Lessons in Linkbait and Social Media

By Michael Gray
In Social Media

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One way to make sure your linkbait is successful is to pick a subject that you believe in, are passionate about, and that will bring out an emotional response from members of your target audience.

Or you could play it safe and write the 5 ways Twitter is helping web 2.0 businesses.

The first is memorable the second is utterly forgettable.

Everyone remembers Evel Knievel because he did things that were memorable. No one remembers the 500,000 people who thought jumping the fountains at Ceasars Palace with a motorcycle couldn’t be done, and gave up without even trying.

As my friend Alex tells me unless you have the guts to stand out, you’re just part of the pack.

Class dismissed.

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{ 2 trackbacks }

Linkbait, Passion, Fluff and Mixing it Up: Reflections on Content Development: October 10, 2008 at 1:54 am
LINK BAIT and COMMUNITY - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once.: January 15, 2009 at 10:23 am

{ 17 comments }

Seologia July 23, 2008 at 9:09 am: Class dismissed. LOL!
Igor The Troll July 23, 2008 at 9:09 am: Igor The Troll vs Amanda Chapel Twitter Flame War {seesmic_video:{“url_thumbnail”:{“value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/AMCsFUixw5_th1.jpg”}”title”:{“value”:”Igor The Troll vs Amanda Chapel Twitter Flame War ”}”videoUri”:{“value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/T77GbPsCyZ”}}}
Streko July 23, 2008 at 9:19 am: lemme find out you were hired by “blogher” to promote the conference….
Michael Gray July 23, 2008 at 9:33 am: @Streko: sigh … no did you read “pick a subject that you believe in, are passionate about”
Ahmed July 23, 2008 at 10:30 am: Also helps if you have an effective way for reaching your audience – too often one gets drowned out by the excess noise / doesn’t have the means / knowledge to successfully promote their content.
Todd Mintz July 23, 2008 at 11:42 am: Why am I not surprised to see this post as a follow-up to your last post?
Michael Gray July 23, 2008 at 12:56 pm: @Todd Mintz: the point is you can take your ideas package and promote them in a way that increases the exposure … or you can spend all day arguing with forum trolls and banging your head against a wall
Igor The Troll July 23, 2008 at 2:16 pm: Michael, I totally agree with you on this. If you can find a way to make money on the Internet more power to you.

For years I did SEO for my company, I did not make much but at least I got paid for it. Besides doing the SEO I did Web development for the same company.

Recently my company cannot afford my services anymore so I stopped doing that work. Time to find something new but nothing comes around besides coding. I am not really interested in being a code monkey.

I know there are people like you who make money from conferences, but I am a western guy in Japan, and it would be a bit hard for me to break in.

Luckily I made some money before I got into the Internet scene!

MAybe I will just go travel for a few years and see if something interesting pops up. I tend to find all my opportunities from traveling.

Playing with the Trolls is fun but it gets boring after a while. It is just a game unless you can chanel it into something. LOL

Anyway keep doing your work.

Regards,
Igor
paisley July 23, 2008 at 4:38 pm: thanks for the lesson.. see your BlogHer post for linkbait comment, have i learned?
Michael Gray July 23, 2008 at 4:51 pm: @paisley: heh
Igor The Troll July 23, 2008 at 5:17 pm: Michael you convinced me to go White Hat! LOL Well actually not White Hat but I am “confessing” to what I’ve been doing for the past few years!

You are a very smart guy and I am sure you have known all alone, otherwise you would not let me post on your blog!

I have been Trolling for links and Public Relationship – PR for my sites for a few years now!

I even caught Matt Cutts by banning me from his blog with his famous post booting someone

In honor of this “confession” I am going to write a post detailing some of my famous – or – infamous Troll catches!

The Secret Art of Trolling

I guess it is only worth to do this if you getting paid for it! LMAO

Time for a long vacation!
Will July 23, 2008 at 9:58 pm: The best thing about writing to create an emotional response is that you can also engender a mob mentality, which should be the ultimate goal. If everything goes as planned, there will be a keynote at the next BlogHer about why Michael Gray is wrong about BlogHer. If BlogHer changed its policy and offered you a keynote, would you take it?
Michael Gray July 23, 2008 at 10:08 pm: @Will: dude I’m a shameless attention whore i’d be all over that.

to get to speak you have to be nominated next conference I am starting a nomination campaign
google-yahoo-seo July 24, 2008 at 2:55 am: Also helps if you have an effective way for reaching your audience – too often one gets drowned out by the excess noise / doesn’t have the means / knowledge to successfully promote their content.
Will July 24, 2008 at 9:18 pm: @Michael, I’ll nominate you, and I’m most of your subscribers will too, so based on that, you should be a lock.
Mark July 25, 2008 at 10:41 pm: I had forgotten all about Evel Kneivel, actually
Nick Stamoulis July 26, 2008 at 10:09 am: I agree with this 100%! Really great linkbait takes time to create and excute and must be a passonate subject for sure!