Is the Link Bait Hype Over?

[Crush]

All you saw a few months ago was link bait this, link bait that. Now the hype is over did anyone actually bother trying to get their story dugg etc?

All that happened with us is we spent a load of money on a couple of bloggers with an bad success rate.

[martinibuster]

Thanks for posting that.

• The practice of link baiting is older than the phrase is. Although until the phrase was coined, a lot of people didn't really understand it.
• Insane how the practice, which has been around longer than Digg, has become synonymous with gaming digg.
• That horse is carrying about seventy SEOs on it's back and flogging it isn't going to make it trot any faster.
• The link bait floggers need something else to talk about, but they're just waiting for someone to coin a phrase for them.

[lyndoman]

I read somewhere that the oldest linkbait was the ten commandments.

I disagree, it's obviously Stonehenge.

Linkbait is just a word. As a word that describes something, it's pretty weak. But the thing is, it's all we got to roughly describe something.

Other people have come up with terms like "viral mediam marketing", yeah that really rolls off the tongue. But the unwashed masses have picked up the ball and are running with it.

Linkbait, however stupid a term is here to stay, it's now infiltrated the mainstream and is out of any one persons control.

The best thing to do is to try and educate, after all we are communicators right. I was sick of the term the second time I read it and yeah it's easy to get jaded with the how to make linkbait posts if you read a ton of SEO blogs like I do.

"Now the hype is over did anyone actually bother trying to get their story dugg etc?"

You mean you havn't noticed? Who says the hype is over? Nothing wrong with a bit of the hyperbole as long as you know what's really going on.

[neuron]

Linkbaiting became less effective as an overall phenomena after the term was coined because of its popularization and the many people that tried it as a result of hearing about it and understanding how it was done, not because it didn't work anymore, but because the average level of implementation sucked.

As the hype wears off it will again become more effective, on average, as the average implementation will be done by those who have had success with it.

Linkbaiting, like many other forms of slight-of-hand link building, has its downside, a negative side. I know of one person who really pushed the limits and has pretty much dissappeared from the SEO scene as a result overzealous linkbaiting blowing up in his face.

[circusboy]

I think a linkbaiting campaign CAN be effective, IF (like anything else) it is done right.

The playing field has definitely become more sophisticated as more people become aware of the various linkbaiting techniques, but originality, research, and creativity can make any link bait campaign a winner.

Research, originality, creativity - the keys to great link bait.

[edited by: martinibuster at 4:54 am (utc) on April 12, 2007]
[edit reason] Removed link. [/edit]