Why Not Post LinkBait All the Time?
If bait is so good at delivering traffic, why would you not want to post bait all the time? People love to link it, read it and bookmark it, right?
Actually long term, they don’t.
Bait is great used tactically, but not effective at growing a loyal audience if over used. You need a mixture of posting to maintain a readership and I believe there is such a thing as “bait fatigue”.
What happens when you post a bait is quite like a shot of espresso with 9 sugars. You get an enormous high.
As anyone who has had a few espressos in a row will tell you, the effects of each are diminished, the first hit is the greatest, and the after effects are not at all pleasant either.
I will always repeat this. We have to understand the readers needs. I don’t know about you but if I visit a blog that has bait day after day after day I don’t feel valued. Where is the discussion? Where is the three dimensional human being behind the blog? Are readers just traffic or more?
As well as attracting new readers you have to keep your current audience happy, otherwise you end up with a revolving door of new replacing the old. That means not riding the caffeinated highs and lows but keeping them nourished with consistently good stuff.
Posted on February 14th, 2008 by Chris Garrett in Blogging
In regard to this subject, I think what most people think is linkbait is actually the shadow of linkbait. A pale imitation. Of course the term is overused, in truth I would never use the term when talking to people who get it, because the thing itself is irrelevant, it is the effect of the thing we are interested in.
And it’s the “effect” that should create discourse.
Also the fact that people label content with linkbait simply because it’s interesting. On my own blog I have posted opinion, hoping someone would find my thoughts interesting and have had it labeled linkbait. I’m neither insulted nor joyous about the fact, but I am acutely aware that the meaning of the term is so vague at the edges it becomes useless. Only to be used when refering to an aspect of marketing which would take too long to explain.
I use the term all the time on my blog btw. I think what you are refering to is a specific style of content which has been developed to push all those linkerati buttons. And as with all styles, it fades with time.
Yes I am referring specifically to the tactics of attention-seeking-in-the-hope-of-acquiring-links
As you say, sometimes the label is used when the intention was anything but. To me constant attention-seeking is bad regardless, whether in blogging or as a starlet celebrity. If you do not back up the attention with substance then ultimately the strategy will be self-defeating
This is a really good point. Pontificating is not conversation.
A lot of people don’t see that there are two pieces to this thing we do–first attract attention so people can find you, sure, but then create a relationship and a conversation. Caro Middlebrook does a nice job of balancing the two, I think.
There are a few influential blogs that really are all one-way–all “let me educate you, and you all just listen,” but that’s hard to pull off, esp. for the long term. It can work if you’re extremely brilliant.
Agreed completely Chris … the quality of traffic generated by good quality knowledge expanding content is typically far superior to that generated by a good link bait piece. Great anology too!
Interesting discussion.
Baits not useful to growing a useful audience? I don’t really think so.
Bait can be considered content of substance to most..and some are satisfied by what they get from it. What we see as bait, they see as good content. I think you’re mainly talking from the perspective of a marketer/marketing-savvy reader and how many are there truly?
Take a look at the magazines on the news stand. They do bait every issue and they grow. They have loyal readers.
There are several blogs with large and loyal audiences and they practically built it all from the ground-up by getting on the Digg frontpage for almost every post they did.
@Sonia - Agreed, some are cult of personality blogs, others gain a big audience despite a lack of empathy, others are seen as useful resources and nothing more. You don’t need a relationship with a stock ticker but I don’t see much point in an information only blog. I want to get to know my readers. Of course, YMMV
@Jeff - Thanks
I think the intention again is key, is it to impart useful information or to gain attention? It reveals itself over time
@Maki - Magazines attract with the front page, top ten lists, but subscriptions are not sold with top ten lists. I have worked with magazines and newspapers and believe me, the cover does not tell the story
Your point about blogs having grown through social media, of course is true, but are you mistaking correlation with causality? Is my StumbleUpon traffic because I am courting SU or because SU users like my stuff? I don’t bait SU.
Just because something is bookmarked and linked doesn’t mean it is bait, right? As I said in my reply to Lyndon, I am mainly referring to intentionally attention seeking. While many bloggers are not marketing savvy they still try to emulate these tactics and that is what I am warning about