Link Blog

While casting about for a subject on which to write this week, we discovered the following articles and/or blog posts in which we think you might find some value.

Linkbait Tuesdays

Patrick at the UK site BlogStorm is offering to take a look at readers' web sites and offer tips "on how to make the site more attractive to linkers along with a few ideas for linkbait articles." No SEO or internet marketing blogs, though.

If you are interested send an email to patrick at blogstorm.co.uk.

You might also want to take a look at the qualities of a successful linkbaiter.

3 Steps to Solid Linkbait

Eric Lander, associate editor at Search Engine Journal, came back from the New York SMX Social Media conference with some ideas about link bait.

They are Research, Originality and Being Social.

To find what works in your particular industry or niche, Lander suggests searching at digg.com for your topic and checking out the kinds of items that are popular.

He says, "You want to look beyond the number of Diggs a story or link has. Look for those with the strongest level of comments and supporters, and be faithful that such topics can yield success. After thorough research in each category, you can begin to draw a number of conclusions."

For example, if your topic is "Spanish real estate," type that into the search bar and make sure to sort for most Diggs. That way the most popular stories will be at the top. This will give you an idea of the popularity of specific topics. Be sure to pay attention to how long ago it was submitted.

Make sure your information is Original and Creative. "If it’s genuine, original and creative you just may win out with a quality piece of link bait," Lander said.

He also offers this: "Understand that perception is reality. If you have a great blog post that would actually be successful when used as link bait, make sure you cater to these types of systems. Strip out advertising to all those coming into your site from sources like Redit, Digg and Delicious to help get your content in front of the people that seek it out. If a user thinks that you are trying to profit from their attention rather than provide them with what they are after, they will quickly cut you down to size."

Lastly, Lander offers this on being part of a social community: "Link bait is of course a tool that requires social media and social networking to be a success. By that very nature then, we are working with other people and communicating with them through the content we suggest and the recaps we provide.

It is the community of these social tools that will make or break our efforts. The faster we understand that the communities are our friends, the more quickly we will be rewarded with successful link bait efforts."

How To Buy Blog Reviews for Effective Link Building

For those of you with the resources to invest in blog reviews, Loren Baker, editor of Search Engine Journal, has developed 12 tips. Here are a few of them:

1. Flying under the radar. Negotiate directly with the bloggers to avoid identification as a paid post.
2. Using Blog Review Services. If you don't have the time, Baker suggests using SponsoredReviews or ReviewMe, but caution is urged.
3. Pay for some high profile reviews. Caution is also the watchword here.
4. Beware the Review Only Blogs. Blogs that only have reviews raise red flags for at Google.
5. Beware the Review Badges. "Such badges take away from the quality of the blogs, and also identify them to search robots as being associated as review blogs." Avoid these.
6. Mix Up Your Review Themes. "DO NOT guide all bloggers to write similar reviews on your business. Ask some to do honest reviews. Ask some to just say they found your site online and found it interesting. Ask some to do comparisons with other products or better yet, lists of products."
7. Mix Up Your Anchor Text. "Mix it up a bit; on some blogs ask for keyword friendly anchors, on other blogs, ask for 'click here' or 'more information' to be linked, on others, ask them to link to internal pages using the link text they want to use. Such incentived linking behavior leads to an end result of more natural linking."