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Welcome young grasshopper, to the dojo of webmaster psychology. Here we will hone your skills until you are a blackbelt at acquiring links all over the web.

Everyone knows that the more connected you are, the higher your page will rank (and the more traffic you will get.) The more traffic you get, the more money you earn. So let’s start at the beginning: how does one “get connected”? How does one convince others to link to them for free?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your fellow webmasters (or “competitors”, as the case may be) voluntarily linked to your site?

What is Linkbating?

First let’s define Linkbaiting:

Linkbaiting (link-bait_ing) - The art of coaxing or encouraging another blog or website to link or make reference to one’s own site without an agreement or an exchange of money.

How does one achieve this seemingly impossible feat? We’ll walk through the basics here. Once you learn how to linkbait, you’ll see a steady rise in your traffic.

How to Linkbait: The Rules

1. Webmasters have big egos - When webmasters talk amongst themselves, the conversation almost always involves bragging. Everyone loves a good ego stroking. Write a review, or make a very favorable mention of another site. Chances are, that webmaster will be so thrilled that his site is receiving attention from a colleague, he’ll toss you a link to show the world how cool he is.

2. Webmasters are also thin skinned - The flipside of rule #1, is that a flame post will often get you a link from the offended webmaster. Usually he’ll flame you back and say “Can you believe xxxxx is saying this about me?”. Caution is advised here, because you don’t want too many enemies out there. But still - a link is a link. Technically, even if his link is part of a counter-flame, this is still a score.

3. Controversy is more linkable - There are certain subjects that everybody has an opinion on. Or more accurately: everyone has a different opinion on. While many bloggers choose to find consensus with the majority, this typically doesn’t yield as many links as a powerful disagreement with the majority. Be careful of course not to sell your journalistic soul (unless of course, you don’t have one) when striking out harshly against popularly held opinion. For example: “Apple Could Fail Miserably This Year” is a good example of a headline which is sure to provoke countless Apple fans to respond.

4. Questions prompt answers - A variant of the ‘Controversy’ rule above is to phrase your controversial topic as a question. For example: “Is Apple Losing Steam?” may yield even more responses.

5. Early News & Originality - There’s no substitute for being the early bird. Come out with a scoop (or an opinion) before anybody else and you’ll see links like you’ve never seen before. Originality is king.

6. Lists of Links - If you’ve got a few competitors linking to you, but you still can’t get a handful of key sites. Make a list of “Key Players in your Space”, or “Top 10 List”. Leave out the people who aren’t linking to you, and watch how fast they contact you for a link. Reciprocation is the name of the game here.

7. Humor gets more links than facts - It’s a strange truth, but in most cases a blog entry which is a funny picture, video, quote, etc. gets more links than an article that you’ve slaved away on. (This is also often a depressing truth). But knowledge is power. Throw in the occasional bit of humor and watch the links roll in.

8. Link out - This is the hardest thing for new bloggers to understand. The standard response is: “But if I link out, don’t I lose traffic?” The answer is: That’s a problem to think about when you have over 100,000 monthly visitors. In the meantime, concentrate on being part of a community. Link out, and you’ll get more traffic. Webmasters will see you in their logs, and they’ll check you out. Remember: You will never ever get a link if no one knows you exist.

Now that you know how to linkbait, remember that Linkbaiting can go too far. The most important thing of all is to provide interesting and unique content, and to provide it quickly and frequently. That having been said, it’s a competitive world out there. Every little trick helps. Knowing how to linkbait will help you turn an already good post into one that brings in the clicks.

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