Inbound links, everyone needs them, well, that is anyone interested in gaining any type of good organic ranking with major search engines. There are numerous ways that we can get inbound links, but today, I want to focus on probably one of the toughest, yet most effective way to build ‘natural' links - link baiting.
So what is link bait? Link bait refers to anything on a website that encourages links from other websites. What's required is great content - and as long as you nail that, the inbound links will follow.

So here are my steps to planning and deploying a successful link baiting campaign. The greatest thing about link baiting is that you don't need any technical expertise, just creativity - because creativity matters.

Research to identify your ‘linkerati'. Your linkerati, simply put, is anyone who you think will be willing to link in with you. This can be anything surrounding your niche or any communities interested in your niche - Blogs, Newspapers, Forums, Social Networking Communities - the list goes on. It is absolutely imperative that you get this element right or else you may engage with the wrong audience and the link bait will inevitably fail. A couple of my favourite ways to identify linkerati is to search through Technorati or Google Blog Search for top blogs and forums that surround a topic similar to your niche/target groups. If you were to type in for example, top 10 business blogs, you will nearly always find someone who has already done the work for you and compiled a list...perfect!
Ok - so you've done your research, you've found some great target communities, some incredibly targeted blogs that you know will be dying to hear about what you've got to say - now you need content - Really good content. I will give you a list of the types of content that work extremely good as link baits:

•Give information away for free (like this page - a resource, a useful page)
•Shock Tactics - something that sparks a shock movement, or anything that's very diverse. A good example of this is having a ‘heated' discussion with someone with different viewpoints or blogging about something that is ‘against the system'
•‘How To' Guides
•‘101 Ways To
Brainstorm, Brainstorm and more Brainstorming! At this stage you need the ‘idea', the award winning concept, the idea that will gain you numerous, quality, inbound links. Haemorrhage every last drop of your creative juice, do no discount any ideas, and write them all down, no matter how radical. Normally around 10 ideas are enough.
At this stage you have identified your ‘linkerati', you have come up with your concept and have an arsenal of ideas that could potentially be worth using as a link bait - now it's time to sift through your ideas and find the winners. At this stage I personally use the old fashion list of pro's and con's of each idea. Is an idea more ‘seasonally' related, is the idea not quite right for your product/service? - weigh up all pro's and con's and choose the winner - you may have a list of 2 or 3 that you'd like to use - try and focus on one at a time.
Position your content - create a new page on your website (in maybe your news/blog section?) - write your content carefully, check and re-check it and get other peoples opinions on it before you launch it.
Distribution of your link bait - this is again a vital step that you simply cannot afford to get wrong. You have your linkerati, begin signing up to these blogs and forums - post a new thread/post surrounding your link bait - give them an idea of what its about - a teaser, make them go and view your page. Think about this process. It doesn't just stop at blogs and forums, use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to network your link bait to friends and colleagues. Another great way is to utilise Social Bookmarking - this is a terrific way to hit hundreds if not thousands of targeted people. Just ensure you do your research.

If you follow the above steps with absolute precision, the links will follow. Inbound links are the most influential factor when it comes to search engines deciphering where you rank - so take your time, do it right and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

Posted: 05/08/10 07:49