21
Aug 06
Aug 06
by Andy Hagans Strategy with 13 Comments
Cartoon Barry asks the question: How much is link bait worth?
Is there a simple equation?
PR6 = $400 per link, PR2 = $25 per link. Link lifetime value = 6
months on average? High trafficked sites that link to you generate
links from other high trafficked sources and even more smaller
trafficked sources…Then you have to look at the content/tools that bring in one time
links versus repetitive links over time. And then does that require
additional work (more content, maintenance of tool, etc.) or not?
In my experience, link baiting gives the highest ROI of any type of marketing method. Ignoring the value of the traffic you get out link bait (which usually converts much worse than organic search traffic), you get permanent links.
Of course, there’s no precise way to measure the value of a permanent link, but we all know they’re necessary — they’re the lifeblood of organic SEO. Starting point: if you valuate a (quality) permanent link at 12 times what you’d pay per month for it at a link broker, and if you assume the cheapest (quality) link you can get at a link broker is $25 / month, then a permanent link is worth $300 based on opportunity costs. And this ignores other factors which probably increase the value of the permanent link — such as the fact that it’s in the ‘content block’ of the page. And of course, that’s the minimum: if your link bait gets linked from a PR7 authority news site or blog, it would be a much higher cost per month to replace it with an equivalent rented link. Oh, and let’s not forget — the best link baits will get hundreds of links.
Then why don’t more people link bait? Why is it (seemingly) the least popular method of link building? (Well, that’s the impression I get from browsing the link building forums at WMW and DP.)
I think the answer is that, well, I guess my statement that "link baiting gives the highest ROI…" is misleading. It gives the highest ROI on a dollar-cost basis. But the main ingredients of link bait are time and ideas–both of which are very precious resources to webmasters & entrepreneurs.
Weighed against 2 hours spent brainstorming, 4 hours spent writing, another hour editing, etc., $299 recurring for the Yahoo! Directory link doesn’t seem so expensive anymore, does it?
In the end, I still love link baiting (obviously), but I think it’s a more appropriate tactic for some webmasters than others. If you have a surplus of time and ideas, then yes, you ought to spend a lot of them on link baiting.
And if you don’t have excess time or ideas? Time to think about hiring that fulltime link baiter (and watch the long term value of your site skyrocket).
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Nice post Andy.
One thing I would add is, that while organic search traffic may convert into sales better than direct traffic from links, link traffic converts better into subscriptions, which in turn beats the hell out of search traffic for sales (assuming you can continuously deliver value and grow the relationship).
So… conversion is a continuum. It’s all about changing cold traffic into warm prospects into paying clients / customers. For all the warm and fuzzy utopia talk that flows around the blogging world, people still don’t focus enough on converting visitors into subscribers first, like the email marketers learned a long time ago.
Great points Andy. Where does someone find a linkbating expert for smaller-time projects besides the usual forums?
Any advice on how to become Dr. Linkbaiter and offer up services?
I have been offering link bait development services for just few weeks.
Only had 1 client so far, whom successfully made it to del.icio.us popular page and happily pay the 200 dollar price.
I haven’t done any serious promoting though, just putting up a sales post at Sitepoint and my siggy at DP. Got few curious enquiries asking, but not really any serious prospect.
Yes, Andy, some advice would be great
Quality links always pay off better for us.
I link those sites that I trust, and hope they return it.
People that link me, I will check out and often times link in gratitude.
I’ve created a couple of free web based utilities (an RSS feed writer and reciprocal link checker) and tried to promote them by posting on several free download sites such as softplatz.com and freedownloadmanager.org.
Are free utilities a good form of link baiting?
Also, I’ve heard of using press releases to promote link baiting content. Are there other good ways to do so?
Wow, this article was very helpful! Thank you so much for posting it.
I tried the seobook link. It gave me a lot of information.
Although I never thought of press releases though. Sounds interesting.
Link bait is great in blogsphere as every man and his dog has a blog to link to it. I would like to link bait to a commercial site of mine with the links going to a commecial page with commercial anchor. What you suggest wise ones?
Link baiting is a wonderful way of generating one way links.
The question is how important is considered a link by search engines which comes from an irrelevant site which presumbly is using the tool( link baiting tool!!!) provided by my site???
This article is very informative and it helps in understanding the concept and its effects. Thanks for posting it.
i am doing link baiting , but i dont know what price should i charge from my customers. what are the minimum and maximum prices charged by others
The cons are:
1. High cost
2. Results can vary greatly
3. The demand is much greater than the supply, often the better quality link baiters are all booked up already. If a campaign doesn’t do well they can easily walk away and find other customers.
Of course some people have benefited greatly from these campaigns. However any discussion of this topic is normally dominated by the link baiters and the cons aren’t covered very often.
I am interested in your link baiting services for my dating site. Could you please contact me!
Hi, Not trying to spam but other than leave my url or email address publicly not sure how to get my info to you. I am extremely interested in your services. Could you please email me through my site.
Thanks! Dede