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Link baiting?! Link bait?!

I subscribe to a job board that lists companies who want to hire SEO Managers and SEO Gurus of one type or another. One of the job qualifications that seems to be popping up more and more these days is:

“..must be proficient in link baiting strategies…”

Like much SEO jargon, link baiting is simply a new term for activities that people have been doing for some time already. Link baiting are the activities of creating online content to which other people want to link. - i.e do something great that other websites will link to.

Here’s a brief list of some link-baiting techniques.

Note that for businesses, some of the techniques might require ongoing internal efforts - such as a marketing intern or in-house staff blogging on a regular a basis.

Create a valuable resource for your industry or niche and post it online.

The resource could be a top 20 list, a special report, how to guide, or story about your industry (or people in it) that few know. Keep in mind - your goal is not to sell but to inform and entertain - provide something of value that others will want to link to and share with colleagues.

Interview prominent people in your industry and publish the interviews.

You could interview someone via phone or email. Or record the interview and publish it as a podcast. There are “rock stars” in any niche. No matter how small the industry or group, some people stand out. Talk to them. And when someone searches for that person’s name on google? They find your website and your interviw.

Tie some of the interviews to specific industry events. Is there a conference coming up? Interview the organizer or one of the keynotes. They will be happy for the free publicity and you will get conference goers to take a look at your website. They may even link to your interview.

Write regular blog posts and articles.

You have experts on your staff, do you not? Let them share their expertise online. Have them write interesting and informative articles or publish technical information that few people know.

They could be the first to write about news and developments in your niche. Do it often enough, and you will get repeat visitors and, um LINKS.

Run a newsworthy ‘event’ such as a contest.

Do you have a new product or product line coming out? Offer a prize to the person that gives you best name for it. or who can write the best description, or gives the most unique use for it.

Use Your Imagination: Do something new that has not been done in your niche.

Be the first to research and document something in your industry and then post it online. Or be the first to doing something on the internet - could the CEO in your company be the first in your industry to blog? Do you have someone on staff that could create a free tool or application and give it away?

Coin a new acronym in your industry and get people to talk about it.

This one should be fairly simple. Ever heard of the Nagy Method? Me neither. But let me see if I can make it up. N = NEW. A= AND G=GREAT Y=?? Yodelling? Yoda? Y2K? Aha! How about YouTube? Nagy stands for another link-baiting technique: Create a New And Great YouTube video. In other words, C. Nagy.

On a cautionary note, you may want to view a brief post and discussion on some possible limitations to linkbaiting on the SEOMOZ website

What would you do if you knew you could only win?

I receive occasional emails from an NLP Trainer in the U.K. named Michael Carroll. (Not to be confused with Micheal Beale another excellent NLP Trainer.) I have traveled to London several times to take training from both these men, and they are never far from my mind.

Why do they stay in my mind? Is it because they have my email address and send me messages? Partly.

The fact that they send me USEFUL email messages that I tend to open and read is the main factor. There are few things more annoying than getting a newsletter that is nothing but a sales letter and a list of products or dates. Much better to start off with something useful to your readers such as a free audio, video or tip of some sort. There are certain newsletters that I enjoy recieving and I because of this, I am much more likely to open them, read them and yes - BUY something from the list owner.

Think about it - aren’t you more likely to purchase from someone that you like and who does nice things for you?

In that spirit, let me give you a link to Michael Carroll’s short but informative and F-R-E-E video on success and motivation. He sent this video in his last newsletter and he gave the link and several other useful bits of info first, before trying to sell anything.

I like Michael’s style of asking questions and asking the “right” questions to make a difference. The process in the video is much deeper than you my realize at first and you could find yourself benefiting from a second viewing.

Question for Success:

What would you do if you knew you could only win?:

The other Micheal who I mentioned, Michael Beale, has a growing conversation on motivation on the NLP Experts forum: http://nlp-experts.org/motivation/92-my-motivation.html

It has been known for many months that if you have a Google account, google can track your web history and sites visited (see Search Engine Land for a brief overview). This can be a rather interesting phenomena as Google has been using it to tailor organic search results to particular users’ tastes. For example, I have done keyword searches on my laptop and then done identical searches on the computer at my local library and the University of Utah library. I noted that the search engine results were different. My website appeared higher on the list when I searched for it on my home computer. It was lower when I searched on the library computers. I have repeated the search process of several months and it replicated each time.

