Lots of B2B companies don’t know what to do with social media, first of all it’s new, so the pool of people who are immersed in it and totally get it is small. It’s growing everyday but it’s still a pretty narrow niche of expertise. Secondly it’s wildly unpredictable. A lot of potential clients are “scared” because a) they don’t have a sense of humor b) are very conservative by nature c) they don’t think they can relate to the audience or some combination of those factors. While not every B2B client can take advantage of social media, and some are definitely harder than others, IMHO I think everyone can play in the space, and here are some examples.

Let’s say you have a client who makes accounting software, pretty boring stuff, I mean really who wants to read about accounting software. As a consultant my recommendation is to pull back and widen your focus until you find a spot that reaches the linkerati. All right but enough theory lets show a concrete example of what I mean. How about a post like “Tips for Making Small Business Accounting Easier”. What you’d want to do is give tips that apply to any accounting software not just the one your client is selling. Want something a little more focused on the linkerati, how about “Accounting Software Tips & Tricks for Independent Web Consultants”. I know I hate anything to do with book keeping and accounting so I’d link to somebody who had something to share that made my life that little bit easier.

Ok somebody’s thinking, software heh that’s easy what about something not connected to computers but still B2B like say a cleaning service. Why not do something like photo contest with messy cubicles. Maybe you want something a little more serious, how about “How Keeping a Germ Free Workplace Increases Productivity” or play the green card (not that green card) with “Environmentally Friendly Ways to Reduce Office Waste”. Are any of those going to get you new clients, probably not, but if you are creative enough you can get the right anchor text, and at the very least build some domain authority.

I was taught in school that you should give three examples however I’m having a really hard time not touching somebody who’s a past/current/future client or something related to one of my own sites. However if you’re stuck and totally can’t think of something, come say hi and talk to me at the next conference, and maybe I’ll throw some free ideas at you.

PS: In case you totally missed it, introducing yourself and talking to an outlink friendly blogger at a conference about a subject they enjoy, is often pretty effective at scoring some a link or two.

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It is a line of thinking that necessitates doing what is optimal: when to balance user experience with "bot experience" to create a site that will harvest any legitimate traffic without detriment to conversions, or without venturing into areas beyond the given risk threshhold for the project.

Technology and marketing were formerly unique disciplines with very different types of people. SEO’s are the folks in between. In my mind, the reason SEO goes well beyond just search marketing into most areas of business is because search engine marketing IMPACTS many of the decisions that are made in a business. Marketing, infrastructure, customer relations, analytics, accounting, human resources can all directly impact search marketing and vice versa. SEO has become more and more of a strategic vision as top rankings become more competitive, and more valuable. SEO is in large part the communication gap between marketing and IT, combined with top level executive strategy (The only good SEO’s that leave the field at this point, do so to become CEO’s – visual illustration).

This is intended to be an "advanced beginner’s guide" – which is a bit of a paradox, but the idea is that even the most proficient of SEO’s often revisit the basics, and that execution on simple solutions can be very elegant and effective. It will also help to cover many of the things that all too often get overlooked. Executing on basics is the most advanced play in the search engine marketing game. A little secret I’ll let you in on – Even the "SEO Pros" go back to basics – content and links. They’re only pros because these two critical elements have become second nature, and nearly every waking thought is based around how to create mo’ betta content, or get some new links in creative ways.

Even if you understand every single technique available – no matter what play you call – you still have to block and tackle to reach the endzone and score your top rankings. The most proficient SEO’s realize that search ranking, branding, marketing strategy, conversions, and postive conversations consist of two major elements – CONTENT and LINKS.

Content

User Experience and content organization

The user experience should be concise, and simple. Simple is elegant. You can have multitudes of functionality locked within a extremely simple streamlined interface. Read Don’t make me think, and the Big Red Fez.

Key tips with site architecture:

1. User architecture and bot architecture don’t need to be identical. A bot will determine the heirarchy of a site through it’s link structure. A user will determine the heirarchy of a site through the placement of the main navigational elements.

2. Search engines are becoming extremely proficient at incorporating semantics into link structure. Keeping a site sectioned into themes is extremely important. The importance of internal anchor text to this factor is rarely over-rated.

