What is linkbaiting and does it work?

Linkbaiting is one of the strongest tactics that new and even current websites have for online marketing techniques. It not only becomes viral if done correctly it can sometimes vault a website to the upper reaches of the Internet world.

Linkbaiting is a simple advertising gimmick that many sites employ to draw in new readers or buyers. It is essentially a play at viral marketing by a website owner to hopefully generate a buzz in the right circles of people who will pass their website address and their advertisement on to others that they know. Many of these websites who attempt this method are viewed as nothing more then public relation stunts, but for some the attempt becomes hugely successful and spreads across the Internet like wildfire. This viral effect can drive the fortunes of a site in a whole new direction that may put them into a position to become one of the larger players in an Internet world full of small time sites.

So how does one employ linkbaiting? Well it is important to understand that linkbaiting is the content of a site that is used to target link-friendly users. These audiences are normally from sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us and Reddit for example. The readers of these sites can help to sky rocket the fortunes of a site almost overnight. This is due to the shear number of people that are visiting these sites and unique way with which they rate website content that is presented to them by these very same members. For example if a story from a blog is presented to the community at one of these sites and the information provided within is unique, informative to many or even in many cases funny the community will recommend it to others through a rating system. The higher that a stories rating goes the longer it remains noteworthy and the higher its position is within the communities pages to the point of being placed on the front pages. This is not the only effect that this rating system has either. Other webmasters may then place links back to this very site as a recommendation to their own visitors or even e-mail the link to family, friends or ezine newsletter readers.

Linkbait, however, does not have to be just the content of the website or the article. Many times websites use a photo or a “top 10″ list to draw attention to their web-based software application or their new site. There are some rules that are normally followed when attempting to generate a buzz with linkbaiting:

1. The content, picture etc. should be targeted at a wide audience to draw enough attention to sustain a viral movement. Remember that communities at Digg, Fark, Yahoo! and others are a broad selection and you need to make sure that your linkbait needs to attract a wide range of people.
2. Make sure that it is viral and link worthy. Essentially you want the information, product, etc. to create a discussion that has sustainable power. Whether this is done through something funny or that is interesting to group participants does not matter.
3. Make the material easily linkable through e-mails, blogs, etc. This will help to facilitate the viral advertising you are attempting to create about your website and what it offers.
4. Make sure that it is timely, topical and useful. In other words if you submit something that has been talked about for the past three weeks from another site then your new submission had better be a new twist on this old item or it will simply be buried and never heard from again.

Linkbaiting is not a scam practice, but merely a means of letting others know about your site. It is a form of advertising and it does work. Some recent and not so recent sites that gained a huge boost through these methods are quite well known to many Internet users. Youtube, Myspace, Hotmail and others are some examples of sites and products that have become well known through their viral marketing techniques as well as their online advertising efforts.

Take Hotmail for example: When the hugely successful free mail system first came about in July 1996 not many knew who or what this service was. However, by using the power of viral marketing and in this case links through customer e-mails they became a huge success. It was only a year and a half later in December of 1997 that Microsoft saw the marketing potential in this service and its allready large customer base that they purchased Hotmail. This was the same for Myspace and Youtube, both of which have been purchased by large companies that wished to tap into the huge base of users to market their own goods and services or that of others.

This is of course is not the norm for many website owners as the product has to be hugely unique, offer something of value or some other factor to create a site on the scale of these giants. Allthough viral marketing can have a positive effect on the bottom line of the site in question if done correctly. Some times it is merely a matter of trial and error to finally find that viral link that draws the attention of many.

Remember that these link backs that are generated from viral marketing will last if you keep your site fresh with new content or updated versions of your product. They also will have a lasting residue traffic effect beyond the initial flood of people who come to simply see your site and this is the ultimate goal that you want. You should be prepared for this flood to happen even if it does not in your first few attempts if even at all. Many sites have been overwhelmed by the popularity that they suddenly gain and simply fade away. Plan ahead of time the moves you will make in the event that your sites popularity suddenly sky rockets. You might consider having all of your systems ready to launch or in place so that you can properly take advantage of these new visitors. This includes a plan to make a move to a dedicated server if you are currently using a shared server account with one of the large companies. The traffic that a good viral marketing program can generate will simply eat up your available resources causing your host to shut you down to bring the server load down and thus destroying your efforts. If you realize that your product or site may become popular then you might consider at minimum a virtual private server. No matter what you decide make sure that the system will be able to handle a sustainable load and possiblely even more growth.

Many website owners make the mistake of not capitalizing on this new found traffic and offering these visitors any real reason to come back again. The smart site operators, however, give these visitors a reason to return whether it be an exciting forums, other products or even informative articles. So the question is are you one of these smart site operators or simply one of the many who are going to fade from existence?

Kevin Grames is an editor and writer for ezinexpress Article Submission in addition to his seo site etechnoid seo

Article Source: http://www.positivearticles.com. PositiveArticles.Com does not vouch for or necessarily endorse the contents of this article.

If you are copying this article for publishing on a website or ezine, please use the "Ezine Ready" button from the righthand menu.