Link Baiting to Drive Traffic and Link Building

Not to long ago, you were told one way to improve your page rank with Google and Yahoo was to swap links. Then came the companies and software that promised thousands of sites would share links with yours - all in the name of organic search engine optimization. Google and Yahoo have gotten smart, have you?

Now Google and company frown on abusing link swapping (especially with random unrelated sites). Enter Link Baiting.

Jim Westergren, CEO of SEO Fusion., describes link baiting as "creating something that naturally attract backlinks for your web page by getting people to talk about it, discussing it on forums, blogging about it, posting it on del.icio.us/Furl/Digg/Shoutwire and linking to it from their sites. It also attracts a lot of visitors."

Link baiting is merely link building with a twist: Rather than hunting out links, you are bringing the links to you through unique and popular site content. The article is the bait, and the link is the catch. A properly created page can capture huge links on its own with little to no effort from you.

Jim also provides a great list of ideas to generate interest:
• Make a valuable resource (lists, special reports, history of, how to, etc.)
• Interview (e-mail/phone) prominent people and publish it.
• Build a useful tool
• Write an interesting article
• Run a newsworthy ‘event’ such as a contest
• Test something new that has not been done before
• Be the first in doing something on the internet
• Write something controversial
• Be the first to write the latest news in your niche
• Be the first to expose a scammer
• Disagree with an authority
• Write some funny humor
• Make an interesting picture
• Be the first to research and document something
• Make a theme, plugin or piece of software
• Make a tool that others can put on their sites but that links to you
• Make a joke about a known person
• Make a resource that is just in time for a major event
• Write an outrageous theory and back it up with logics
• Write useful comments on something that is happening
• Give something valuable for free
• Coin a new acronym in your niche and get people to talk about it
• Become an expert in your niche and write valuable information