3. Internal search is incredible for gathering data on your site.

Resources for understanding information architecture, and balancing the user experience with the bot experience:

• User expectations for common ecommerce elements
• Search engine theme pyramids

Content Creation

Keyword based content

Creating content specifically to rank for keywords. This is a borderline practice, depending on the intelligence level of the content. A thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters could lookup and change content based on a set of words.

User generated content

The beauty of web 2.0 – people decide to connect together to do something. Whether it’s worthwhile or otherwise, two heads are very often better than one, and conversation is the backbone of the web.

How to content

Everyone loves to know how to do something. I really wish I could download things like "how to do your own plumbing", and be able to figure it out. Someday, perhaps a well optimized and informative video will be able to do that.**

**after publishing Rob pointed me to these installation resources on Vintage Bath and Tub (who have some cool clawfoot tubs) – great examples of howto content

Blog content

Write what you know. Talk about a relevant, cohesive topic.

Linkbait content

Make a GREAT idea even better. Be remarkable.

Commodity content

Sometimes cheap content is better than no content. Don’t be lazy.

Content Resources:

• 10 Web Tools to Help Generate Blog Content Ideas
• Adding content pages – 78 possible topics – Jim
• Can your content pass a hand check – Martinibuster_
• Content Planning for Search Engine Optimization – SEO by the SEA
• Content to create links – SEW
• Read Copyblogger through twice
• Directory of Government RSS Feeds _ Threadwatch.org
• Fifty (50!) Tools which can help you in Writing – lifehack.org
• Search’s Long Tail
• The Long Tail_ SEO Tips
• When Unique Content Is Not “Unique” – Sugarrae
• Finding Hidden Content – Content idea – RogerD’s notebook
• Editing Press Releases
• Writers’ Block_ Breaking Out With Ten Simple Ideas

WebmasterWorld Supporter’s forum:

• 63 Questions to Ask Prior to Building a Content Site
• Content creation What do you know about writing for the web
• Providing Decent Content vs Providing Crap Content

Content Structure:

Duplicate content thinking

LINKS

The "Bot Experience"

"Create a site with your users in mind" has become an oft-quoted mantra of search engine representives when asked about how to rank better in search engines. While the logic is sound, it is also somewhat incomplete. The "experience" that a bot has when visiting your site will often determine the initial experience that a user has with your site as well. Controlling where the bot enters the site, and how the bot "sees" the site is of paramount importance to determining how users will find and navigate through your site.

Information architecture is one of the most overlooked areas of good search marketing. Mainly because it is one of the most difficult areas to retrofit on a site, and it’s extremely difficult for consultants to demonstrate the value to justify the workload needed to overhaul a site.

Link Development

Old is good – Old sites are trusted. Trustrank is a part of the game, and if you don’t believe it you’ve been sleeping. There is no sandbox, there is only the trustbox, and the trustbox emphasizes old, aged links that are on trusted domains that are relevant to your targeted query.

Link equity is the new brand building. Perhaps I’m a bit wrong – link equity, strategy, and development is the new brand building. Brand building and link building should coexist peacefully. Those folks out there that you’re paying $10 – $20 per hour for link building, are building your brand for the future. Why? because a brand is only a google search away these days. If I want to know how strong McDonald’s brand is – I do a google search. Perhaps I’m ahead of the curve, but even Joe sixpack isn’t that far behind me. He knows that google is a verb, and he’ll soon figure out how to change his default search application from windows live to yahoo or google. New brands don’t underestimate the intelligence of their consumers. Default search doens’t "WOW" anyone. Relevance, and information quality does.

Types of links and how to get them. Learn what they are, and how they apply to you. 12 types of links and how to get them.

Article link development

Write articles – submit to various sites based on automation for quantity or personal contacts for quality.

Press link development

Write articles – see above.

Partner link development

Network at conferences, through IM, or email, and make nice with friends.

Affiliate link development

Start an affiliate program with a service that is in the know. Redirect appropriate pages.

Paid link development

Buy text links on relevant sites

Viral link development

This one is probably among the toughest because it is becoming increasingly difficult to do something remarkable that people talk about.

Try learning what linkbaiting means.

Directory link development

Proceed with caution – you don’t need many.

Reciprocal link development

See above.

