, twitter integration, social news voting buttons, and any other sharing facilitators should be used. For infographics, include easily copyable snippets of code for bloggers to use to easily syndicate your content to their blogs. 4. Blogger outreach: With hundreds of thousands of bloggers, it is likely there are several hundred or even several thousand bloggers with moderate readerships within your niche. By creating linkbait content that would appeal to the audiences of these bloggers, you will have a very easy time con- vincing them to post your linkbait. Present yourself as a seasoned reader of the site simply passing along an interesting piece of content you found that you thought their readers would enjoy. 5. Twitter outreach: Similarly to blogger outreach, twitter outreach can help spread your content far and wide. Target only the top 50-100 most popular twitter accounts within your niche. Those with few followers won't be able to spread your content There is a big one near here... very far. twitter Step 4: Reviewing and Enhancing: Step 5: Measuring Results 1. Piggybacking: If you're getting solid traffic from linkbait you've recently promoted, use that traffic to help you launch your next piece. It is smart to have at least two pieces of linkbait in the pipeline for just this reason. It is surprisingly easy to piggyback one success on the back 2. Getting all the links you deserve: Many people online who share your content may not provide proper attribution or links to you as the creator. This is especially true when creating and promoting infographics. Use sites like Tineye.com to track down and find bloggers who have taken your content without linking back. Email them and get all the links you deserve. (1. Social Sharing How many diggs, reddit votes, facebook shares, tweets, and so on did your linkbait receive? 2. Links The final step in the linkbait process is measuring your results. The following metrics should be recorded and compared to other attempts at linkbait success: Once you've created and begun promoting your linkbait, there is still work to be done. The best linkbaiters out there squeeze the most out of their linkbait in the following Links were the main goal, so how did you do? Yahoo Site Explorer, SEOmoz's Linkscape, Webmaster Tools, and others should all be utilized to track your links as they are created. of another. ways: 3. Key Sharers Look through your referral logs and the links you have built. Were there any extremely prominent people who shared your content? Any celebrities or top bloggers? Use this as an entree to starting a relationship with these key influencers. VOLTIER CREATIVE Search Marketing + Web Development Voltier.com I VOLTIERE VC [> [> The Essential Do it Yourself Guide to Successful Linkbait What is Linkbait? Step 1: Brainstorming Topic Realm and Strictness: The linkbait you create should be related to the topic of your site. Consider the implications of the title of your linkbait, as the anchor text of the links you generate will play a considerable role in the rankings improvements you will see. Type of Content: Linkbait can come in several forms. During brainstorming, try to think of examples of each of the following Linkbait is content created for the purpose of garnering links from other websites, particularly blogs. Why Should I Use Linkbait? types: - Articles - Infographics (like this one) - Quizzes - Widgets Linkbait is one of the most effective ways Cartoons to generate links to your website or blog. By creating interesting content and pro- moting it in the online community, you can create an active base of advocates Generate the Ideas: ? When generating ideas, think of as many as you can and Involve others in the brain- storming process. The more ideas you can come up with, the better. The only criteria for these ideas is that they should be on-topic . In the next step you will narrow down your ideas by testing them for "stickiness." Also consider how "out there" you can be with your ideas. Does your brand require a level of seriousness, for that content that can lead to its viral spread online. Successful linkbait can generate hundreds or even thousands of editorially- given links to your site or blog. These links in turn will improve your site's rankings in the search engines. or can you produce something out- landish without harming your brand? Test Stickiness: 1. Simplicity The concept must be easy to under- stand by your audience at a quick glance. They should be able to quick- ly pick out the benefit they will gain by reading your linkbait. 3. Concreteness 5. Emotions 6. Stories In order for people to share your linkbait, they must care about the idea. Consider your audience and what their primary motivational emotions might be. Empathy might be good when targeting mothers, while irony or sarcasm might be better when targeting teens. In order for linkbait to have the best Your linkbait should have a clear thesis. It should be able to be explained in terms of sensory information. Ambiguity is boring, specifics lead to interest. Stories bring concepts into the real world. Relating your ideas through examples gives your audience a reason to feel connected. shot at success, it should meet the following criteria for "stickiness." 2. The Unexpected Your linkbait should present something new, or present something old in a new way. 4. Credibility If your linkbait smells of spam, or your facts don't add up, you're sunk. Step 2: Production 1. Creating the content 3. Finished Delivery 2. Timelines and Edits Whether the content is created by you, someone in-house or a third party freelancer, it is important to maintain control over the quality and consistency of the content you create. You must keep a careful eye on the content as it goes through production and assess how well it fits the original idea and goals as it is being created. It is important to make sure you give yourself extra time to complete projects. There will be a good deal of back and forth with your writers and graphic designers to end up with a finished product that you are proud of. If you are working with a freelancer, remember that they are probably not on the same schedule as you, so plan your timeline accordingly. A high quality finished product is essential to meeting the stickiness criteria of credibility. Spelling errors, sloppy images or artwork, and lack of sourcing can lead your readers to disregard your linkbait as not credible. 