What Is LinkBait ?

[stncws]

What is Linkbait?

Link bait is nothing more than a unique, useful, and often provocative blog post that people respond to by linking to or sharing with others. People are naturally attracted to linking to the article because it contains content that stirs up readers' desires to share. It "baits" the reader in with its subject matter, hooks them, and encourages them to spread its message throughout their social networks.
A good link bait post could drive more traffic to your blog in one day than you've had in the previous month or more. The best part about link bait is its viral nature. For months after, you'll find backlinks popping up here and there, gaining you more traffic and improving your search rankings in the process.
In its simplest form, link bait is nothing more than a good blog post that people want to link to, but it's so very effective because it combines the practices of viral marketing with a popular topic or meme.
Benefits of Linkbait

• Link bait helps you gain mindshare and brand recognition.
• Link bait generates powerful backlinks from web properties of authority.
• Link bait can have a dramatic effect on your search rankings.
• Link bait is great for capturing the attention of influencers.

Link bait is not the traffic silver bullet. It has limitations. Link bait is terrible for converting browsers into long-term subscribers, it doesn't work well for ad click-throughs, and is inappropriate for an emotionally sensitive topic (controversial is okay, however). Link bait rarely makes much money or even pays for the direct traffic bandwidth, but you write link bait for its indirect value. And therein lies the gold.
How the Linkbait Virus Works

Once a unique or trendy post is written about somewhere, it gets picked up and dragged across the web by citizens of numerous online communities. Social tagging and popularity ranking sites help give the post visibility to hundreds of content creators, who then happily link to the original post.
Everyone wants to be part of the "in" crowd, especially in the online world where people are trying to carve names for themselves. This attitude encourages linking--no one wants to be left behind, and everyone wants to appear like a leader, so your link bait spreads widely and quickly.
Some blog posts are meant to stir up controversy or discussion. For example, imagine how much discussion could be generated around the "The Ten Best George Lucas Film Scenes Ever." Can you imagine how many Star Wars fans would chime in with their opinions? How about if the link bait author purposely chose terrible scenes, e.g. any scene featuring Jar Jar Binks? In a case link that, the author would unite citizens of the web against a common enemy: the author.
Personally, I feel these overt attempts at link bait are disingenuous, but it does illustrate the point: link bait encourages readers to pass it on or link to it through one motivational factor or another.

[hawaiianRobot]

Thanks for the info!

[Crazyhorse]

Very nice explanation. Very informative

[The Envoy]

Linkbait? Did anybody say linkbait?

[Betsyanne]

Now we need a free list of linkbait articles we can choose from. And they must all be viral, of course!

[kuld33p]

Its great. I think I have got an idea of writing my next post.