Link Development Resources:

• Graywolf’s Linkbuilding roundup on TW
• 10 steps to getting links to your site from M$ employee
• 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006 _ SEO Book.com
• 131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies
• A Few Quick Link Building Tips – Jason Hendricks
• Advice_ Increase Email Response Rate _ Justilien.com
• All links are paid – More No-Follow Fallout
• Are You Guilty of Stinkin’ Linkin’ Thinkin’_
• 7 Even More Effective Ways to Build Links SEO Black Hat
• Building an outsourced team of link builders
• Buying Links – O’Reilly In Debate Over Link Selling
• CSS Redesign list – How-to increase your links through a redesign
• Delegating Link Development_ Outsource or In-house_
• Determining the Value of Links from Link Renting
• Does Your Site Have Link Building Potential
• Doing SEO in a Vacuum – natural link development
• Email is Still the Key to a Successful Link Building Campaign – seomoz
• Filthy Linking Rich by Mike Grehan
• Finding Most Relevant Powerful Page for Link from Jim
• Getting Links 1 of 5 – Neil ACSEO
• Google s New Link Filter
• How to Request Links From Picky Sites – mm – seomoz
• Increase Your Link Request Conversion – Don’t Do This!
• Interview of Patrick Gavin
• Jump-start Your Link Building (without Getting Sandboxed) by Andy Hagans
• Link Building 101 – SEW
• Link Building for Blogs Online Marketing Blog
• Link Building Guide – jim westergren
• Link Building Services – How much $$ per link_
• Link Building Strategies – Who To Link To
• Link Building Wiki – Main – Link Building Wiki
• link building with affiliate programs — does it work_
• Link Building with Landing Pages_ a basic guide
• Link Popularity and Link Building Basics-Linking101.com
• LinkHounds – Great Link Building Tips & Link Popularity Tools
• Linking Strategies that work in 2005
• Linking Strategies, items 1 to 50
• List of Searches for Link-Popularity Building
• Natural Backlinks – Getting backlinks without even asking. – Jim Boykin
• Natural link paterns – How “Internet Phenomenon” Gain Links Over Time
• Recommendations on Content to Attract Links
  Secrets from Debra M
• SEOmoz – Unconventional Link-Building Ideas
• SEOmoz Blog _ 5 Rare & Valuable Link BuildingTactics
• SEOmoz Blog _ Long List of Link Searches
• SEOmoz Blog _ What a Good Link Request E-Mail Looks Like
• Seth’s Blog_ What makes an idea viral_
• The Link Building Knowledge Base by Andy Hagans @ www.linkbuilding.info
• Threads of the Web – Linking for Success
• Threadwatch to Build Killer Link Analysis Tool

Linkbaiting

• 21 KEYS TO LINK BAIT SUCCESS
• Blogger Relations 101 – Lee – How to pitch a blogger
• How to Attract Links and Increase Web Traffic The Ultimate Guide
• I Just Hired A Billion Linkbuilders _ Scoreboard
• Link Bait – jim westergren
• Linkbaiting or Link Baiting Strategies – Aaron Wall
• Linkbaiting or Link Baiting
• Linking The Unlinkable_ When Digg Won’t Work
• Viral Marketing With Blogs _ Copyblogger
• What is Linkbait

Webmasterworld Link Development Threads

• Bad Webmaster – No Donut for You!
• Basic Link Dev Strategies
• Buying text links
• Confessions of a Link Building Casanova
• Explaining to Clients How to Get Links
• How can I get inbound links
• How much to quote for link building_
• It’s time to get some new links!
• Link Development in the Blogosphere
• Link Development Persona_ Male Versus Female
• Link Development Post Toolbar PR
• Link Development Strategies In the Age of Sandbox
• Link Development vs. Traffic Development and Staying with the Times
• Link Strategies To Build Presence and Gain Exposure
• New Link Spamming Technique
• Promoting deep linking
• Quality Content as Passive Link Development
• Research your Competition
• The Art Of Persuasion in Link Exhange Requests
• The Dark Side of Exchanging Reciprocal Links
• Buying Links – ‘Staying under the Radar’

Supporter’s Forum (worth every penny of membership)

• How many new links per month to be on the safe side
• Things to watch out for when outsourcing link development
• Tips For Attaining One Way Inbound Links
• If I was a search engine, part 1…
• "Triangular" link exchange
• Brainstorm On How To Get One Way I.B. Links
• Employing Link hunters
• Hints from Search Engine Engineers about Links
• Link Patterns
• The text link market
• They Handy Dandy [Sponsoredy] Linky Getting Guidy
• Paid Links – Is it time to take it seriously_
• Part 2 Explaining to Clients How to Get Links

Welcome to the Rabbit Hole Alice – Resources for those figuring out what SEO really is.

