Tabbyfied

ARTful Linkbait Strategists do some or all of the following…

1. They distill multiple sources of information into Condensed, Cumulative Reports—thus creating Valuable Resources. In some cases they develop the ability to generate these resources internally. In other cases they outsource the tasks. Either way, they post valuable lists, reports, or tools that are 100% informational, highly useful, streamlined, and easy to link to while presenting the material from their own perspective.Some of the best linkbait resources are simply lists and how-to guides. In the report I read : How to Use del.icio.us to Quickly Build Amazing Content-Rich Articles that Attract Links Like a Magnet! they have discussed the details of creating such resources. This report is basically a step-by-step guide to dominating the search results and we highly recommend you read and act on it if you haven’t already.It isn’t necessary that your linkbait be “amazing” to get links. But it must look comprehensive and be useful. Make a list of topics your customers are interested in and start cranking out articles that are loosely focused within your niche having titles like…
   • 100 Tools and Resources for…
   • 50 Tips to…
   • 100+ Resources to Help You…
   • 75 Online Resources for…
   • 30+ Simple Things You Can Do to…
   • 25 Ways to…

   Be sure to mine sites like Delicious and Digg for ideas on article topics that people will link to. Ideally, we suggest you crank out one of these articles on a weekly basis.

   At its simplest, an article can be “100 Resources for…” followed by a list of 100 sites, tools, and articles you’ve found online related to that topic, with a short summary of each. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn how many people tend to link to such articles and resource lists.

2. They systematically monitor the News. They watch for relevant stories they can chime in on. By lending their expertise to the topic in a timely manner, they present a voice on the subject that tends to gather links.Let’s suppose for example that we sell remote controlled model airplanes. It’s pretty simple to monitor Google News for keyphrases like remote controlled aircraft so that, on a weekly basis, we can review news stories within our niche and then write about what is topically hot. Here’s one story that caught my eye;
   

   Stanford’s “autonomous” helicopters teach themselves to fly Stanford Report - Aug 29, 2008 The aircraft, brightly painted Stanford red, is an off-the-shelf radio control helicopter, with instrumentation added by the researchers…

   Any one of a number of slants could be employed while slicing and dicing this story. For instance, how will this effect the sport of remote controlled aircraft for the hobbyist if, in fact, the flying can be done by a computer that learns? …you get the idea.

3. They’re constantly looking for opportunities to present a Contrarian Perspective on a controversial topic. They argue a position that contradicts prevailing wisdom.One controversial perspective could be that the price of gas hasn’t actually risen much at all. Instead, it’s the dollar that’s fallen evidenced by the price increases across a broad range of commodities which might include homes, gold, imported foods, and so forth. The fact that the federal reserve has kept the interest rates so low for so long, and that they’ve been paying the government’s bills with printed money, could be used to support the premise.If you are a commodities broker or financial services specialist, this could be a contrarian perspective for you to write about within this currently hot and controversial topic.
4. They intelligently harness the power of Fear. At first blush, this is my least favorite however there are certain industries that lend themselves to this style of social promotion. Topics like personal privacy, ID theft, radar detectors, child care, insurance and so forth have successfully harnessed the ‘power of fear’ to promote their goods and services since their beginnings.Once again, the News Feeds are an excellent source for stories that can be re-reported in the light of an “expert’s” opinion (like yours).
5. They employ the universal language of Humor. Ok, if the iPhone in the blender didn’t seem funny to you, then maybe you could take the Jeff Foxworthy approach:
   • If you cringe whenever you see a site listed as ‘Untitled‘ in the search results above your listing, then you might be an SEO.
   • If your response to your spouse’s inquiry regarding your son’s whereabouts is: ‘he’s 404‘ …then you might be an SEO.
   • If you’ve ever spoken in terms of having to ‘301 redirect‘ your focus from one task to another, then you might be an SEO

   And, in every case…

   6. They develop their social networks.

Content is key alright, but here is another cliché running across the internet - create great, relevant content and your site will flourish! Sounds good, yeah, but how to create this great content you say? And to make it even worse, no one even tells you what this content is, or what it’s supposed to be about.

Well that’s about to change. From an article I read a few days ago by Esoos Bobnar, it sure shed some light on time-tested strategies and insider tips that are use to quickly and easily create content that other sites are happy to link to.

Follow these examples and your site will be pulling in tons of links in no time.

Top on the magical recipe of linkbaiting are Lists.

It’s actually the “The Grand-Daddy of All Linkbait”.

• Lists are one of the easiest and most effective ways to grab an audience and build links. In fact, lists are so popular there’s concern they may soon become played out on some social media sites. Therefore, we suggest you try something a bit more interesting and unusual to help your content stand out from the crowd.

One good possibility is to replace the old tried-and-true Top 10 list, with a more unusual number. For example…

• 8 most important things to remember before leaving your house
• 20 fitness truths to get that body you always desired
• 42 ways on how not to run a pageant

See what I mean?…Try to be wacky in order to make it catchy.

Now, just a warning for really lazy, stupid people. It does not mean that we should just go “gaga” about copying and pasting all the link-worthy articles we see when we do our research and bookmark it into social media sites. Remember, doing so would be plagiarism as well as a copyright violation and it would damage your reputation which really makes it a big NO NO! So spare yourself from all the trouble. If writing is not your specialty, consider hiring then. Your mission here is to provide great content that’s going to attract traffic and links to your site.

There are a lot of sources when outsourcing article creation for sites you’re managing. A few are Problogger Job Boards, Rent A Coder and Craigslist.

That’s sure beats the heck out of begging for links via email, and it’s great to sit back and enjoy as you watch those inbound links accumulate on their own viral momentum.