4. Branding It is important to make sure your linkbait is cohesive with your website and/or your brand. Make sure you make it clear who it was produced by, but avoid plugging your product or service as this seems like a sales pitch and will take away from credibility, making you come off as a manipulator or Quality is very important when it comes to linkbait. You've probably noticed the increase in content on the Internet in the past few years. The bulk of it is mediocre. Professional level writing, layout, and design are very important. Don't skimp on production. spammer. Ready for delivery vc VOLTIER CREATIVE Search Marketing + Web Development Spelling Needs revisions errors Step 3: Publication and Promotion: vc VOLTIER CREATIVE If you've created linkbait that meets the guidelines laid out so far, this should be the easiest part of the process: getting your content in front of viewers, and encouraging them to share. Search Marketing + Web Development Main Site Main Site Blog/Static Page Blog/Static Page 1. Content placement: Your linkbait should probably reside within a blog or static page apart from your main site. If you're creating linkbait for a com- mercial web property, putting it within a commercial section of your site is a recipe for failure. Blogs act as a means to reach out to the community in a non-salesy way. Blogs also provide excellent, easy to use tools to enhance the sharing of the linkbait by viewers. 3. News aggregators: Reddit.com, Digg.com, Stumbleupon, and many other social news and bookmarking sites should be your first stop in promotion. You will have a higher likelihood of success on these types of sites if you have accounts that have a history of This one look suspicious .. SU participation. 8 reddit 2. Enable Easy Sharing: There are dozens of tools to help your readers share content they enjoy with others. Facebook integration, twitter integration, social news voting buttons, and any other sharing facilitators should be used. For infographics, include easily copyable snippets of code for bloggers to use to easily syndicate your content to their blogs. 4. Blogger outreach: With hundreds of thousands of bloggers, it is likely there are several hundred or even several thousand bloggers with moderate readerships within your niche. By creating linkbait content that would appeal to the audiences of these bloggers, you will have a very easy time con- vincing them to post your linkbait. Present yourself as a seasoned reader of the site simply passing along an interesting piece of content you found that you thought their readers would enjoy. 5. Twitter outreach: Similarly to blogger outreach, twitter outreach can help spread your content far and wide. Target only the top 50-100 most popular twitter accounts within your niche. Those with few followers won't be able to spread your content There is a big one near here... very far. twitter Step 4: Reviewing and Enhancing: Step 5: Measuring Results 1. Piggybacking: If you're getting solid traffic from linkbait you've recently promoted, use that traffic to help you launch your next piece. It is smart to have at least two pieces of linkbait in the pipeline for just this reason. It is surprisingly easy to piggyback one success on the back 2. Getting all the links you deserve: Many people online who share your content may not provide proper attribution or links to you as the creator. This is especially true when creating and promoting infographics. Use sites like Tineye.com to track down and find bloggers who have taken your content without linking back. Email them and get all the links you deserve. (1. Social Sharing How many diggs, reddit votes, facebook shares, tweets, and so on did your linkbait receive? 2. Links The final step in the linkbait process is measuring your results. The following metrics should be recorded and compared to other attempts at linkbait success: Once you've created and begun promoting your linkbait, there is still work to be done. The best linkbaiters out there squeeze the most out of their linkbait in the following Links were the main goal, so how did you do? Yahoo Site Explorer, SEOmoz's Linkscape, Webmaster Tools, and others should all be utilized to track your links as they are created. of another. ways: 3. Key Sharers Look through your referral logs and the links you have built. Were there any extremely prominent people who shared your content? Any celebrities or top bloggers? Use this as an entree to starting a relationship with these key influencers. VOLTIER CREATIVE Search Marketing + Web Development Voltier.com I VOLTIERE VC [> [> The Essential Do it Yourself Guide to Successful Linkbait What is Linkbait? Step 1: Brainstorming Topic Realm and Strictness: The linkbait you create should be related to the topic of your site. Consider the implications of the title of your linkbait, as the anchor text of the links you generate will play a considerable role in the rankings improvements you will see. Type of Content: Linkbait can come in several forms. During brainstorming, try to think of examples of each of the following Linkbait is content created for the purpose of garnering links from other websites, particularly blogs. Why Should I Use Linkbait? types: - Articles - Infographics (like this one) - Quizzes - Widgets Linkbait is one of the most effective ways Cartoons to generate links to your website or blog. By creating interesting content and pro- moting it in the online community, you can create an active base of advocates Generate the Ideas: ? When generating ideas, think of as many as you can and Involve others in the brain- storming process. The more ideas you can come up with, the better. The only criteria for these ideas is that they should be on-topic . In the next step you will narrow down your ideas by testing them for "stickiness." Also consider how "out there" you can be with your ideas. Does your brand require a level of seriousness, for that content that can lead to its viral spread online. Successful linkbait can generate hundreds or even thousands of editorially- given links to your site or blog. These links in turn will improve your site's rankings in the search engines. or can you produce something out- landish without harming your brand? Test Stickiness: 1. Simplicity The concept must be easy to under- stand by your audience at a quick glance. They should be able to quick- ly pick out the benefit they will gain by reading your linkbait. 