You can take the blue pill or the red pill. The blue pill will take you back to your cozy desk job coding for the man, and the red pill might lead you to insomnia induced by ideas of how to turn your startup into a real company using only your laptop combined with some technical and marketing skills, and a realistic gameplan to pull it off. Or you might end up going from self employed to unemployed real quickly.

The first converstation I have with folks generally consists of them asking some questions about what SEO is. If they are REALLY interested, and get beyond thinking about the fact that I tell them meta tags generally don’t matter much, I would guess it feels a bit like Alice falling down the rabbit hole. I am still overwhelmed with information overload on a daily basis, and this is after over about 6 years of studying and experimenting with SEO techniques on a daily basis. I think the information overload stems from having so many opportunities to apply the information, as well as trying to keep up and evolve process with emerging opportunities. Digesting, managing, and even thriving on the information overload is extremely important in a business built on timely, relevant information.

Here’s where to start with your SEO Training if you’d prefer the red pill:

• SEO Glossary
• SEO Beginner’s Guide
• Google hot topics (Tedster is truly amazing)
• Search Engine Ranking Factors V.2
• SEO Tools
• SEO Tools 2
• SEO Manifesto
• Jim Boykin’s best posts

If that’s not enough, check out Lee’s list of SEO/SEM blogs, or Search through them. 

More resources on site strategy: 18 questions your CEO forgot to ask when building your website

Practice your blocking and tackling every day. Read these long enough, focus on refining tactics, and experimentation, and you’ll always have a team to play for; your clients, vendors, employer, or partners will be dumping the gatorade all over you for being the one that "made it rain".

What resources do you use for your SEO Playbook or your SEO blocking and tackling?

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See that image to right that’s a nudibranch or particular family of sea slugs. I became acquainted with them when I owned a saltwater fish tank many moons ago, but most people have never heard or seen them before. They come in a dizzying array brilliant, vibrant and awe inspiring colors, but the point is if you look hard enough you can find exciting, interesting and cool things all around even sea slugs.

What does all this have to do with linkbaiting? Well I’m continually coming across people who don’t think linkbaiting can be used to their boring clients such as carpet cleaners, when I came up with five ideas in less than 15 minutes. Lots of people are taking this position. In fact I was listening to Eric Ward on SEO Rockstars yesterday who echoed similar sentiments. Now don’t fire up the blogs with title’s like “Graywolf vs Link Moses in Smackdown” cause I’m so not going there.

In that episode of rockstars Eric talks about a lot of “traditional” link building strategies, while extremely “unsexy”, they are to be ignored at your own peril. However the point he brings up, which is brought up by others, and that I disagree with is how to effectively do linkbait for B2B based businesses. Not everything can be linkbaited, but there are very very few of those unabaitable sites. Example, how would I do linkbait a funeral home? Maybe we’d find a way to put an apple logo on coffin, or do sick PC case mod tutorial with a real coffin, maybe a photo based content piece with headstones of computing pioneers who’ve passed like Alan Turing or Seymour Cray. What about the example from SEO Rockstars of industrial ball bearing lubricants? Girls in Bikini’s wresting in anything slippery is a safe bet, but maybe your client doesn’t like things that risqué. Lets grease up a tarp with your lubricant and have a contest video taping college kids trying to get across without falling for a $500 prize? Need another, put your lubricant on hill and push things like a Yugo or Gremlin down the greasy hill and have them smash into a brick wall. How about something with less production value, coat everyday items in your slippery goo and ask people to grab/hold/pickup those items outside your local Starbucks for a $10 gift card.

