This post is guest written by Simon from Otooo
Link baiting is the process of publishing any interesting piece of material to your blog, in order to gain 3 main things: traffic, backlinks, and exposure. It can come in a variety of ways, whether through a controversial or interesting article, contests, a compilation of standout items, a top 10 list, a free tool, a free e-book or anything else that will grab the attention of readers.
It is a form of traffic generation that can drive huge amounts of traffic to the page, especially because link bait has a much easier time making it to the front page of social bookmarking sites such as Digg than other regular articles or pieces of information do.
Did I mention that the other great thing about link bait traffic and links is that they are also very well targeted?
Many bloggers know how powerful good link bait can be, but many struggle to find ideas or get their link bait noticed by the blogging world. Without exposing link bait to other bloggers, it is virtually impossible for
them to tell their readers about it and drive you traffic.
To find good ideas for some successful link bait, we can do a few things. The first is to regularly check the front page of popular social bookmarking sites and analyse the stories that make it to the front pages, and then create something similar. I have found that humor, fresh industry news and odd stuff have the most success with social bookmarks, so you can give that a shot. The other way to gain ideas is to read a lot of the other top blogs in your niche and try to find any patterns or trends in their posts. Once you see this, write something controversial about this topic or propose a challege on this. For example, site flipping has been talked about a lot lately, which has brought about many site flipping contests and challenges.
A few examples of link bait I have written are the contest I am currently holding and a controversial article called, Is It Worth Submitting To Link Directories Anymore?
Once you have created your link bait, you have to get it noticed. There are a few ways in which this can be achieved, with the first being social bookmarking. If you can make it to the front page, expect a lot of links and visitors.
The second way is to make regular comments on others blogs. Chances are that they give some link love, and if you are a regular commenter, than the owner / writer of the blog will preference linking to you rather than others that he has never seen before.
The third way is by emailing other bloggers in your niche and telling them about that great article you wrote, or the contest you are having, or that free tool you now have on your site. Mention how it would benefit their readers (also make sure to compliment them 
). Chances are they won’t be offended by your email and will consider posting about it, or including a link in their post.
Please, don’t wimp out on doing that one. If you want to be big, you have to communicate with the top bloggers in your niche.
Remember to check out my blog at otooo.com
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September 2nd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Great infotmation here. I’ve heard of link baiting but never thought it could be as easy as that. I will have to monitor some of the stories coming out on social bookmarking sites now to get a good idea.
Thank for the post
Bruno Auger’s last blog post..Customer Support: Knowing, Educating and Selling
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September 2nd, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Link baiting is important for a blogger.
Ultimate Blogging Experiment’s last blog post..Get Your Blog Posts Ranked Higher in Search Engines
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September 2nd, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Nice guest post. Keep them coming.
Aleks’s last blog post..Funny picture – Sleepy ever after
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September 2nd, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Anything related to Apple, Nintendo or funny cats will get you to the front page of Digg. =P
ANother great way of link baiting is making a person or group angry, but without really insulting them.
BlackhatWay’s last blog post..Flipping Websites: You Need Something Unique!
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Moneybites (35 comments) Reply:
September 3rd, 2008 at 9:43 pm
not 100% true, but a funny statement in itself
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September 2nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Great post and very interesting domain name.
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September 2nd, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Nice post Simon, and great title. I wouldn’t have clicked if it wasn’t specifically for dummies.
@BlackHatWay: LOL@ funny cats. Stupid, but unfortunately true.
Cheers!
Jay
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September 2nd, 2008 at 8:50 pm
About directories, is it worth to submit your blog do directories besides dmoz? Have you seen any kind of results?
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September 2nd, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Nice post, it’s perfect for beginners to help them understand this important topic for bloggers.
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September 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Great info man… I need to really work this on my blog. Need more visitors.
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September 2nd, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Thanks for the great feedback guys
@ Koi Games – In my opinion, submitting to directories is a waste of time – I see 20-30x better results blog commentating – comment regularly and the blog owner will feature u as well. I have seen days of 50UV per day just from blog comment referrals, while I see no traffic at all from directories. My links also grew much quicker commenting
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Ganesh (106 comments) Reply:
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:25 am
I totally agree. On my first blog, when I did not know about holding contests and submitting to directories, the only link building I did was commenting. Another bonus with commenting is that you become a favorite of the blog owner too.
