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Thursday, August 24, 2006

Link Baiting - Don't Rise To It...

Lure them in with Link Bait Whilst link baiting may be an established and continuingly powerful tool in the SEO (Search Engine Optimisiation) world (Threadwatch / SEO Book) your average webmaster, MySpacer or blogger will not have heard of the this technique yet, despite having unconsciously applied it. In part that's due to a lack of realisation of the benefits of using such a technique, but it can't be long before a whole new generation of web content creators turn on to it.

Expect it to become a more mainstream technique when run-of-the mill web content creators realise there can be financial rewards from gaining lots of nice links to their site or blog. The more quality inbound links a site can get, the more the search engines love it, the more rank it will get, the more commercially desirable it will become. Old fashioned methods of link building such as exchanges and *coughs* MySpace codes are no longer the way to go. Chasing links has gone out the window. With link baiting the idea is that the links come to you.

Link Baiting for dollars You can blame a large portion of it on bloggers. What started as a fairly natural process of actually linking to stuff you wanted to comment on is slowly turning into an ongoing arms race to produce the best link bait material. Link baiting comes in two camps - write something unique that's actually useful - we have no problem with that style here. The other, currently more pervasive technique is a more quirky methodology that covers everything from of-the-moment satire to personal attacks - there's even link-bait by the numbers such as Top 10 methods of link baiting, 5 reasons link baiting should die and other such instantly linkable articles permeating the blogosphere.

I'll say here that I have a couple of problems with link-baiting, despite being a technique I use frequently myself. It's probably because my main interests are in a field where a lot of publishers use link baiting, but recently I've been getting link bait sickness. All over the web quirky WTFs, personal disagreements and one-upmanship seem to be the way of getting traffic and eyes on sites.

It gets harder to just write something simple and for the fun of it - now you have to think up things that will make people want to link to your site or some novel idea to tempt the hundreds of bloggers out there (or boingboing, digg, etc) to love you. I'm finding I surf across a lot of articles that who's main intention is to bait links. Not only does it make an air of novelty more attractive than useful dialogue, but it means you have to take everything you read with a pinch of salt (always wise on the internet.)

I'm dreading this becoming a more mainstream idea. Soon every site will not be complete with out a top five, a quirky quiz or calculated personal attacks on fellow web citizens. It gets really boring after a while, and before long, quirky becomes repetitive and annoying (can you bare another web 2.0 site with a silly name?)

The other problem I have with link baiting is this - in the wrong hands, it could lead to a slew of litigation and defamation cases if not used with care. I can just see hundreds of MySpacers and bloggers going to town on it half-cocked and ending up in hot-water. Ok, so most MySpacers (the real one's at least) should be locked up - but that's another post.

If you haven't already turned on to link baiting - keep an eye out for it. The best plan of attack is to ignore it completely. It's like terrorism - it only succeeds when you react to it, in this case, by giving in and giving it a link. Please fight the urge and help save the internet from the growing triteness that excessive link baiting is causing. Just say no, unless of course, it's this post you want to link to...

Monday, August 14, 2006

A Bit Of A Change At The Next Big Web Thing

The more observant of you may have noticed that things have been a bit quiet of late around these parts. Summer lull and increasing personal work load aside, I have been thinking about the future of this blog and it's direction.

I originally set it up as an experiment in building a community driven site, where posters other than myself added stories. The incentive for the regular contributors was a share in any of the revenues we gained at the site, through sponsorship or whatever. Unfortunately, this never really took off. Other contributions were few and far between for the same reasons I have - time and workload - which is a shame.

My original intention was to do as little writing here as possible, instead I ended up doing 98% of it, and even trying to keep up with all the new sites and ideas out there can be quite punishing. Personally, I think we've covered off some great sites in our short history, which have already gone on to bigger things. It's been an exciting time for me seeing the new technologies blossom and these new ideas form and coalesce. It's possible to see strands and ideas that if not already being developed, soon will be, as well as the burgeoning joy that is Web 2.0.

However, there is a dark side to all this, in my opinion. As well as all the good stuff happening out in internet land, there's been an increasing amount of utterly derivative drek. An increasing number of new sites I see just look like they were pulled from random name and idea generator, given a hackneyed marketing spin and silly name, then pushed out into the world to dilute an already large pool. I have to say I'm getting tired of it.

Web 2.0 does have some great stuff going for it and will continue to do so. However, I think rather than carry on the current model of trying to get x amount of sites featured per month to do a vote, the whole thrust of the this site will change. Here's a list of what's going to happen here.

No more monthly votes. All it proves is who can point the most surfers at our vote page and get them to vote. Internet votes were seldom illuminating so we'll drop ours. This means those that won previous votes are off an even more elite club than would have been if we carried on.
No more pretense that this is a community blog. It's now my blog and my opinions. I love the stuff that out there, but want to write about it in my own style, not try and make it fit a rigid framework as it does now.
Less site specific posts, unless they really merit it.
More commentary and opinions on the internet - both good and bad. Silly trends, missed opportunities, gaps in the market, etc...
Some new sections to the site - more will be revealed as and when I get to 'em

So, there should also be a slight redesign involved as well, in time. If this doesn't sound like your cup of tea, then I'd like to thank you for you involvement here and hope our paths cross again in the future. If it does sound like you'll enjoy the ride - stick with us, there'll be lot happening in coming months here - I feel like I've been holding back a lot due to the now finsihed format of the site. Now that's gone, I can really let rip with it.

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