Now to the question are any of those links going to directly result in sales, probably not. However what they will do is get you links from places your clients competitors sites don’t have and will have a harder time duplicating. Lastly in an age of the data mining Google borg and increasingly personalized SERP’s if you don’t think there’s any value in getting your URL flowing through as many toolbars and into as many Google bookmark accounts as possible I don’t know what to tell you.

So let’s wrap this all up, linkbaiting is not a substitute for developing a good foundation of solid, on topic, relevant, traditional links. Ignoring things such as trusted directories, reputable trade groups and organizations, or complimentary business partners is foolish. Instead think of linkbaiting as icing on the cake, that little extra bit on top that makes everything that little bit more attention grabbing and exciting.

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Yesterday, we looked at link buying and the potential pitfalls that could ensue should one choose to pursue that method of obtaining links. If link buying isn

Leveraging Widgets For Links

“The holy grail of linkbaiting in 2007 will be the widget,” writes Wilson in a recent SearchEngineLand column. He knows a thing or two about creating a popular widget. Wilson’s Performancing Blog Editor Firefox extension has been downloaded half a million times.

The evolution from linkbait to widgetbait probably owes a lot to broadband, and the success of interactive applications in recent months. In the beginning, linkbait was textual in nature, not only requiring tremendous creativity and writing/presentation ability, but also consistent pressure on the pulse of the Web. And that makes it more difficult, especially on a network now thriving on video and games.

What it didn’t require was money, and the limited shelf life (i.e., sudden, short bursts of in-coming links) was a tight fit for the investment. Textual linkbaiting has entertainment value, but utility provides more long-term results. And utility costs money. Nonetheless, the successor to textual linkbait, the on-site tool developed from functional scripts.

But the beauty of the widget, though it takes traffic away from your page unlike the on-site tool (which slips into obsolescence relatively quickly) is that people can take your brand with them, embed it into a browser or dashboard, and, if they love it, tell everyone they know to get one. Voila! Lots of sustainable link love that recycles itself every time you update the widget.

Of course, widget development can be costly – and risky if it goes nowhere. We have a similar, if more expensive, predicament as before. Textual linkbait can be developed and dropped into that great digital pond to see if it floats for next to nothing, so the high failure rate is a non-issue.

But Wilson makes a good point about reciprocal linking, link farms, link buying, link trading, and “link begging.” They are low-cost, time-consuming, high-risk practices that could get your site flagged by the search engines and dropped in rank. A good widget could build those ever-important links in a much more timely and legitimate way.

“So with the creation of cool, linkable content — linkbait — you get anything from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of incoming links from a huge variety of sources. The result of which, if done right, equals targeted traffic, greatly improved search engine rankings and a healthier, less fragile linking profile for the site in question.”

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Do YOU really like reading press releases anymore? Wouldn’t you rather spend that time reading something fun, entertaining, insightful, interesting, or informational? Let’s take a look at the different hooks available to linkbaiters (or viral marketer’s if you prefer that school of thought), and hope that you can find an angle to approach link acquisition for YOUR business.

In the original post that coined the term linkbaiting, Nick Wilson mentions 5 linkbaiting “hooks”:

• News hook
• Contrary Hook
• Attack Hook
• Resource Hook
• Humour Hook

I’d like to add a few new hooks to Mr. Wilson’s fine original observations – the “ego hook”, and the “incentive hook”, which I’ll gladly review and exemplify below. The common thread with linkbaiting is that you MUST be remarkable ala Seth Godin’s Purple Cow - if you can’t bait with stuff that people will talk about, then go back to link begging. Make that top 10 list a top 100 list. Spend a few extra hours on research. Go the extra mile on something extraordinary, instead of just something good.

Introduction – A note on titles, target audience, and school of thought.

The importance of good titles cannot be underestimated. For folks take linkbaiting seriously take titlebaiting seriously as well, and understand that a great title is half the battle of a successful linkbait campaign. I suggest several reads and references to CopyBlogger’s headline formulas from his magnetic headlines series. Studying direct marketing headlines, as well as sales letters by Dan Kennedy will probably help as well. Create your own headline swipe file. Please don’t forget to include some quality anchor text if possible, since the goal is to have it linked to often, the title will be used as the link in many cases. Understanding your audience is critical to knowing what will succeed as well, but if you can’t figure that out, I would suggest you search for a different career path.

