You have a plan for building your website’s authority and have decided that you need linkbait. You’re either going to write it yourself or hire someone. But one piece of linkbait is not always as successful as another. Why? Well that’s what this article is about. Here are some common mistakes that you might commit in either writing or buying linkbait, which will reduce it’s value and effectiveness.

1. Not researching your niche.
   If you are planning a long-term linkbaiting campaign, you should know as much as you can about your niche. That allows you to think outside the box and write completely unexpected but successful linkbaits.
2. Using poor titles.
   If you follow Copyblogger at all, you know that the title of your articles can make or break their popularity. If you’re not good at titles, Lyndon at Cornwall SEO offers 200 killer headlines for your niche for a price that’s worth every cent. If you spend several hundred or thousands on the article, make sure there’s a good title to go with it. If you do it yourself, spend sufficient time doing so.
3. Not giving credit.
   If you “borrow” ideas that were clearly introduced on a given blog, you need to give credit by linking back. Don’t let poor research techniques hinder you.
4. Poor research process.
   If you plan to write linkbait long-term, use an efficient research and bookmarking process for storing URLs you plan to link to. Try whatever works for you, and don’t be afraid to change:
   1. Browser bookmarks.
   2. Social bookmarks.
   3. Text file.
   4. Mindmap.

   I use a combination of these, as my mood or requirements dictates.

5. Not deep-linking.
   Bloggers with no scruples or no understanding of copyright will republish your linkbait verbatim. So deep-link into your existing archived articles from within every linkbait. That way, you’ll at least get some backlinks.
6. Not linking back.
   Just writing a linkbait article is not sufficient. Link back to it from future articles on your blog. Vary the anchor text. Sometimes use the title of the bait; other times use relevant keywords/ keyphrases. This helps both your linkbait and your site gain some authority in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).
7. Forgetting entertainment value.
   Provided your linkbait isn’t about a serious topic, you should consider writing to entertain readers. Injecting references to the pop culture of your region can be all that you need to achieve this.
8. Not using storytelling hooks.
   I learned a lot about writing and compelling readers when I spent three months writing nothing but short fiction and novellas. My best linkbaits (read highest Diggs and backlinks) were the ones where I applied storytelling hooks to compel readers through a massive list of items.
9. Ignoring content hooks.
   There are also different types of content hooks you can use, to make your linkbait more cohesive.
10. Forgetting your choices.
    Problogger lists twenty different types of linkbaiting techniques. You don’t always have to write lists.
11. Talking down to the reader.
    Never write as if you think people reading your articles (linkbait or otherwise) are stupid, or at least not as smart as you. Write for peers, always, in terms of tone and approach.
12. Rushing it.
    Trying to write a linkbait in a single sitting will drain you and you’ll grow to hate the work. Plan as many weeks ahead as you can. I was fortunate enough to have one client that assigned me three months of weekly work all at once. So I had lots of time to plan and accumulate references on a daily basis.
13. Poor formatting.
    Not all “linkbait” articles have to be lists, but all of them should be well-formatted for easy scanning. Use one or more of the following typography or visual elements to generate whitespace and break up text density:
    1. Sub-headings.
    2. Numbered lists. Use several, with sub headings, for longer lists.
    3. Bold text.
    4. Italicized text.
    5. Blockquotes.
    6. Images.
    7. Diagrams.
    8. Maps.
    9. Slideshows.
    10. Videos.
14. Link spamming.
    If you have a linkbait list of, say, 50 items, it’s probably fine to link out to 15-35 web pages elsewhere, plus 2-5 of your own archive pages, if appropriate. But if you start inserting lots of links to irrelevant sites that you (or your client) own, you’re asking for nasty Digg comments. Check out Smashing Magazine for other golden rules of linkbaiting.
15. Not doing SMM.
    Social media marketing, i.e., posting to a social news, voting or bookmarking site, is a necessary part of promoting linkbait. Some sites don’t like for you to submit your own articles, so respect that.
16. Not delivering the goods.
    Are you offering quality content? Are you getting angry comments that your linkbait sucks? Maybe it does. This could be due to several reasons:
    1. Promoted in the wrong category of a social media site.
    2. Having a really catchy linkbait title but not delivering what’s promised in the rest of the article.
    3. Having a really catchy title and description on a social media site but doing a poor job in the article.
    4. Poor or no references.
    5. Erroneous “facts”.
    6. Not spell-checking.
    7. Using poor grammar.
17. Not being first to submit.
    It’s a good idea to get someone you trust to submit the article to a social media site. That way, you can control the quality of the title and description. If someone you don’t know does it, they might do a poor job.
18. Not being first to comment.
    This isn’t absolutely necessary, unless you have a very controversial article. In that case, being the first to comment can set the tone for comments to follow. This is a tough issue to describe. You’ll have to judge for yourself.
19. Not hiring an SMM.
    If you plan to do a long-term linkbaiting campaign, you need someone with a lot of friends in their social media profile to do promote your linkbait. That increases the chances of success, if you have a good article. This goes back to #15 above, not doing SMM. Your hired SMM, even if only part-time, should be your primary story submitter. You should, however, change the submitter from time to time.
20. Not enough content balance.
    A blog full of only linkbait might get overwhelming for readers. Use a mix of regular articles and linkbait.
21. Publishing haphazardly.
    Linkbait articles are most effective when you’re publishing them at least once a week.
22. Forgetting to upgrade hosting.
    If you have a budgeting hosting, you’re just asking for trouble. Upgrade before you start publishing linkbait content, especially if you’ve gotten the hang of SMM traffic triggers.
23. Having thin skin.
    The more linkbait you publish and promote, the more likely you’ll get nasty, energy-draining comments, especially on Digg, and sometimes just from stray visitors who feel like making everyone else miserable. I’m not going to expound on the why of it, but if you have thick skin, you’ll get through to the value of social media traffic.

