Come closer kiddies - I want to talk to you about a serious social hygiene problem - Master Baiting. I was moved to comment on this after reading Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and SMM. Yes I'm talking about link baiting - the most cost and time efficient way of building relevant, trusted, editorially-driven backlinks - as Andy puts it. The critical success factor in getting ranked in Google for competitive keywords.

Andy, like me, says Content is king. But packaging is queen, promotion is the crown prince and a baity title is the Sword of Excalibur.

So how do you start building your links?
Anything can be link baited. You can write a hook for any topic - any product.

Just as in Newspapers and Magazines (which I've worked on) the most important part is the Title.

This is where you attract your readers. You'll notice I haven't called this piece something lame like "How to Get Link Baits" or the equally lame and overused "10 Tips for Link Baiting" - although I've gotta admit the old "Ten Top Tips" heading always works. I've sexed it up a bit with the cheeky Master Baiting phrase (some people won't get it but never mind). And I've chucked in Link Baiting as a keyword and to further (I hope) strengthen the story and get you to read on. (is it working?)

If you're creatively brain-dead or don't have the knack for the snappy title you can always use a cheatsheet like "Copyblogger’s 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work" (Google it).

He's done the work for you with these Ten sure-fire headlines -

* 1. Who Else Wants...?

Who Else Wants a Great Blog Template Design?
Who Else Wants a Higher Paying Job?
Who Else Wants More Fun and Less Stress When on Vacation?

* 2. The Secret of...

The Secret of Successful Podcasting
The Secret of Protecting Your Assets in Litigation
The Secret of Getting Your Home Loan Approved

* 3. Here is a Method That is Helping...to...

Here is a Method That is Helping Homeowners Save Hundreds on Insurance
Here is a Method That is Helping Children Learn to Read Sooner
Here is a Method That is Helping Bloggers Write Better Post Titles

* 4. Little Known Ways to...

Little Known Ways to Save on Your Heating Bill
Little Known Ways to Hack Google’s Gmail
Little Known Ways to Lose Weight Quickly and Safely

* 5. Get Rid of [problem] Once and For All

Get Rid of Your Unproductive Work Habits Once and For All
Get Rid of That Carpet Stain Once and For All
Get Rid of That Lame Mullet Hairdo Once and For All

* 6. Here’s a Quick Way to [solve a problem]

Here’s a Quick Way to Get Over a Cold
Here’s a Quick Way to Potty Train Junior
Here’s a Quick Way to Backup Your Hard Drive

* 7. Now You Can Have [something desirable] [great circumstance]

Now You Can Quit Your Job and Make Even More Money
Now You Can Meet Sexy Singles Online Without Spending a Dime
Now You Can Own a Cool Mac and Still Run Windows

* 8. [Do something] like [world-class example]

Speak Spanish Like a Diplomat
Party Like Paris Hilton
Blog Like an A-Lister

* 9. Have a [or] Build a [blank] You Can Be Proud Of

Build a Body You Can Be Proud Of
Have a Smile You Can Be Proud Of
Build a Blog Network You Can Be Proud Of

* 10. What Everybody Ought to Know About...

Beefy Content

But there's no use having these powerful headlines if the bodycopy sucks. As Andy Hagan says - content is only crowned as king when it has focus. Focus comes from the title. In the title, you are making a promise to the reader: here’s what you’re going to read/learn/achieve in this article. All your content should be devoted 100% to meeting (or exceeding) this promise. Anything else—no matter how “valuable”—is fluff and should be cut out. Readers do want in-depth resources and advice, but they want it in a concise, focused serving.

A hook can help you keep this content focused and tight, and to fulfill the promise you made in the title. The hook has the potential to be the burning sensation that makes the article “write itself”. You sit down with a single purpose in mind, and this dictates how you write and package the content.

Nick Wilson’s "The Art of Linkbaiting" talks about using 5 different hooks - News, Contrary, Attack, Resource and Humour

Now how do you get your award-winning piece widely read? A really good way is to use one of the bigger Social Networking Sites. This is not exactly a "walk in the park". For instance, I have a Digg account where I've been submitting what I thought were gripping little news stories on a variety of subjects but the most "diggs" I've ever had has been 7 or something (pathetic). I still try but Digg seems to be dominated by a hard-core group of submitters and its their stuff that flies and gets thousands of Diggs and links. But I'll hang in and keep trying.

I've also been submitting stuff to BoingBoing - one of the most popular blogs and never had anything picked up and was very nearly going to give up on them when they ran one of my stories a couple of weeks ago and I got thousands of hits overnight - and they're still coming. And of course a backlink from a blog like BoingBoing is worth gold. So I'm quite pleased about that.

Digg is a sort of techie/geeky kind of site so obviously they are the kind of stories they're interested in but they do have a section on "Offbeat News" - which is wide open to linkbaiting opportunities.

I notice Andy Hagan advocates using power words in the title and description. “In-depth”, “how to”, “comprehensive”, “Digg”, “HILARIOUS”, “Nintendo”. Those words still work but if I read Hilarious one more time in a story I think I'm gonna puke.

Andy also says - Submit the story from a power account. If a person regularly gets stories on the homepage of Digg, other users will “befriend” him/her, and as a result, will be more likely to vote for his/her future stories. If you don’t have access to a power account, at least try to build some trust in your username and profile by regularly submitting stuff that’s not from your own site, commenting, and digging others’ stories. - good advice. I should follow it.

Delicious is another good bookmarking site. Then you also have Stumbleupon and others - Google them.

So all you gotta do now is get cracking on your killer article. Dont forget to let Pingomatic know you've updated your blog. And always go back and check that your hyperlinks are working. à bientôt, Malkie, Paris.