However, I recently noticed something even more interesting - Google appears to be using my searches to serve ads on unrelated searchs. I had heard they were doing this, but I only noticed it recently. I was doing a brief SEO/SEM site analysis on a company called, “Checks In the Mail” Checks in the mail is a lovely example of company that successfully moved from direct mail and phone ordering to internet-based ordering.

As I was going through and checking some of their product lines and rankings, I typed in “Spiderman Checks” on Google. Next, I was interrupted by a phone call and then did a search on another topic. Lo and behold - There in the paid placement (i.e. PPC ads) was an ad related to my previous search on checks. Fascinating! I am going to keep my eyes open for other examples of this.

Have you noticed something similar? Post a comment and let me know.

I have also noticed that a PPC ad that I clicked on the New York Times website several weeks ago keeps appearing on the website. However, they may simply be doing site specific advertising.

Ok, had to laugh yesterday when seeing the website for a niche hotel provider in the U.K., called “Rooms for Baboons”. What do these guys do? They provide hotels rooms for “Stag & Lad” parties in Great Britain. Eh?

Not being a Brit myself, I can only imagine that if I am getting married and going on an extended bachelor party, I book my through “Rooms for Baboons.” Who wants to spend several hundred dollars (oops…I meant Pounds) on a hotel in Newcastle only to get kicked out for being too loud?

Did I get that right? Anyone want to tell me what a Stag and Lad party really is?

I mention their website for several reasons. First, it is a brilliant example of picking a niche, defining it, and doing everything that you can to dominate it. What could be more niche than stag parties in the U.K.? I have gone to the website several times, from several computers and noticed that I am seeing different headlines and text, so they are obviously collecting data and testing what works. Here’s an example:

AVOID STAYING IN NEWCASTLE HOTELS WITH FAMILIES & OLD PEOPLE

and here’s their subtext:

“If you’re not visiting Newcastle on a stag or hen party, or looking to have some fun, we won’t accept your hotel reservation under any circumstances.”

You think I am kidding? Take A Look: Stag Hotels in Newcastle.

And here’s the other version that I saw:

FIND ROOMS IN NEWCASTLE FOR YOUR GROUP IN 30 SECONDS

The subtext:

“If you’re struggling to find rooms for your lads weekend in Newcastle, don’t get frustrated calling dozens of hotels that won’t take your group - Find your group’s central, lad-friendly rooms now…”

Which do you think performs better? I am going for headline #1. Reading it, I am reminded of a quote (Dan Kennedy?), which reads, “Your readers don’t have time for your pathetic subtlety.”

I may be doing some SEO work for this company at some point, so I may write about them again.

cheers -Ryan

Are focused, niche bookmarking websites the future of the Web?

Several weeks ago, I bumped into http://sphinn.com/ a self-described, “Internet Marketing & Discussion Forum.” Unlike Digg, Furl, Reddit, Technorati and others, Sphinn accepts links for a relatively narrow group of subjects. Topics related search marketing (SEO, PPC etc.), online marketing and social media will make it onto Sphinn.

I was immediately hooked. Sphinn is nirvana to someone like me who is interested in online marketing. It gives me exactly what I want. I don’t have to dig through a bunch of posts on topics that I don’t like, I don’t have to search some huge website for the most relevant tags or categories. By definition, Sphinn contains the most relevant topics for me.

And from what I can tell it is a professional network. The people who post seem to be knowledgeable about their topics, I haven’t seen any flame wars or nasty attacks (I haven’t been using the network for a few weeks, so perhaps, I just haven’t found the flame wars?)

**Update: Ok, I was being a little naive. There does seem some name calling and flaming, here and there on Sphinn.

I can’t help but wonder if smaller networks like Sphinn are the future of social bookmarking. Don’t many people want to quickly and easily find targeted information on the subjects they are interested in? Don’t you?

And, of course, for times when not in the mood, you can always take a nice random walk down stumbleupon.

Update: 8/5/08: Andy Hagans, from Tropical SEO has compiled a useful list of social niche websites.