Building Linkbait? Do Your Homework - Start Your Research
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You’re not going to be seen by your target audience unless you know who they are and what they want. What are they looking for? What concerns them? What makes them laugh? What makes them angry? What do they need? What would they find useful? If you can’t answer these questions, you have your work cut out for you.
If you’re working on a web site focused on your own industry, you really should be able to answer these questions. Let’s assume for a moment that you’re trying to sell gardening tools. What are the concerns of the average person who would be using your tools? Do they have as much time as they want to garden? Do they enjoy their hobby? Are they looking for ways to expand their garden? Do they need a good laugh? Do they face particular gardening challenges?
It also helps to find out where these people hang out online. See what they read, what they talk about, what their concerns are. Eric Lander of the Search Engine Journal recommends checking out Digg, since it’s the most popular social media site around. “To research on Digg, just use their search function or navigate through the various categories for the best match to your sector,” he explains.
Your natural instinct might be to read all the stories that have the most Diggs to get a feel for the cream of the crop. That’s not necessarily the wisest approach. You don’t want to just get lots of “eyeballs;” you’d like your visitors to be engaged, too. So look for stories that get lots of comments – preferably lots of positive and engaged comments. You might also want to consider looking at stories that inspire a lot of back-and-forth comments; a thread with lots of positive and negative comments is a sign of controversy, and that can give you good linkbait if it’s done carefully and well.
It’s not too early to think about where you’re going to be promoting your linkbait, and get a feel for the social media communities. Become an actual member of the communities; read their rules. Social communities and blogs and such aren’t there simply to promote you. Ideally they serve the purposes of their members, and if you want your linkbait to catch on, you will create it with that in mind. That point is so important that it bears repeating: linkbait MUST, in some way, serve the purpose(s) of the user.
Next: Kinds of Linkbait >>
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