Linkbait is a proven method for growing traffic to your blog and increasing your search engine rankings. But sometimes your linkbait might not take off like you hoped it would. In these cases a little bit of creative marketing can make all the difference. Although the whole premise of linkbait is to gain links without all the effort, if it isn’t being seen by anyone you will need to give it a boost.
If your website or blog doesn’t have many readers, even great linkbait can go relatively unnoticed. If this is the case, you need to get a few links and some traffic to get the ball rolling and the momentum should continue if the piece of linkbait is effective.
The goal is to get targeted readers and links from other sites/blogs that also have targeted readers. Focus your efforts on getting other bloggers to the page, because they have the ability, and are the most likely, to link back to you.
Here are Some Ideas:
1. Use StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon can be a terrific source of traffic even if your blog doesn’t currently have a lot of readers. Other social media sites, such as Digg, give websites with large audiences (or users with a lot of “friends”) a big advantage. With Stumble Upon it’s very possible to drive a ton of traffic to your site without already having significant traffic.
After one of your pages gets submitted to StumbleUpon it can continue to get visitors if many users like the content and give it the thumbs up. As a result, quality content can get a lot of exposure quickly, regardless of the source.
Another advantage with StumbleUpon is that the majority of its users are also bloggers themselves, which means it’s possible to get a lot of links as a result this traffic.
In order to maximize your chances of getting traffic from StumbleUpon, you can place buttons on your pages that will remind readers to give it a thumbs up, and to make the process as easy as possible for them.
If your linkbait isn’t getting enough attention with StumbleUpon naturally, you can pay StumbleUpon to bring visitors to your pages. StumbeUpon advertising is affordable, and best of all, it can start a viral reaction. If your paid visitors give your pages the thumbs up it can result in even more traffic, which you will not pay for.
2. Try 2nd Tier Social Media Sites. Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, and del.icio.us aren’t the only social media sites out there. Small sites that are focused on a specific niche can be extremely effective. Best of all, success with one of these sites can lead to success with the major ones. Find a social media sites whose audience would be a good match with your content. (See our list of social media websites).
3. Submit to Blog Carnivals. A blog carnival is a collection of links to blog posts that all cover a certain topic, and it is published on a host blog. Anyone can submit links to be included in blog carnivals (although there is no guarantee the host will include your link). Blog carnivals may not generate a lot of traffic for you, but it’s an easy way to get the first few links and get things rolling. It will only take 5 or 10 minutes to submit your links to several carnivals. For a list of current carnivals, see BlogCarnivals.com.
4. Funnel Traffic from Other Pages on Your Site/Blog. To get more traffic to your linkbait, create some links on other pages of your site that get the most traffic. You can also funnel traffic by including a link in the footer of your RSS feed.
5. Make Reciprocal Link Agreements with Other Bloggers. With a good piece of linkbait it will be easy to find reciprocal link partners. All you need to do is find blogs that you think would be appropriate and email the owner with your request. You could include a link back to them in an upcoming post, your blogroll, or anywhere else. Many bloggers publish a daily or weekly post of interesting links. These bloggers would be good to target.
6. Email Bloggers in Your Network that You Think Might Be Interested. If you have been blogging for any length of time you probably have made some contacts with fellow bloggers who cover the same topics as you. Think about the content and the links that they provide to their readers and decide if you think they would be interested in recommending your post to their readers. If the information in your post would be appreciated by their readers, they may give you a link.
Alternatively, if you don’t have any bloggers in your network that you think would be willing to link to your post, look for others who might be interested. Find a popular blog post on a related topic and do a Technorati search to see who is linking to that specific post. Contact them to let them know about your post and maybe they’ll link to you as well.
7. Leave Comments with the URL of Your Post. When you leave a comment on another blog you are able to leave the URL of your blog. Most people always leave the URL of their homepage, but why not leave some comments with the URL of a specific post? This will work best when you are commenting on blog posts that are related to the one you are linking to.
Now when the blogger or other readers click on your link they will be taken directly to your link bait. Remember, getting bloggers to your linkbait is key, and this is an easy and effective way to do it.