Blasphemy, I hear some of you saying. Linkbait, if promoted properly on social media sites, brings lots of traffic and, if you’re lucky, lots of links from other bloggers.

But it’s a hit and miss situation that sometimes ends up with overloaded web servers, cancelled hosting accounts, and even lots of nasty comments on Digg, if the article sucks, is poorly categorized, or both. This can be emotionally and/or financially draining, if you’re doing this long-term. A site consisting only of linkbait might eventually turn readers away.

Now, I’m not saying don’t linkbait. As a hired linkbaiter myself, I’ve seen the value of quality linkbait. (And really good ones are not easy to write, despite the sudden explosion of linkbaiters out there.)

But Pandia presents a comprehensive alternate link building plan [via Sphinn] based on a few simple principles. There’s also a really clever set of terms to describe certain types of content and services, and their temporal behaviors.

Consider this premise that Pandia puts forth: Quality content, such as a tutorial, that pulls X visitors per day over a year might actually pull more traffic than an average linkbait promoted on Digg. That is, a page pulling even 10-20 visitors per day, every day, might be far more effective on a holistic level than a linkbait.

Why? Because those 3,000+ visitors over a year might actually be more targeted than a sudden influx of social media visitors. Do you think you can write lots of good content that steadily pulls in 10-20 visitors per day? I’ve had a few CSS tutorials pull in regular traffic, comments, and links for a good year now. A gallery of simple fractal images on one website pulls steady traffic, thanks to Google Image Search and a few links from high PR websites.

On the other hand, good linkbait promoted well can and does pull in massive amounts of primary and secondary backlinks that supplement traffic for a long-time. And the links come early on, which has an effect of pulling future traffic and backlinks in a manner very similar to compound interest. My own feeling is that you want to build a website that has a balance of textual and visual content types.

If you’re just starting a new weblog, consider that not choosing effective blog categories can affect your search engine rankings. After two years of regular blogging, I’ve made a lot of mistakes re my categories for my oldest blogs. I’m now of the firm opinion that you have to think of each category archive page as a home page itself. You can build some of your site’s SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) authority through your category archives. Here are a few tips for creating worthwhile blog categories.

