del.icio.us
Now we are very lucky at Venture Skills to be able to pull on a copywriter for our clients (but I’m cheap scate so you get me for the blog) most sites are not so lucky, however there are hundreds of tutorials on writing good Linkbait out there some go deep into branding and how focus your users on pages and sites, some look to women magazines for help. What ever your method this is article is about what to do when it fails…
Most people who write linkbait fail to get it of the ground normally this is down to just a couple of problems.
- Your title sucked
- Your content sucks
- Who are you again?
Now the fourth you had bad luck.
Your title sucked
On sites like Digg you have to just live with the fact that the only thing that you control is a title (unless you submitted it yourself) and if the submitter thinks the title sucks he can change that to, If you are looking for inspiration on titles check out copyblogger 10 headline post which is now the de facto tutorial on writing headlines.
Your Content sucks
Can you write? some times its not the headline, visitors arrive and then leave in seconds your title pulled them in but your content let you down. If your content writing skills are not great, have a look at the various tutorials out there before looking at any Linkbait specific ones. General writing tutorials will provide you with the basics and hopefully will help also help you structure and understanding how to make content flow. After the basics look to the big bloggers for hints and tips both Darren from problogger and Brian from Copyblogger have tutorials on writing. But specific tips include.
- Proof read your posts - If its going to be linkbait get it proof read
- Learn from the best - Check out semoz and similar blogs to see how the top of the industry linkbait
- Ask for help - Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and never be to low to beg for links to your content
Who are you again?
This is the biggest problem for many new bloggers and linkbaiters in any of the larger niches you are competing with your peers, who have formed nice neat social groups, the web is a like the playground so its time to join some groups. If you want to get to the front page of Digg you probably best participating in Digg the same goes with all the social sites, by participating rather then just spamming you will find that users react to your posts more favourably as your a known entity, the same goes with forums and mailing lists become known. But for most the way to gain exposure should be participating in blogs and blog comments, want people to visit your site? Have you visited theirs? seriously participate with blogs, comment, use trackbacks make sure you engage with other bloggers sites and you will be rewarded for it.
You can also try the social profiling sites linkedIN, myspace etc to start building a brand for yourself, your name or your blogs name is your brand so don’t forget to use it.
Final Word
Your first 10 linkbaits have failed, stop linkbaiting start writing. Proof read, write good headlines, be inspired, and make sure your participate in the conversations.
Update
I was posting a comment at Cornwall SEO blog a minute ago and realised I hadn’t discussed the possibility that your linkbait may have failed simply because you were attracting the wrong audience. The whole of this post is about stop worrying about linkbaiting per say and think about writing, and this is probably even more important when you are discussing audiences. While one audience may find the anti Microsoft jokes appealing another won’t so make sure you know who your targeting, as you can never target everyone.
A final point, if you just had a run of bad luck, well thats life, but could all 10 failed attempts be bad luck? have you broken a mirror or something?
All our Posts are audio subscribed for more information see here, and to access the podcast feed here
This blog is moving soon, make sure you move with us by using our Feedburner RSS feed, if you have used the autodiscovery button in your browser you may need to swap feeds, simply delete the old feed and add, http://feeds.feedburner.com/VentureSkills For a more detailed explanation on feeds and recieving our content in various formats click here
Subscribe to our Feedburner RSS Today!
Subscribe to our Odiogo Audio Feed
February 16, 2007 at 3:03 pm
The tip to remember to think about writing as well as you can I think is important. You can have the best title on the most interesting topic but if you’re content is plain rubbish you are going to struggle to attract links
February 16, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Kelvin your right, but its amazing how much rubbish makes it on web… just look at this post!
February 16, 2007 at 4:31 pm
You discuss an excellent point. Many people focus so much on linkbaiting that they start prioritizing incoming links and traffic instead of the content they write.
Also, even if linkbaiting works and one gets several links from well-written sites, if the content is not good, people will not come back later.
February 16, 2007 at 9:39 pm
[...] The Venture Skills Blog is your linkbait not working? try writing instead [...]
February 17, 2007 at 2:12 am
[...] The Venture Skills Blog is your linkbait not working? try writing instead [...]
February 18, 2007 at 1:02 am
I agree, there should be an emphasis on proofreading, even for posts where you do not hire a professional. Know the difference between it’s and its; your and you’re; they’re, their, and there. Even just knowing that will go a long way in making your post look more professional.
February 27, 2007 at 12:11 am
cheap scate= cheap skate
per say=per se
Proofreading is very important
(Do I win the anally retentive prize?)
February 27, 2007 at 12:40 am
yep, of course those were deliberate mistakes to see if people were paying attention….
…yeah right!
March 5, 2007 at 7:09 am
[...] The Venture Skills Blog is your linkbait not working? try writing instead [...]
March 7, 2007 at 12:01 am
I suppose I am horribly naive. But I do have to wonder what the point of all this is (although I do understand the point of clicks to make money if that is the primary motivation). Why do you want to put out a blog and just have a bunch of “me toos” reading it and dittoing comments. This is what the Far Left and Far Right political blogs do. There is a whole cadre of ditto heads. My feeling is–so what?
I wish there was better writing out there–and people would seek out what is there–rather than just try to get links, traffic.
An example of how this traffic optimization actually stilts good writing: A good title is not necessarily one that is good for the search engines. Spelling out the search term and repeating the whole thing in the first paragraph is often compromising oneself in a creative sense–for the sake of traffic–and of course force sprinkling key words though out the thing is–and forced links to a popular blog, etc.
The whole Digg thing is suppose to be the community determining what is a good article. But, as you make abundantly clear–it is not–everyone is playing games. And I get the offers–add me as a friend and we will digg each other, etc.–and I actually read money is exchanging hands for diggs.
I think it is kind of sad. I wish more people would do some deep trawling. Often the “A-list” blogs aren’t worth a bucket of warm spit–but there are some gems down in the Z’s.
~Becky
March 7, 2007 at 12:16 am
I was so tempted to post “me to” but Becky I think on the whole you are right but people can tell good from bad, though Digg is very much blind sheep being led by lemmings much of the time.
Your comment regarding titles is spot on and if nothing else, you can thank Digg and other sites for reinforcing the use of human titles rather then my amazing keyword rich stuffed keyword isn’t it great keyword style keyword title
However to answer your specific question of what’s the point. Link bait is a piece of copy that other people will want to link to and therefore increase the number of inbound links to your site. Digg is often used as a means to reach an audience who, hopefully writes about your own site on their own and provide links. These links help both with search engine rankings and targeted traffic specific to your subject.
Digg is the middle man and not the target in link bait. If I’m planning to write a piece that I think is good enough for Digg I will make sure the comments are switched off around the 50 Diggs mark to avoid the me to’s post Digg re-enable comments.
But remember link bait is about making content that people want to link to and given your writing it in a subject that is natural to your site it will not be out of place or in the long run draw to many un-targeted visitors.
September 22, 2007 at 2:29 am
[...] Is your linkbait not working? essay composition instead… Life after unification device failure [...]