7 Habits of Highly Successful Linkbaiters
What makes a good linkbaiter so successful?
1) Highly successful linkbaiters understand how to step outside the box and they’re always thinking about interesting ways to twist existing ideas.
2) They realize people are emotional animals and prone to click on content that moves them in some way.
3) They realize that increasingly shorter attention spans means they consistently have to find new and creative ways to present information; they do this by interacting with people, creating discussions and taking advantage of situations to generate ideas.
4) They write articles they’re interested in.
5) They make the most out of any link-worthy opportunity they get.
6) They’re masters at reusing and reworking old ideas, as well as creating new ones.
7) They aren’t afraid to share and discuss ideas with others in their community.
Now, you may not consider yourself a master linkbaiter, but the first step lies in taking advantage of their habits and the knowledge they share with others.
Here are several ways to generate content that’s linkbait-worthy, as mentioned by Brent Csutoras at SMX 2008:
“Top” X Lists: e.g. Top 10, Top 5
These are highly effective, but they’re starting to get a little overused. Try an article like 10 Best Ways to Do Y instead of Top 10 Ways to Do Y. Don’t be afraid to mix it up and experiment.
How-To Content
This goes back to writing about what you know. Help people get the information they want. Avoide long blocks of text and overly wordy sentences. Make them easy to read, straightforward and to the point. Avoid fluff. Make sure you’re writing something targeted towards your specific audience.
Current Events
Write about what’s happening now. Be accurate, be fast. Make sure your information is correct and make it clean. Add your point of view to make it interesting so its not just regurgitated content. Offer your reaction and opinions.
Offbeat or Extreme
Weird, offbeat ideas are highly effective. Remember the infamous bear attack video? Everyone loves something that’s weird. Be careful if you’re working for a company though; make sure anything weird or offbeat is approved. If its good, fight for it and tell them why they should use it.
Image/Video
Images and video are gold when it comes to linkbait. Image and video posts will get traffic twice as fast as anything else if they’re good.
