Ok so we all know that you need a hook to be able to be successful at link baiting. However, I think it is still important that I expand a little on each hook, which I mentioned very briefly in my previous post.
Informational hooks – Also usually referred to as resource hooks this will entail you as a blogger to pack a single post with a whole lot of information. Jaren’s suggestion in What to Do with Old Posts, which I saw just a few minutes ago is a good example of this. Wow your readers with all the information they can find in a single entry.
News hooks – This is one of the best way to garner links. Everyone (in your field of interest) will automatically flock to the latest news. Now though you can ride with the latest hottest news by posting about it when the news litters the internet being among the first, if not the very first, to post about real news is the only real effective way to get astounding results.
Humor hooks – While most people, including me, do not have the combination it takes to write really funny anecdotes guaranteed to spread like wildfire anyone can compile humorous stories and post them. Of course, the best way to do this is to write your own anecdotes but if you can’t turning your blog into a collection of humorous anecdotes also works. However, you should again be among the first to come up with the anecdotes since those rehashed a million times just won’t be interesting to anybody.
Evil hooks – Ranging from the contrary to downright attacks evil hooks, simply put, is focusing on the negative to incite readers to react. Rile up the crowd and make them link back as they disagree on your post. Taking the unpopular side of a real controversial issue can make your blog post popular.
Tool hooks – This is for those with programming skills and great ideas. Offer FREE downloadable tools that people will want to use. Of course if you can’t think of a great tool to develop or don’t have the programming skills then you can do what most others do: capitalize on existing tools by linking to the original sites or offering those you can (READ: if legal) for download.
Originally posted on August 29, 2007 @ 11:35 pm
