Seven Important Qualities for Good Linkbait - What’s the Use?
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Linkbait should also be useful. It’s not absolutely necessary; many popular linkbait items are funny or controversial or newsworthy or have some other good hook. And if you’re better at writing articles with those kinds of hooks, more power to you (writing “funny” items in particular is not easy, and this world can use more humor). But I know if I came across a piece of linkbait that was actually useful, I’d be more likely to bookmark it, and I suspect I’m not alone.
How do you know what your target audience would find useful? Patrick Altoft, writing recently for Blogstorm, noted that you should “Make sure you read all the blogs in your niche and see what they are linking to.” That will let you know what concerns your potential visitors. You might be surprised. For example, Styletips101.com, when looking for linkbait, received some of the following suggestions: how to dress for an interview; how to dress for a conference; and 10 style tips for a first date. You have an amazing store of knowledge that your audience doesn’t share; find out what they want and give it to them.
Let me give you an example. Recently I wrote an article in which I mentioned that a plumber might not want to write a blog, because writing about disasters is not likely to attract customers. But a plumber could write a prevention piece on what you need to do to keep your pipes running smoothly.
Interactivity is another great quality to give your linkbait. Again, it’s not obligatory, but you can do great stuff with it. "Subservient Chicken" was the first, of course, and it was all about the user apparently interacting with the person wearing the chicken suit. As a more recent example, just think about how popular widgets have become! They provide a handy and useful way for users to manipulate data. While it’s heavily controversial at the time of writing, the Scrabulous widget on Facebook is another great example. It lets two users play a game of Scrabble online.
Games aren’t the only form of interactive linkbait of course. You can probably think of something that applies to your field. Say you own an automobile repair shop. You could do an article titled “Ten Warning Noises Every Car Owner Should Know.” It could feature a 15-second or so audio file for each noise, an explanation of what problem is signaled by that noise, and potential consequences if the noise/problem goes untreated. You’d obviously set up the article so that the reader hears each noise when they click on its associated button. This is a crude example, of course, but I think it’s enough to start your brainstorming.
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