1. Be broad but descriptive.
   Categories should be broad rather than very specific, but should not be too general. Specificity will come from the keywords in your articles. Fragmenting category topics further means you’ll end up with too many categories at some point in your blog’s future. Picking good categories means knowing what your blog is really about.
2. Don’t be wordy.
   One or two words for a category name is best. You don’t want long sentences but you do want user-centric categories.
3. Minimize categories.
   Limit the number of categories, else you run the risk of having too few articles in each one. There’s no hard and fast rule, but I now try to limit a blog to no more than 15 - fewer if possible. Authority of category archives comes partly from the quantity of articles in each category.
4. Be conservative.
   Only create categories as you need them. If you strongly feel a new article needs a new category, then add a suitable category, keeping it broad enough to represent future articles. If you think that a category will only ever have one or two articles, then you need to rethink that category. Can it be incorporated with something else?
5. Build authority.
   Link to your category pages from within article text, on occasion, even with alternate anchor text. This can add SERPs authority to your category archives.
6. To multi-categorize or not.
   This is a controversial point. I always use 1-3 categories for every article I post in a blog, though there may be some justification in using one category per post.
7. Sub-categories are unnecessary.
   Some blog platforms allow you to create sub-categories under a parent category. This is unnecessary, and sometimes makes your navigation look awkward.
8. Use your blog platform.
   Tags are not categories. No need to use tagging from Technorati or other sites, unless your blog platform does not have categories. If it does not, you could use Technorati or del.icio.us tags (Blogger/ Blogpost-specific). Alternately, you could categorize manually.
9. Emphasize category volume.
   Most new visitors to a blog want to know what it’s about, and they often turn to the categories, hoping to get some idea of how many articles are in each. You can do this by displaying the number of posts and/or using a tag cloud.

Here’s a bit of link love for a few articles of interest I came across that are related to design, blogging, and information presentation.

1. CSS tutorials.
   Snook.ca suggests that there are six keys to modern CSS-based layouts for websites and presents a list of article links for you to check out. I’ve previously read or browsed many of the articles, and they’re worth looking at.
2. Free web templates.
   If you can’t be bothered to learn CSS or just don’t have the time, free templates abound. Tech Magazine has a big list of links to sites offering free templates. Styleshout offers free templates and has links to others. You’ll find links and/or downloads for both static templates and various blog platforms.
3. Custom RSS feed buttons.
   Don’t like the orange square with rounded corners that is the standard RSS button? Make your own thanks to a Photoshop tutorial from PinkZAP.
4. Who is your blog audience?
   Do you know who your audience is? If you have a business blog, it’s more than possible that your audience may not be the people that you want for customers. Dawud Miracle explores the issue of blog audience.
5. Online presentation tools.
   If you’re in a business where you have to give regular presentations, be it to clients, venture capitalists, or what have you, you’re probably familiar with Microsoft Powerpoint. Did you know that there are numerous competitors that run in a browser? Mashable presents a list of 30 online presentation and slideshow tools.

Linkbaiting - a term not everyone likes - is one facet of link building. There are several types of linkbait articles (lists, resources, tools, etc.), but all serve to improve your website.

With list-style linkbait, aka listbait, readers get some valuable (or fun) information and you might, if you bait well, induce some links back to your website. These links come from other bloggers who enjoyed your listbait. Here are seven elements of a good linkbait.

1. Scannable structure.
   Listbaits should be easy to scan. This makes information easy to absorb. They can be fun or informative or both, and are influenced by two main sources:
   1. Magazine list articles (25 Easy Barbeque Recipes, 12 Ways to Please Your Boss).
   2. David Letterman’s Top 10 lists.
2. Catchy title.
   A good title has to descriptive yet brief, and has to tell the potential reader the benefit. Instead of saying more, I’ll refer you to a master of titles/ headlines.
3. Brief intro.
   Lead into your list with a brief introductory paragraph that summarizes what the article offers. Visually speaking, the intro should take up less vertical space on the web page than the list.
4. Numbered bullets.
   Listbaits are lists, plain and simple. Make it convenient for your readers by numbering your list’s bullet items.
5. Subheading.
   Each bulllet should have a bolded word or phrase summarizing the bullet. The full effect is a list that is easy to scan and absorb.
6. Summary.
   Follow up your bullet list with a summary paragraph to wrap up the article. You can do any number of things with a summary:
   1. Remind the reader what the article was about.
   2. Point out anything missing.
   3. Offer references to additional reading.
7. References.
   Without hyperlinked references, all you have is a list. When possible, try to link to a relevant article for each bullet item in your list. Link to both your archived articles as well as articles at other websites and weblogs. Doing so serves multiple purposes:
   1. Tells the reader, even just subconsciously, that you took the time to find supporting articles for them to look over, should they wish to. If they’re bloggers, that might earn you a link back from them. On social media sites, good links in a listbait improve your chances of being voted up.
   2. Increases the chances that the authors of the articles you linked to will link back to you.
   3. Increases the chances that a search engine’s ranking algorithm will attribute a higher rank to your article because you have linked to relevant articles.

There is of course more to linkbaiting than just these seven elements, including using writing hooks, offering truly valuable information, promoting your articles and more. But you can start practicing with these seven elements.