To get the most out of this method, leave some comments on Do Follow blogs (those that have removed “no follow” tags from links in the comments. I have removed the no follow tags on this blog, and you can find a great list of Do Follow blogs on Courtney Tuttle’s D-List.
8. Post a Link in Blogging Forums. You may be able to find some other bloggers that like your post and are willing to link to it by doing a little promotion in forums. If you try this be sure to promote it in a place that allows this type of thing. The best way to do it is to find some threads on the same topic as your post and leave the link as a resource. This way you are providing more information for people who are seeking it rather than just blindly throwing a link out to the forum.
9. Consider a Press Release. Depending on the type of content in your linkbait, you may have some success with a press release. In order for a press release to work you will need to have something very noteworthy. Editors get thousands of press releases each day, so yours needs to be something special.
You can submit free press releases at www.i-newswire.com and www.prbuzz.com.
10. Don’t Follow Up Too Quickly. In order to give your linkbait maximum exposure, consider not publishing another post to keep it high on your front page for a while longer. This way all visitors to your blog front page will see it right away. Also, if you use excerpts you may want to consider temporarily switch to full posts to give visitors a better look at the linkbait.
This strategy should not be used if your readers are used to a regular posting schedule. Keeping your subscribers happy is more important than a little bit of extra promotion on the homepage.
11. Set the Post to be Sticky. By default your blog will show newest posts at the top of your front page. If you want the linkbait to continue to have the most visibility while still publishing new posts, consider making the linkbait sticky, which will keep it at the top of the page. WordPress users can download the Sticky Post Plugin to do the trick.
12. Build a Large del.icio.us Network. Del.icio.us is more than just a tool for managing your own bookmarks. You can add users to your network and other users can add you. When you’re logged in you can see the bookmarks of people in your network and vice versa. This means if you bookmark your own linkbait others may see it and bookmark it too.
This can help you to build links because some del.icio.us users automatically post all of their bookmarks at the end of the day to their blog (it’s a feature that del.icio.us offers). If these users bookmark your linkbait you’ll get a link when it is posted to their blog.
To find del.icio.us users that post to a blog, copy the URL of a few pages that are currently on the front page of del.icio.us (these pages are getting a lot of bookmarks). Tomorrow do a Technorati search to see who has linked to that specific URL. Search through some of the links and you’ll probably find some who have posted their del.icio.us bookmarks. If they are bookmarking pages on topics that are similar to your blog, look around the blog and see if you can find a link to their del.icio.us profile. If you do, add them to your network (you can add me to your network in the sidebar of my blog, although I do not post my bookmarks).
If you have a post that you are hoping to draw a lot of inbound links, try some of these tips and see if you can give it a boost and start the momentum.
38 comments from readers
1 Tay Sep 12, 2007 at 11:15 pm
Your blog is becoming one of my top favorites very quickly. The information you provide is well written, full of great advice, and not the type you see on every other blog in this niche.
Therefore, another fantastic post. While I was reading I was planning to let you know which tactics I agreed with the most, but I do have to say all of them are great!
I will be including this post in my next roundup. Keep up the good work and happy blogging! I enjoy everything you write!
2 Vandelay Design Sep 12, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Thanks Tay. I’m glad you’re finding some things that you like here.
3 Tad Chef Sep 13, 2007 at 4:07 am
Good tips, with one exception: StumbleUpon brings lots of traffic but no links. You don’t need them anymore. It’s the most direct way of SEO. You optimize for direct traffic and cut out the middle man (Google).
4 Adam Donkus Sep 13, 2007 at 9:42 am
@Tad Chef - Do you find you get quality traffic from Stumbleupon that sticks around?
@Stephen - I know quite a few successful bloggers that send out MyBloglog community requests to stumble or digg certain articles, and as long as it is not done too frequently, I usually am glad to help out.
5 Khalid Hajsaleh Sep 13, 2007 at 9:56 am
I have to agree with Tay, your blog is becoming one of my most favorite as well. These are all excellent tips. We have been focusing a lot lately on digg. The results are not at the level where I would like them to be but I will give it few more weeks before giving up.
