Net Frontier Marketing

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Linkbait is the New Viral Marketing. Same principle, new buzzword. More goal oriented. The one major objective, as the name implies, is gathering a slew of editorially given backlinks for your site.

There are few SEO tactics as rewarding as a successful piece of linkbait. For that reason, it has been discussed heavily on A-list blogs and beaten to death in every corner of the web.

There are still persistent myths going around and this article aims to debunk some of them.

1) Linkbaiting is a free marketing tactic:

If you base that on the fact you don’t need to buy any expensive software to pull it off, then you are correct.

However, linkbait depends on creativity, writing skills, citation worthiness, knowledge of social networks and several other factors. Most of these are worth considerable amounts of money. It takes time to hone these skills and they are not the lot of the average cowboy.

Therefore, linkbaiting is everything but free, as illustrates high demand for linkbaiting services which often charge in excess of five thousand dollars a go and offer no guarantees.

2) Anyone can do it:

• You need top tier writing skills, scripting skills for video or programming skill for applications and tools
• You need an attractive web presence
• You need specified knowledge, such as how and to which social network to submit and how to optimize the landing page
• You need X-factors like creativity and imagination
• You most likely need to do all this in English

3) You are gaming something/someone:

Linkbait is nothing more than content that other website owners will want to reference because they see value worth passing on to their readership. The same is bound to happen on a peer to peer basis.

For those that whine about linkbait using sensationalistic headlines backed by poor content, they are completely missing the point. If the reader hits the back button in disgust, it would be adequately called “hit bait”. If it does not succeed in getting considerable linkage from “quality” sites, it is not linkbait.

If you use sneaky tactics like buying votes from social network users, you are not linkbaiting, you are attempting to cheat your way to the top. They are not the same animal and more often than not, you will get slapped back to your proper place.

4) Successful linkbait creates $50K or other large amount of value:

Linkbait proponents are fond of this faulty reasoning. They add up the inflated values of high PR backlinks, multiply by X number of months and end up with a bloated figure that has little bearing on reality.

Linkbait alone has little value. It won’t make you a fortune overnight in the overwhelming majority of cases. It won’t directly bolster sales, nor will it get you long term increases in traffic or subscribers. Your job is only beginning.

Not only do you have to continue providing regular value but you need a way to benefit from your links and traffic in a quantifiable manner.

The value of the links is impressive. Rating that value is not as straightforward as some would like you to believe. You neither get to choose the anchor text nor the page the links point to. That makes a world of difference.

Bottom line: if you don’t have some SEO knowledge in combination with a workable monetization outlet, linkbait won’t do much for you at all.

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Linkbaiting is easy in the sense that winning the Tour de France is easy if your name is Lance Armstrong.

Stop trumpeting it as the “free traffic and link solution for marketing and SEO”. It’s a sound principle and noble aspiration whose viability must be framed in a reasonable context or do more harm than good.

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Thought / Action of the Day:

Try a second tier PPC engine, you might be surprised with the results…

Number of the Day:14: Number of times I attempted linkbait before I got it right once.

Number of times I attempted linkbait before I once.