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Rand mentioned that there are multiple types of linkbait, those that are known as controversial and those which are informational or comprehensive. I view them both as being in the same category though...evoking emotions and thus links. :)

I just updated my ebook again. I added quite a bit of information about designing / creating / formatting / packaging / launching / and marketing link bait. While it will surely change in future versions, here is some tips from the current version, similar to my recent WMW Pubcon talk on viral marketing.

Link Baiting

The idea of link baiting is to create a piece of content which is centered on a set demand from a specific audience. Who do you want to relate to? Why would they care? What would make them likely to spread your idea?

For example, Salary.com sponsored research stating that work at home moms did $134,121 worth of work each year. Because it was packaged as research and a story people would want to spread it spread far and wide.

Some common link baiting techniques

Controlling Your Message

• Some book authors do not create an official page about their book on their site, and thus just give away the link equity and top ranking to an online bookstore.
• Many people use Surveymonkey or some other 3rd party voting service when they create contests and polls. If you can include the voting script on your site you keep that link authority associated with your site even after the poll closes and people no longer talk about it.

Magnetic Headlines

Me Me Methe Selfish Web

• Many bloggers search for links to their blogs on Technorati or Google Blog Search multiple times each day (I typically do).
• Calling out specific people, especially with humor, is an easy way to build linkage data.
• Digg frequently has homepage stories about Digg or Digg users.
• People are more likely to believe and spread messages which reinforce their world view.

• Asking people for feedback can help others feel ownership in your idea, and is a way to pitch them on your idea without looking sleazy pitching it.

Seeding Your Idea

• Ensures 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.

Launching a Static Site

Even if your site is fairly static in nature you can still create a buzz when you launch it.

• Interview partners on another channel.
• Announce the launch.
• Add linkbait to the site at a later point in time.

Formatting Link Bait

• Perception is more important than reality.
• Most writing is quite wasteful in nature, because you have to trim off much of what you create.
• By creating ordered lists of factoids an incomplete story can look well researched, even if it is not. For example, if you make a list of 101 ways to do x people may give a few ideas and some feedback, but nobody is going to sit and list 383 ways to do x.

Monetizing Link Bait

• People who pay attention to the active portions of the web are far more likely to be web publishers than those who do not.
• Even if people do not link to your link bait idea right away you still gain mindshare and brand recognition amongst a group of people who have significant authority.
• Many search engines, such as Google, use authority centric relevancy algorithms. Editorial links are seen as votes or signs of trust.
• In Google, getting a link to any part of your site will help make all pages on your site more authoritative.

Bubbling Up

Don't Compete With Yourself

Be careful what you name your link bait ideas. If your link bait is well executed and targets keywords important to other pages on your site the link bait will likely outrank your other pages in the search results.
My SEO for Firefox page nearly outranks my homepage in Google for SEO.

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Aaron Wall is the author of SEO Book, an ebook offering the latest
search engine optimization tips and strategies. From SEOBook.com Aaron
gives away free advice and search engine optimization tools. He is a
regular conference speaker, partner in Clientside SEM, and runs the
Threadwatch community.