Top Blogs Linkbait (Or Why Mark Wielgus Is A Genius)
Posted on September 15, 2007 by
Adie 
Blogging, Internet Marketing, Promotion 
17 Comments
Want this rush of traffic to your site?
Then, create and market a top blogs linkbait.
The Top 100 Make Money Online Blogs
You’ve probably seen this top blogs list Mark Wielgus created. This linkbait has attracted over 1000 links so far. I’ve even linked to it in my last two posts.
The type of linkbait works because many bloggers want to know how they compare with other blogs in their niche. Also, bloggers are looking for other quality blogs to read. And bloggers like to show off their rank.
Creating the Linkbait
Create a list of popular blogs in your niche. If you are knowledgeable about your niche, you should know a good number of those blogs. Also, you can ask your readers for suggestions.
Then, create a metric to rank the blogs. Mark uses a combination of PageRank, the Technorati link popularity rank, and Alexa traffic stats. Also, he automated the rankings by doing some coding. This is a great idea that will save you a lot of time.
If you’re not a programmer, hire one at Elance. Alternatively, you can learn programming by going through online tutorials.
Also, make a way for bloggers to submit their blogs. Put your email on the linkbait or create a contact form.
Marketing the Linkbait
Mark has a great post including a video about marketing his linkbait, so I’ll just link to him: Email Promotions - A Powerful Way To Network AND Promote Your Content. He gives these three tips for email marketing:
- ONLY promote your BEST content.
- Don’t sell. Maybe suggest they pass the content along, but that’s it. The ONLY goal is to make people aware of your great content. It’s up to them what to do with it.
- Never email somebody more than once (twice max) per month for promoting your content.
First-Mover Advantage
Since Mark did a good job with the top blogs linkbait for the make money online niche, it doesn’t make too much sense to make your own list and compete against him.
However, if you’re in another niche that doesn’t have a quality list, this type of linkbait is your opportunity for getting much traffic and many links.
Take massive action and be the first to create a quality top blogs linkbait in your niche. Promote it through email and watch your traffic stats go through the roof. :)
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What’s about the risk?
The risk? I wonder what risk you are talking about.
Facing Google Sandbox. You are interested in SEO, aren’t you?
uh huh, facing the sandbox for what reason exactly? I am missing something here right?
Seems you haven’t even read my post, buddy. Just check paragraph about Google ;-)
Yay, apologies as i didn’t read your post (link blinded? just kidding). Anyway your experiment proved that the “fast building backlinks” indeed does have negative effect on Google. But that was just tremendously fast (I believe you generated the 1500 backlinks within a day or max two period).
Unfortunately in SEO not always the same methods work and for everyone.
Yeah, conclusions may be different. Especially when we discuss about unofficial Google features like Sandbox, or Fresh Site Bonus (Dee don’t hurt me ;-) ), I agree!
Sorry to hear about your dropped rankings. At least your overall rankings haven’t dropped. Has your Google traffic increased overall?
Dee could you install subscribe to comments plugin? ;-)
Smart idea. I wonder what new lists will pop up next?
This is one of the best pieces of linkbait I’ve seen in a long time. The best part is that as he keeps updating it he’ll still keep getting new links.
I cant help but notice the alexa rank starting to plummet back down ;). I’m sure he’ll come out ahead either way, but its important to note that several pieces of link bait will ultimately bring more consistent traffic. I’ve seen similar things happen with some of the news and content I’ve released on my sites over the years. I’ve also noticed releasing top notch content or link bait schemes within a few days of each other also helps to retain this traffic. Its inevitable that it will go down a bit however. (and if you’re using email marketing as you mentioned, you might only want to promote one post or the other).
The key with linkbait is to expect the initial rush of traffic and try to retain as much of the visitors through RSS subscribers. Hopefully, after the linkbait, you’ll have a higher consistent stream of traffic.
Looks like a good idea!!!
[...] I linked to it in two different blogs and here I am linking to it again! Dee from Net Business Blog deconstructs the link baiting strategy that makes Mark Wielgus a freakin’ genius link [...]
Hi, well I took your comments about making a script and set out to make one. You can see the results at http://www.5starred.com/toplist/ - anyone who is on the 45n5 top list can have the script absolutely free.
The update is that this version has User Voting incorporated to give blogs more chance of rising up the chart…I think it works well.
And for anyone who isn’t on the original 45n5 list, maybe as a reader of Net Business Blog (as NBB gave me the idea) you can also get for free. See my blog post at osworld blog for more details.
Interesting ppints. If yoy are not in the “meta blog” space … and you probably shouldn’t be unless it’s for a hobby … there is likely no top 100 list. Technorati, Google, etc. are near useless when trying to find, let’s say, other blogs on “car repair”. Start a list asnd people will come just for the convenience of finding blogs of value in one place.
I absolutely love the number of people who spend their lives worrying about Google. I use Google, I’m even a Google publisher but sandbox, penalties, all the scare stories? Rubbish. If you have an idea, build it. If there is value people will find it with or without the “G”. Google needs me, I don’t need them.
I wonder why more note hasn’t been taken of Mark’s URL. All the drivel that circulates about buying long drawn out keyword loaded URL’s, and Mark did what I love. Bought a short, easy to remember URL. It doesn’t matter if it has a keyword … it doesn’t matter if it means something, and it certainly is smarter than naming the site markweilgus.com
Too many of us geeky folk fail to follow the KISS principle.