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Yan Shall Blog (11 comments) Reply:
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:38 am
Couldn’t agree more on this. It doesn’t justify the effort.The only 2 directories I did submit my site to are BlogCatalog and Technorati if both are considered a directory.
Yan
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Ganesh (106 comments) Reply:
September 9th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I’ve used BlogCatalog but my main source of links and traffic was in comments. Nothing beats comments…
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September 3rd, 2008 at 12:18 am
Ahhh. Link baiting. One of my favorite types of blog promotion (and one of the most effective). All of your tips were great. Nice post!
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September 3rd, 2008 at 5:27 am
Good post. I am trying to think up some controversial stories which I can use to create link baiting. I wrote one recently on my blog titled “is making money online a scam?” which had a great response. But really I wrote it to reply to a readers comment as opposed to wanting to seem ‘controversial’.
Check it out. Thanks for the post
Ryan @ Smarter Wealth’s last blog post..Finding The Confidence in Yourself
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September 3rd, 2008 at 5:27 am
I just remembered the post your wrote jason to get some links. The one about ‘how to make sure you get fired’ or something. Did that work for you?
Ryan @ Smarter Wealth’s last blog post..Finding The Confidence in Yourself
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September 3rd, 2008 at 7:19 am
I just heard about link baiting after reading this blog.I believe its really good for dummies.Any way a informative post jason.
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September 3rd, 2008 at 7:41 am
Glad I could help
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September 3rd, 2008 at 8:35 am
Great tips on the subject of link baiting. I love the idea of stalking the social sites and write something controversial.
Yan
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September 3rd, 2008 at 10:17 am
Heheh, stalking the social sites… does work tho
Otooo’s last blog post..Freebies: Enter The Contest
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Yan Shall Blog (11 comments) Reply:
September 3rd, 2008 at 10:32 am
Thanks to you for making my life busier…:-) Great one, Simon..
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September 3rd, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I find it difficult getting to the bigger bloggers because they should be having large chunk of emails from people asking to be link to their website or articles.
I will attempt to break the ice first by commenting on their blogs consistently for 1-2 weeks and then emailed the blogger to tell him how his blog have helped you and then try to make friends with them. Until then I will send him email about the great articles I have and share with him. He will judge it to see if the content is worth for his readers and will link to your articles as he deem.
Wei Liang’s last blog post..Will High PR Give You Higher Traffic ?
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Yan Shall Blog (11 comments) Reply:
September 4th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Good networking strategy, Wei. It’s so true that we need to make ourselves as noticeable as possible by actively participating in the discussion. I can’t think of any better one than this.
Yan
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September 3rd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Yes I also like that “for dummies” Dummies rules.
Aleks’s last blog post..Funny picture – Sleepy ever after
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September 3rd, 2008 at 3:17 pm
If I might add it takes a while to get a hang of this, almost an art in itself… LOL
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September 4th, 2008 at 1:58 am
Nice Simon! Thanks for explaining what a linkbait was. (To tell the truth I have not known, because even though webmasters talk about how to use it, they never give a definition). I use this method but never knew that it was linkbaiting! I am glad I have been able to use this connection!
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September 4th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Wei, that’s a really good way to go about it – u always try to establish a connection first – do this and there will be a much higher chance of the blogger featuring it
Otooo’s last blog post..Freebies: Enter The Contest
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September 4th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Another great article. I’ve been blogging for about 6 months now, and while I feel I work really hard on content, I know I’m not doing enough to market my site. There were some great tips here, and I think I have a basic idea of what it is going to take. Thanks!
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September 4th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
No time to write a long comment … too busy writing up a post about the top 10 tips for traveling in Minnesota with your funny cat!
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September 5th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Does this work if you only get about 25 visitors a day to your blog?
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September 6th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
[...] Link Baiting For Dummies [...]
September 7th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Thanks for sharing.. Link Baiting is really good way to gain traffic..
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September 11th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Thanks for sharing.. Link Baiting is really good way to gain traffic.. and a great way to get traffic.
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September 11th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
When I first came to know about Link Baiting I was much confused this post have cleared a few doubts. I have been doing Link Baiting it really helps a lot
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