Well as a follow up to our previous article, “Understanding linkbaiting”, here are some thoughts from some experts on the subject. They should all help you to build tactics for successful linkbaiting.
Advertise after you have a reputation. “Whether personal or professional, you wait until your blog has achieved a level of success before you start advertising.” [21 Tactics]
Reputation. “Linkbait is difficult to launch the first few times if no one on the Web has heard of your brand. Once you’ve spent some time in the blogosphere and social media space, you may find that a lot of your content goes viral without any effort on your part. Thus, creating a reputation is an important part of making linkbait successful.” “A strong profile at the social media profiles can make a huge difference.” [Leveraging Linkbait] [7 Steps to Linkbait]
Keep your reputation credible. “Your reputation is at stake every time you link to another site. A link is an endorsement; don’t get yourself in a sticky situation. Your readers will follow the links you bring them because they have confidence in your ability to sniff out the noteworthy material. Be certain that you will not regret the backing of another site.” [Link Bait Success]
Appear clever. “Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.” [Seth Godin]
Be human. “Charisma is a valuable quality, both online and off. Through a blog, it’s most often judged by the voice you present to your users. People like empathy, compassion, authority and honesty. Keep these in the forefront of your mind when writing and you’ll be in a good position to succeed.” [21 Tactics]
Stratergy and tactics. “Have a concrete plan for your blogging activities. Write down everything, breakdown your ideas, evaluate content, mix and match your content with your strategy and your concept list.” [The Changing Face of Linkbait]
Offer something different. “If you can offer content that’s usually private – trade secrets, pricing, contract issues, and even the occassional harmless rumor, your blog can benefit.” [21 Tactics]
Write for a key audience. “Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.” [Seth Godin]
Keep changing subject matter. ” Try to diversify your posts within the many spheres of knowledge you have.” [12 Suggestions]
Timing is crucial. Ensure your story has a title that is easy to vote for. Ensures your story is submitted at an appropriate time. If you do not do it soon after mentioning a story on your own site someone else may submit for you, using a dumb title or dumb post content.” [Link Baiting Strategies]
Timing is everything. Analyzing the preferences and habits of your visitors, you can time your submission for maximum exposure. “Post on weekdays (especially monday in the morning), because there are more readers. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.” [Seth Godin]
Post regularly. “If you have a content website, try to keep your posting frequency regular. Just don’t make your posting habit irregular. Today 1 post, tomorrow 5 posts, 1 week no posts etc. That disturbs visitors and that will hurt your RSS subscribers and newsletter subscribers numbers.” [101 Web Marketing Ideas]
Brand building. “To be [successful], you need to be a brand that people want to associate themselves with and a brand that people feel they derive value from being a member.” [21 Tactics]
In part 2 of our expert thoughts: Tactics for successful linkbaiting, we will have more words of wisdom concerning all things tactical for successful linkbaiting. This will focus more on networking and running a linkbaiting campagin. It should also come in handy as a reference guide. We sincerely hope these help.
Good luck.
Now, this one is talking. I’ve read the introductory part of link-baiting and I admit that the whole idea was still complicated for me after I’ve read it. This one is helpful and I look forward to upcoming continuation of this article series.