Viral Marketing & Link Bait Basics: Part VII
As you continue on the round to successful link baiting you might notice something that most marketers end up seeing at some point: content only draws in backlinks for so long. It doesn’t matter how good the content you have created it, or how many links it attracts during the first few weeks. Once a campaign has run its course, whether that be over a month, or over a few hours, it is done. That same content cannot generally be resurrected again.
There is one main exception to this rule. That is when you have written a second part to the original, and link it through that content to the original source. This may bring in some backlinks as new visitors seek it out for reference. This is a good strategy to keep milking a particularly helpful bit of content a little while longer, but won’t work long term either, as that second part will eventually go out of vogue as well.
This is why it is crucial to regularly rotate your viral marketing content. Whether that is by creating and posting new videos on a regular basis, writing new articles or blog posts, or using regular press releases, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you continuously create new campaigns once the current one has ceased to be effective.
If you want a continuous method of backlinking, it is possible to create a bridge between each new campaign. A great way to do this is by posting press releases with hyperlinks whenever you are preparing to create a new linkbaiting project. It has to announce a new element of some kind, but it will help you to keep interest alive as one plan wanes.
If you would prefer to go a different route, forums, discussion boards, and blogs are your best friends. Each can be regularly updated, and as such, creates new content all the time. You are also more likely to attract stable affiliations with other bloggers, or you can post information in your forum profile or signature. There are plenty of sites that host forum avatars that can provide decent backlinking opportunities to the discerning linkbaiters.
There is one other thing to keep in mind, and that is the existence of the so called “content stealers“. They are all over the web, and if you write good content for any reason, they will take it. You want to make sure that you make it difficult for them to copy/paste your page. This will mean that anyone wishing to refer to your content will have to link to it directly. It’s not always practical to guard against such thefts, but the good thing is that the search engines are usually on your side when this happens. Normally they view the site that has the content first as the original author, you can also file reports to search engine providers if your content is used on other sites without your permission.
For traffic attraction using other types of linkbaiting methods, you should look to graphics. These are meant to be taken and used, and so can be quite beneficial when it comes to backlinks. For example, you can use banners to advertise your site, and provide some to place on other sites that wish to link back. You can also use small ads to generate the same type, as long as they provide a direct link back to yourself.
If you want something more elaborate, you can create layouts and coding that has your link directly embedded, that is required in order to use it. Have you ever seen free layout sites, such as are used on Myspace? Each one has a portion that states who made it, and provides a hyperlink to the original source. This is an effective way of bringing in that users friends, and so spreading that link further as they use their own versions of your layout.
By keeping in mind what rotating content will do, what non-produced content will do, and what shared content will do, you can begin seeing greater potential in your link baiting campaigns. Always watch to see when it begins to fizzle out, and to begin a new method of attack immediately, and you should be fine. Remember, marketing is a continually renewable process. You have to keep ahead of the times in order to compete with larger businesses, which tend to be considered traffic hogs.
Related posts:
- Viral Marketing & Link Bait Basics: Part V The primary purpose behind linkbaiting is self evident: you are...
- Viral Marketing & Link Bait Basics: Part VIII There is a general type of linkbaiting method that is...
- Viral Marketing & Link Bait Basics: Part IX Last week, we spoke about the use of certain types...
- Viral Marketing & Link Bait Basics: Part X We have reached the end of our series, and today...
- Viral Marketing & Link Bait Basics: Part VI Today I would like to talk about using linkbaiting as...
Follow Us 
