Uh, this is the 10 Best, no, 24 Greatest, 101 Most Fab
August 25th, 2010
You see them all the time, right? Articles or blog posts with lists of the 10 Best Hot Dogs in NYC, or the 24 Most Important Web Apps, or the 101 Most Fab places to shop in Downtown Chicago. Or whatever. These are usually informative, mostly entertaining, and sometimes even funny. They are called Linkbait, as they often invite links back to the site that posted the item. Matt Cutts defines link bait as anything interesting enough to link to.
So, how do you go about creating link bait? If you have an e-commerce or other business site, start with a list of questions your customers ask all the time. Not anything that can be answered on the FAQ page – you know – interesting stuff. Maybe the 10 Condiments to Serve on your favorite hot dog, or the 52 ways your customers like to use your wonder mop. How about the most popular pizza toppings from all over the world? You get where I am going with this, right? It may not be specifically about your particular business, it needs to relate, but the purpose is to spark some interest. If people find your post interesting, entertaining, or useful in someway, they are more likely to link to it, or send your link to their friends.
So try it out and let me know how it goes. Maybe I’ll try it. What should I write about? My 10 favorite things about the Web? 15 Reasons Why I love Small Business? Or how about this one: “The 101 Reasons I can’t wait for November”? Yeah…I think I might start there.
