Linking Strategies…

Ninja Links - Can You Bait Links Like A Ninja?

Japanese legends tell of the Ninja; a highly-trained warrior class dispatched by the Emperors to perform assassinations and all manner of unorthodox combat-related skullduggery. Ninjas derived their name from their unparalleled skills in the art of ninjutsu or “stealth.”

In today’s war against competing web sites for the coveted Top 10 SERP listings, a new warrior class emerges…

Introducing the Link Bait Ninja!

What’s link bait? Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll simply repeat the definition so aptly presented by Google’s own Matt Cutts:

“Link bait is anything interesting enough to catch people’s attention.”

Simple words, to be sure; but the result of managing to implement something that meets Matt’s definition can be quite astounding, since the end result of a well-executed Ninja link baiting operation is to create a wildly successful viral link campaign.

Understand there is a difference between the usual viral marketing campaign, where the goal is to generate direct visitor traffic, and a viral linking campaign, where the goal is to generate links.

In order to better grasp the concept of link baiting, let’s take a moment to understand the thought process of the average fish.

As the professional fisherman Tom Edwards once said, “A fish does not end up on your hook because he wants to meet you. A fish ends up on your hook because he wants to eat.”

There are really only four basic categories of things fish encounter on a daily basis.

1. Things to eat
2. Things that want to eat them
3. Things to mate with
4. Things to ignore

If you think of web site visitors as fish for a moment (and not in the derogatory way), every bit of content on your web site, including each and every link, roughly falls into one of those 4 fishy categories. Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it.

1. “Things to eat” involves content that resonates with the reader’s natural inquisitiveness or greed. It triggers a response causing the visitor to want to know more about what’s on the other side of that link. It makes them “hungry.”

• What iPhone users don’t know about…
• But then there are thousands of people who legally pay nothing to eat at restaurants because…

2. “Things that want to eat them” also generates an emotional response. In fish, it causes the fight or flight response. But on a Web site, we’re talking about links that cause alarm or trigger some other strong emotional response like anger and cause readers to want to spread the word.

• Here’s the reason those “asteroids collide with earth” movies are really being made.

• Whistle blower reveals Congressional plan to repeal Second Amendment.

3. “Things to mate with” doesn’t have to be about sex directly. But it usually ends up triggering a direct or indirect sexual response.

• Top 10 pickup lines that still work.

• Makeup tricks that drive men crazy.

4. “Things to ignore” covers just about anything else on your blog or web site that doesn’t fit into the categories above.

Let me tell you something about link baiting. Probably no one you know, or I know, or even Matt Cutts knows invented the concept. Link baiting has been successfully used to get people to take some action since the concept of marketing was invented.

Direct mail copywriters use envelope teasers to get the reader to open the envelope. That’s link baiting.

The real difference between then and now is the opportunity to generate a quantity of quality links like these campaigns did:

Search Engine Journal Editor Loren Baker came up with the idea of creating a “Best Blog Award” in a cunningly-crafted attempt to draw more links back to his web site. You can wallow in the genius of his step-by-step link baiting campaign details when you have the time, but take a look at the results right now:

Nominations Announcement Post: Yahoo: 32 backlinks
Vote for Favorite Search Blogs Post: Yahoo: 1,960 backlinks

Cambrian House Inc., a Calgary-based software company, garnered over 1,000 backlinks in a few short days when it devised a scheme to have 1,000 pizzas delivered to Google’s headquarters to feed the troops. Hmmm, that’s one link per pizza. Coincidence?

Software developer Aaron Wall managed to earn 2,000 links in a very short time when he released his very successful Firefox SEO plug-in.

So, how do you go about launching an effective link bait campaign?

The key to success is in the content. No matter what kind of content you decide to base your campaign on, it needs to fall into one of the first three “fishy” categories; otherwise it will get ignored.

I didn’t invent what I’m about to tell you, but I highly endorse it

To date, the most successful link bait campaigns have been built around content that falls into one or more of these categories:

• Content that provides valuable information such as how to, or why you should, or other useful tips.

• Hot news, interesting current events and offbeat stuff like UFO sightings, Bigfoot and conspiracy theory stuff.

• Controversial content that will be linked to by people on both sides of the issues. Think “Obama Nation or Abomination?”


• Cool stuff to have like software or gadgets that Webmasters will want to link to from their site. The guys at bravenet.com figured this out way back in 1997.

• Humorous stuff, text or video that actually IS funny. And don’t worry about being mildly offensive. Sure, you don’t want to smear your reputation, but edgy is fine.

But even though content is king, don’t lose track of the title of this article…

Ninja Links - Can You Bait Links Like A Ninja?

Your link bait campaign must be executed with maximum stealth. Let’s face it; if you blow something out that screams “Hey, I want to trick you guys into pasting this link all over the Internet,” it’s not going to work.

Does link baiting sound like something you’re interested in?

Here’s how to get started:

1. Determine who you want to reach and where you want the links to come from. It’s one thing to get a slew of random backlinks to your site. But it’s quite another thing to get a smaller quantity of high quality links to your site.

2. Choose your weapon. As a Ninja, you have to carefully select the weapon you will be taking into combat with you. Will it be controversy, humor, news, cool tips and tricks or maybe the Top 10 something or other? Be sure to match your weapon to the type of links you want to attract.

3. Dangle your bait. Remember, it’s all about stealth. All you want to do is get the link out there and then sit back while everyone else runs with it. It helps to do a little “chumming” and spread the bait around to a few friends or web sites where you know you’ve got a good chance of having the link picked up and spread around.

Spreading the bait can also involve a few strategically-placed posts on popular blogs, shooting out a press release, or rattling someone’s cage in a discussion forum.

Be resourceful, be clever but most of all, be a Ninja!