Khalid
6 david Sep 13, 2007 at 11:01 am
Great tips, but is hard to get the digg, reddit and stumble effect. Got any pointers?
7 DaveRH Sep 13, 2007 at 11:22 am
Getting Dugg, Stumbled or on top of Reddit, is usually just a matter of luck unless you have a lot of friends with high ranking on those sites.
I’ve had several posts from my blog Ancient Standard become popular on StumbleUpon and received a lot of traffic (over 10k uniques for the top stumbled page I had) Unfortunately, my experience is Stumble users are less likely to have a website and less likely to link out to you compared to Digg or Reddit. Out of 10k visits from stumble upon I think I got 2 or 3 link backs…
8 Vandelay Design Sep 13, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Tad Chef,
I have had a few posts that got traffic from StumbleUpon and just about nowhere else, and they got a few links. It’s definitely nothing like getting to the front page of delicious, but I do think some links come through StumbleUpon traffic.
Yes, it’s nice when you can cut out the middleman!
Adam,
Thanks for the point about MyBlogLog. I have never used that, but it seems logical.
Khalid,
Thanks for your positive feedback! I think Digg takes a long time to become a “power user.” Or you just need some luck.
David,
My advice would be to pick one that fits well with the audience of your blog, and focus on that one until you have some success with it. Spend some time seeing what types of content are popular there, and tailor your content to match. Try using some buttons that will encourage your readers to vote for you, but don’t use too many or they won’t really be effective. I would suggest focusing on StumbleUpon. My opinion is that it is the easiest of the bunch.
Dave,
I would agree with you on Digg and Reddit, but I think StumbleUpon is a little bit different. My Digg profile is not that active, so the best way for me to get traffic there is not to submit it myself and hope that someone with more friends submits it. It worked for me once (this week) with big results.
I think your point about StumbleUpon users not having blogs may depend on what categories you are in. I use blogging and internet categories and it seems like almost everyone there has a blog.
9 Make money blogging - Sept 14, 2007 : SuccessPart2.Com Sep 14, 2007 at 1:50 pm
[…] Vandelay Website Design presents Give Your Linkbait a Boost posted at Vandelay Website Design, saying, “Is your linkbait not getting any attention?” […]
10 Pinyo Sep 14, 2007 at 3:47 pm
Thank you for the comprehensive list. I think the effectiveness of social network sites really depend on your site/blog niche. For instance, I don’t really have any business to be posted on Digg, since my site is personal finance related and not technology.
SU works well, but I do not get big wave/links for my blog topic.
11 Vandelay Design Sep 14, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Pinyo,
I definitely agree that social media success is tied to your niche. Digg is a lot more than just technology though. Have you ever tried Reddit or Netscape? I don’t use either, but I know they have a different audience.
12 carnival of struggling bumbling newbies - Sept 15, 2007 : SuccessPart2.Com Sep 15, 2007 at 10:34 am
[…] Vandelay Website Design presents Give Your Linkbait a Boost posted at Vandelay Website Design, saying, “Get some traffic to your linkbait and start getting links.” […]
13 Make money online: Blog Me Cash shows you how Sep 16, 2007 at 4:21 am
[…] Give Your Linkbait a Boost posted by Vandelay Website Design. […]
14 Friday Links: The Best of the Blogosphere Sep 21, 2007 at 9:52 pm
[…] Give Your Linkbait a Boost […]
15 Karthik Oct 4, 2007 at 4:08 am
Second Tier SNW sites are a very good idea.
Also, one other advantage of SU is that even if you get stumbled only once, depending on the user who stumbled you, you gain a lot of pageviews. That is not the case with Digg or Delicious where you have to hit the front page to get traffic, and when it happens, it only serves to break your server IMHO!
16 Case Study of the Mullet Link Bait Strategy << Vandelay Website Design Oct 18, 2007 at 8:28 pm
[…] reasons for using this strategy, which or course are covered in his article. In my case, the link bait that I wanted to use was a list post, and I had just published another list post about a week […]
17 Marco Richter Nov 17, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Thanks for this one, Steven. Missed it back then and just discovered it. I´m going to publish a nice piece of linkbait after the weekend, stay tuned - you´re in it.
