Link Bait Me

I really should be sleeping and I will elaborate more later, but I just thought I would point out that in 6 weeks, and with only 11 posts total, LinkBaitMe.com has gotten a Page Rank of 2 and is at 340,000 in Alexa.  I point this out not to brag, but to say that you might take some notes on the SEO of this blog.  Especially since I haven’t even made more than a couple posts worth linking to and I’ve been a bit neglectful of my posting duties as well.  Just think where I could be if I worked hard at it.

More on this later.

Popularity: 9% [?]

This showed up on Craig’s List today (in the BARTER section, mind you):
http://phoenix.craigslist.org/bar/463285875.html

This is going out on a limb. I am in search of a very wealthy individual. That has class, vision, stress, a need, desire to give back, and a head on their shoulders. I have an offer. I am a single woman looking to enhance my career. However, I was raised in poverty with instilled values. I desire to not be in debt. So I would like to barter services for services. I am not an escort and I am not looking to trade anything physically sexual in nature. I want/ need a break. If you are seriuos please reply. Let me know what you heard I said. And I will tell you what I am offering. I have a professional license inholistic modalities and I hope to God the right person comes along. email me back with some sort of contact info. and I will get in touch. I need 5k a month.

The reply:
http://phoenix.craigslist.org/bar/463423485.html

Dear Inholistic,

Are you effin’ kidding me?! Get a damned job. There is absolutely no reason some man should come along and fork over $5k per month (which is asking quite a lot, I might add) just because you’re too lazy to support yourself or you just think that you are entitled to the good life because you have “instilled values”. Next time you think about posting, gold digger, spend the time filling out a job application instead.

Popularity: 8% [?]

In the past month, if you haven’t heard the buzz about what’s going on with Google’s Page Rank, you haven’t been listening at all.  Google had been keeping us in the dark with no page rank updates for a while.  Then came all the rumors and speculation about Google dropping page rank completely.  Finally, people started getting Google Slapped.

While my original blog (which has never sold text links, by the way), JoeTech.com has gone from PR5 a few days ago to no page rank showing at all, this site has its first ranking, coming in at PR2 and some of my other sites that I started this year are showing up with PR2 and PR3 ranks.  I can only assume JoeTech.com is just waiting for an update and will either remain at PR5 or jump to PR6.

The question remains… Should we concern ourselves with Google’s Page Rank?  I say of course we should.  Page Rank is, after all, the rank Google places on an individual page in helping determine where that page will show up in a search result listing.  It’s also a status symbol, and has been, to some degree, an indicator of a site you might trust over another site.  Have you ever made a purchase from a site with a zero Page Rank?  I haven’t.

While some people continue to claim that Page Rank is going away and others claim that it doesn’t matter to them, one fact remains.  Google has forced webmasters around the world to think about how they monetize their sites and about linking strategies as a whole.  Ultimately, that’s a good thing for us all.

Popularity: 12% [?]

This is a wonderful example of how to easily bait the big dogs with a cartoon.

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard of the contest that two of my blogging idols are having, but I’ll fill you in, just in case. John Chow and ShoeMoney thoughtthat they didn’t have enough RSS and email subscribers to their blogs, so they decided to hold a contest. This is why these two are my idols. They know how to generate a buzz, but I’ll save my puppy love for another time. Let’s talk about this image.

ComicTan.com labels itself as a “TECH JOKE COMIC BLOG”, which is also clear after a single visit to the site. I hadn’t seen the site before, but I am now subscribed to their RSS feed. Not only did they create an entertaining comic of the two pro bloggers fighting over new subscribers, but they pointed out that anyone is free to use the image in their own blog (with a link back, of course), AND initiated a poll to see who we all thought would come out victorious.

Of course, Shoe and Chow both posted the image on their blogs and linked back to ComicTan, so I don’t know which will end up with more subscribers, but I think ComicTan has already won some great link love.

Popularity: 10% [?]

We all know the Digg Effect of a well-timed stunt, but what’s more important is leveraging the traffic for extended media coverage, online and offline. While I haven’t personally seen any offline effect of this event, the online success of Purebuttons.com’s recent ad campaign is obvious.

I’ve used two terms to describe Purbutton.com’s actions that may be arguable to some, but let me explain. I call it a campaign because they spent $1,000 to do it and I call it a stunt because they prepared a press release page about it and the CEO, himself, Jeff Nemecek posted the PR page to Digg. Either way, it’s a brilliant idea. Some may back the idea, while others call it shady.

Here’s what happened:
The popular band Radiohead shook the music world this month when they announced that their latest album would be available for download on their site, but that the buyer could choose ANY price they felt the album was worth, starting at FREE. The buzz about this was loud on the Internet, radio, and television news. Quick on the draw, Purebuttons.com paid about $200 for the album download (they say it was to show their support for the band’s decision) and about $800 for 10 box sets. Then they quickly made the news available to the Digg community via Nemecek’s VERY FIRST DIGG POST. Over 6,000 diggs and plenty of blog posts later, I think it’s safe to call this a success (for now).

The Success:
Obviously, 6,000+ diggs is a great start for Jeff. Digg doesn’t normally convert to sales, ad clicks, or a lot of return traffic, but if leveraged correctly, it can turn into a lot of new inbound links and some good sustained traffic. After the press release broke, it was talked about on a lot of blogs, but what wasn’t talked about much was how Jeff and Purebuttons.com actually bought 6,000+ diggs on Digg.com for a couple hundred bucks.

What’s amazing is that this was Jeff’s first story submission to Digg, he has almost no history on the site, and his story about his own company made it to the front page. Not bad, Jeff. I’m sure a lot of people would give you your $1,000 back for your secret (and those box sets, of course).

Popularity: 12% [?]