Linkbaiting IS NOT Viral Marketing

Linkbaiting and Viral Marketing have a lot in common, but I’m gonna let you in on a little secret – they’re NOT the same. The goal of viral marketing is exposure and branding. The goal of linkbaiting is links! The process may be very similar but the measurement of success is quite different. Exposure is great, branding is grand – but without successfully obtaining a quantity and quality of backlinks from a campaign linkbait is a failure. We MEASURE with technorati and yahoo, and an understanding of link value. The indirect value of these links for search rankings and targeted traffic from search engines is what linkbaiters crave. For more on the disconnects between marketing and SEO please see the stunt train seo marketing manifesto

Linkbaiting Hooks Revisited – with NEW Additions!

THE NEWS HOOK

Fast, up to date news on breaking topics with expert commentary on the topic.

Pros of this hook: It’s generally pretty easy to aggregate news and offer commentary. Doing so frequently and with dedication will establish you as an expert.

Cons of this hook: It can be quite time consuming and redundant. You can’t reinvent CNN without getting Doc Brown to help you invent time travel first. If you go too broad you won’t succeed. If you go too niche, you will have a hard time finding a substantial audience.

Ideas for this hook: Go niche. Don’t start another SEO news blog. Jen did it with contextual, Brian Mark is becoming the Oneboxer. Pick a small piece of growing real estate, and make it big by covering every piece of relevant news and nothing else (except your value add commentary). Be the first to report anything.

Examples of the resource hook in action:

• Search Engine Land
• Search Engine Journal
• Search Engine Roundtable

THE CONTRARY HOOK

The contrary hook is generally in the spirit of traditional debate in a public forum. Smart folks can achieve success with the contrary hook debating with friends or associates without taking it to the level of the attack hook

Pros of this hook: People who respect your opinion, but disagree with you are very likely to link to you. People who find the debate interesting or insightful are likely to link to you.

Cons of this hook: You had better be right, or you’re going to take a public thrashing. Check your facts, or you’re going to get whipped like a red-headed stepchild, and have some serious reputation management issues to deal with.

Ideas for this hook: Read throughout your blogosphere, and make sure to have an opinion on everything. Take someone’s post, and become the counterpoint. It generally turns out better if you approach it in a respectful fashion – otherwise you risk running into attack hook territory.

Examples of the contrary hook in action:

Top 10 reasons PPC is better than SEO vs.
Top 11 reasons SEO is better than PPC

11 Rising Barriers To Entry for Small Businesses on the Web vs.
Barriersor Opportunities?

Nofollow – the leper of blogging vs.
5 Reasons I like the nofollow tag

THE ATTACK HOOK

Pros of this hook:Lots of links are given from controversy. The cliche “there’s no such thing as bad press” can certainly be applied to links as well – there’s no such thing as a bad link (okay – for this discussion anyhow wiseguys)

Cons of this hook:It’s not generally fun to make enemies – I don’t really want to sleep with one eye open for some extra links (unless it’s a helluva LOT of links:)

Ideas for this hook: Generally dishonoring some type of closely held belief system works pretty well. You’re on your own here – If you really want to piss people off – I’m sure you can find a way – just make sure you have some good anchor text in your title if you’re gonna sell your soul.

Examples of the attack hook in action:

• Shoemoney is pretty damn good at the attack hook
• Soy makes you gay
• Dave Pasternack on SEO
• Aaron Wall gets sued for blogging
• Political bloggers are exceptionally good at the attack hook (perhaps without even knowing it)

THE RESOURCE HOOK

This is my favorite hook. There are plenty of ways you can truly be a resource. In any industry there is a lot of opportunity for conducting ground breaking research, aggregating important information, filtering important information, increasing productivity, creating widgets, creating tools, and a variety of other things that can establish you as an expert and attract a whole bunch of links at the same time.

Pros of this hook- You can build something useful that you will be referenced for often.

Cons of this hook- It can be very time consuming and monotonous aggregating information into a single source. Someone may figure out a better way to do it while you are in the process. Gaining critical mass and acceptance as the expert may be difficult. It can take a lot of work to do something truly resourceful.