18 Vandelay Design Nov 17, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Hey Marco,
I’m interested to see your linkbait. Thanks for including me.
19 99 Ways to Promote Your Blog for Free << Vandelay Website Design Nov 25, 2007 at 11:44 am
[…] Create link bait […]
20 Michael Dec 9, 2007 at 5:08 pm
First I’m glad I found your site, I think through a blog directory, of which I have bookmarked for reference. I like your del.icio.us idea of tracking down users or bloggers via technorati to add to your del.icio.us network. I have not made any real use of del.ico.us, as I could not see any identifiable interactive sections such as forums, blogs, etc, as in the social media sites.
I found I got stumbled recently with about a 25 x increase in visitors. I had signed up about four months earlier, and never really got involved with stumbleupon - in fact I had forgotten I had signed up. But I think perhaps about 50 % are ‘useful” hits (in terms of visitor times on the site) after analyzing the hits in Google analytics. I think this suggests I need a bit of redesign of my site or simplify it a bit. My question is, does being stumbled improve your site’s ranking within Google’s indexing system? I see stumbleupon adds a icon and review links to sites that have been stumbled, when you do a Google search. Does this suggest then, that those sites have a greater chance of being ranked by Google?
21 99 Ways to Promote Your Blog for Free at FireMy.com Dec 16, 2007 at 12:24 am
[…] Create link bait […]
22 Anak Medan » Blog Archive » Garis Besar Cara Promo Website Dec 28, 2007 at 6:33 am
[…] Bikin link bait […]
23 Promote Your Blog - Best Techniques : BlogSandwich News Bites Jan 6, 2008 at 10:05 am
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24 Techniques to Promote Your Blog : BlogSandwich News Bites Jan 6, 2008 at 10:06 am
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25 Roadmap to Riches Jan 27, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Great post thinks!
26 Road Map to Riches Jan 27, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Thanks for the great info!
27 links for 2008-02-18 oggin.net Feb 17, 2008 at 5:26 pm
[…] Give Your Linkbait a Boost | Vandelay Website Design Linkbait is a proven method for growing traffic to your blog and increasing your search engine rankings. But sometimes your linkbait might not take off like you hoped it would. In these cases a little bit of creative marketing can make all the difference. (tags: bait blog building Link Linkbait) […]
28 Javier Mar 15, 2008 at 8:43 am
Thank you very much! I hate nofollow
webmaster esta2.com
29 Mar Matthias Darin Mar 18, 2008 at 11:04 am
Great site. The tips are very useful. I use stumbleupon though I’m not sure it provide a good source of traffic anymore. They seem to be going downhill recently.
30 m4Aark__ » Want Your Blog To Be Famous? Try These Methods ( 100 Free Promotion Methods ) Apr 3, 2008 at 1:33 am
[…] Create link bait […]
31 Coondog(screen) Apr 5, 2008 at 9:32 am
Your Article is GREAT!
32 Rocky Apr 5, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Very good Article. Good Title too, that is what caught my eye.
I have alot of good stuff too! Check my site out at http://rockystore.2ya.com Their is no “S” after the http.
33 Yanto May 7, 2008 at 6:32 am
This is a good blog for me to learn. But I am still a beginner. Still hard to understand. But at least it has given me a better understand about promoting a blog.
34 Vaibhav May 12, 2008 at 2:33 am
Hey! This is great, my readership has risen a bit.
Thanks!
http://www.callingallgeeks.blogspot.com
35 Jamie Jun 7, 2008 at 2:15 am
Another great forum that you are missing is http://www.sitesellforums.com
36 Andos Jun 10, 2008 at 10:04 am
Hmmm.. can blogspot use this method?
37 hee-haw Jun 12, 2008 at 9:10 am
great tips for all of us. its good for my entertainment blog which contains funny videos, movie trailers & etc.
38 vivek Jul 9, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Good Work .