With link bait, the first important thing is inspiration, then comes an idea. There is no way you can brainstorm something really good without being inspired. This quick post actually aims at inspiring you: I hope it works.
There are many types of link baiting content; they have one thing in common: none of them is 100% working. Even with some solid investment, brilliant idea and good implementation, you can never be sure it works as well as you expected.
This is why to get the feel of what a link bait actually is, I’d recommend to start with something rather simple but fun:
- Timely link bait is usually easier to promote;
- Timely link bait doesn’t have to be anything fancy to be well received.
Need an example to get inspired? I have three for you.
Table of Contents
1. Get Rid of RipOffReport from the SERPS
Remember those endless discussions about how RipOffReport is unfairly ranked too high by Google, how it allows fake negative reports which spoil the reputation of good businesses?
It was a great time for Distilled to launch a campaign encouraging people to “to have Google do something about these shake-downs.”
They also had the set of pretty badges for people to show off their support…
Isn’t it genius?
2. Bring Back Links
Too much talking about how people “vote” by linking to other pages, how linking can bring your competitors above you in SERPs and how links “to bad neighborhoods” can get you into trouble has had one logical outcome: people no more want to link out at all.
Another reason why people don’t link any more is microblogging: “suddenly everyone stopped linking to each other and began sharing stuff on Twitter.”
What a perfect timing for someone to create a campaign to bring links back which is exactly what Danny Cooper did:
And yes, I joined 🙂
3. SEMMY Awards NON-Nominee
SEMMY Awards honoring best content on various Internet Marketing topics have been a great success this year. Many were nominated, but most people weren’t.
So what a great idea to honor that “unlucky” majority by creating a fun badge for them?
None of the above examples is absolutely unique or has some never-heard-before concept behind it. But they are still cool because they reflect the thoughts of many people in the industry and thus are doomed to positive response.
Now, has this post inspired you to create some simple, topical and timely link bait? Share your ideas in the comments! I promise to help everyone who decided to have some link baiting fun after reading this post.
Img by Aaron_M