Ideas for this hook: Eric Enge agreed to conduct research based on Rand’s idea for creating a web analytics comparison – and is currently working on it. You can bet it will be one of the most well linked marketing documents of 2007. Eric also did a nice job creating a SEO search, based on Google custom search, which is a great way to approach the resource hook. Write an extensive guide to anything, and spend some time on the research, and delivery format of your research. There’s opportunity for this everywhere.

Examples of the resource hook in action:

• Web 2.0 awards
• Must read search marketing blogs
• Mr. Ploppy’s tools

THE HUMOR HOOK

Write something funny about your industry or the people in it.

Pros of this hook: It’s fun to be the class clown. Everybody needs a good laugh now and then. A little self deprecation is great to show people you don’t really take yourself too seriously.

Cons of this hook: Sometimes a hard sell with higher ups. The likelihood to have a sense of humor is inversely proportional to the size of a company. Everyone may not share your sense of humor.

Ideas for this hook:

• Poke fun at yourself or your company
• Poke fun at the industry
• Jokes about industry slang
• Jokes about common problems in the industry

Examples of the humor hook in action:

• Top 21 signs you need a break from SEO
• 107 t-shirts for geeks that don’t suck
• Web 2.0 company generator
• Top 10 servers in movies
• SEO jokes

NEW! THE EGO HOOK

Everyone loves to talk about themself or read about themself. I think the old saying goes “the sweetest word in any language is the sound of your own name”. I certainly like hearing when people say nice things about me. Offering people significant exposure to express their ideas (IE – giving them a soapbox where people might listen) is a common component of the ego hook. Letting people talk about themselves, their ideas, or their company with your assistance.

Pros of this hook: You can sometimes get links and exposure from big bloggers. Everyone likes to talk about themselves.

Cons of this hook: Some folks have been baited one too many times, and may just ignore you. Nobody really likes a brown noser.

Ideas for this hook: Awards, interviews, sucking up.

Examples of this hook:

• Blog tag – Everyone enjoys talking a bit about themselves, thus the reason this meme spread so well. *Note Michael jumped on the resource hook by aggregating all the information in a single place - nice work.
• Any interview I’ve ever done
• Drinkbait

NEW! THE INCENTIVE HOOK

Pros of this hook: If you give people a motive to talk about you they likely will. Contests have worked for ages.

Cons of this hook: Getting the idea past the legal team. Bloggers sometimes don’t like to be bought (or so they say). Folks on the web are pretty good at sniffing out ulterior motives, and then it turns into trouble.

Ideas for this hook: Scholarships, contests, awards

Examples of this hook:

• SEO scholarship by Andy Beal
• Blogging scholarship
• Reviewme

Closing Notes

• EDIT. EDIT. EDIT.
• Categorize your content into readable well chunked content that folks that skim can read and decide to re-read.
• I can assure you that not very much great bait is written in just a few hours.
• Descriptive pictures certainly help to emphasize the points made in your content.
• TIME your launch effectively with social media submissions

More baity goodness:

• Aaron
• Brian
• Andy
• MLB’s

Shameless self promotion: linkbaiting service

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Todd Malicoat aka Stuntdubl made his first horrible looking website full of animated .gifs in 1997, and after fours years of failure and experimentation ended up in the world of SEO and internet marketing in early 2001. He is currently an independent marketing consultant from the SEO school of thought. Todd earned a bachelors of business adminstration from Northwood University in 2003 while running an web design and consulting firm Meta4creations, LLC. Todd is a speaker at both Webmasterworld and Search Engine Strategies conferences.

Linkbait, as we know it, can be summed up using just one of Nick’s paragraphs

Good linkbait is remarkable. There are many components to good linkbait, and infinite strategies and hooks, but at the end of the day, it boils down to this one thing. Your content needs to be amazing. If you can hit that sweet spot for your audience then the links will roll in, and in, and in, and in.

And what’s the future of linkbaiting? Nick suggests the NYT may have it right, with their article on widgets.

P.S. Here’s a bonus link for Nick’s forthcoming ClickInfluence.

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Andy Beal is an internet marketing consultant and considered one of the world’s most respected and interactive search engine marketing experts. Andy has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies such as Motorola, CitiFinancial, Lowes, Alaska Air, DeWALT, NBC and Experian.

You can read his internet marketing blog at Marketing Pilgrim and reach him at andy.beal@gmail.com.

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

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