3. Concreteness 5. Emotions 6. Stories In order for people to share your linkbait, they must care about the idea. Consider your audience and what their primary motivational emotions might be. Empathy might be good when targeting mothers, while irony or sarcasm might be better when targeting teens. In order for linkbait to have the best Your linkbait should have a clear thesis. It should be able to be explained in terms of sensory information. Ambiguity is boring, specifics lead to interest. Stories bring concepts into the real world. Relating your ideas through examples gives your audience a reason to feel connected. shot at success, it should meet the following criteria for "stickiness." 2. The Unexpected Your linkbait should present something new, or present something old in a new way. 4. Credibility If your linkbait smells of spam, or your facts don't add up, you're sunk. Step 2: Production 1. Creating the content 3. Finished Delivery 2. Timelines and Edits Whether the content is created by you, someone in-house or a third party freelancer, it is important to maintain control over the quality and consistency of the content you create. You must keep a careful eye on the content as it goes through production and assess how well it fits the original idea and goals as it is being created. It is important to make sure you give yourself extra time to complete projects. There will be a good deal of back and forth with your writers and graphic designers to end up with a finished product that you are proud of. If you are working with a freelancer, remember that they are probably not on the same schedule as you, so plan your timeline accordingly. A high quality finished product is essential to meeting the stickiness criteria of credibility. Spelling errors, sloppy images or artwork, and lack of sourcing can lead your readers to disregard your linkbait as not credible. 4. Branding It is important to make sure your linkbait is cohesive with your website and/or your brand. Make sure you make it clear who it was produced by, but avoid plugging your product or service as this seems like a sales pitch and will take away from credibility, making you come off as a manipulator or Quality is very important when it comes to linkbait. You've probably noticed the increase in content on the Internet in the past few years. The bulk of it is mediocre. Professional level writing, layout, and design are very important. Don't skimp on production. spammer. Ready for delivery vc VOLTIER CREATIVE Search Marketing + Web Development Spelling Needs revisions errors Step 3: Publication and Promotion: vc VOLTIER CREATIVE If you've created linkbait that meets the guidelines laid out so far, this should be the easiest part of the process: getting your content in front of viewers, and encouraging them to share. Search Marketing + Web Development Main Site Main Site Blog/Static Page Blog/Static Page 1. Content placement: Your linkbait should probably reside within a blog or static page apart from your main site. If you're creating linkbait for a com- mercial web property, putting it within a commercial section of your site is a recipe for failure. Blogs act as a means to reach out to the community in a non-salesy way. Blogs also provide excellent, easy to use tools to enhance the sharing of the linkbait by viewers. 3. News aggregators: Reddit.com, Digg.com, Stumbleupon, and many other social news and bookmarking sites should be your first stop in promotion. You will have a higher likelihood of success on these types of sites if you have accounts that have a history of This one look suspicious .. SU participation. 8 reddit 2. Enable Easy Sharing: There are dozens of tools to help your readers share content they enjoy with others. Facebook integration, twitter integration, social news voting buttons, and any other sharing facilitators should be used. For infographics, include easily copyable snippets of code for bloggers to use to easily syndicate your content to their blogs. 4. Blogger outreach: With hundreds of thousands of bloggers, it is likely there are several hundred or even several thousand bloggers with moderate readerships within your niche. By creating linkbait content that would appeal to the audiences of these bloggers, you will have a very easy time con- vincing them to post your linkbait. Present yourself as a seasoned reader of the site simply passing along an interesting piece of content you found that you thought their readers would enjoy. 5. Twitter outreach: Similarly to blogger outreach, twitter outreach can help spread your content far and wide. Target only the top 50-100 most popular twitter accounts within your niche. Those with few followers won't be able to spread your content There is a big one near here... very far. twitter Step 4: Reviewing and Enhancing: Step 5: Measuring Results 1. Piggybacking: If you're getting solid traffic from linkbait you've recently promoted, use that traffic to help you launch your next piece. It is smart to have at least two pieces of linkbait in the pipeline for just this reason. It is surprisingly easy to piggyback one success on the back 2. Getting all the links you deserve: Many people online who share your content may not provide proper attribution or links to you as the creator. This is especially true when creating and promoting infographics. Use sites like Tineye.com to track down and find bloggers who have taken your content without linking back. Email them and get all the links you deserve. (1. Social Sharing How many diggs, reddit votes, facebook shares, tweets, and so on did your linkbait receive? 2. Links The final step in the linkbait process is measuring your results. The following metrics should be recorded and compared to other attempts at linkbait success: Once you've created and begun promoting your linkbait, there is still work to be done. The best linkbaiters out there squeeze the most out of their linkbait in the following Links were the main goal, so how did you do? Yahoo Site Explorer, SEOmoz's Linkscape, Webmaster Tools, and others should all be utilized to track your links as they are created. of another. ways: 3. Key Sharers Look through your referral logs and the links you have built. Were there any extremely prominent people who shared your content? Any celebrities or top bloggers? Use this as an entree to starting a relationship with these key influencers. VOLTIER CREATIVE Search Marketing + Web Development Voltier.com I VOLTIERE VC [> [>