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When people talk about linkbait, they’re usually referring to interesting piece of content. This could be an informative blog post, a humorous article, a funny picture, or a useful tool. But I came across a site that helped me realize that linkbait doesn’t just have to stop at content. The whole site can be linkbait.

Check out JohnCow.com or click on the cows below.

If you’re not sure how JohnCow.com is linkbait, you don’t know about JohnChow.com. JohnChow.com is a popular make money online blog. In fact, we recently had a contest about John Chow. And as you can see from the bottom image, JohnCow.com is a parody of JohnChow.com.

Now whether or not you think this is funny or interesting (I think it’s hilarious), I’m sure John Cow will get a couple links just for poking fun at a popular blog. And if they continue publishing quality posts, they’ll get even more links.

A parody site is an pretty extreme way to attracts links. If you’re not that creative and funny, you can do other things to make your site a link magnet.

Images

For many niches, images in your content will set you apart from your competitors. Many sites don’t use pictures, so you’ll be ahead of the game by the simple action of adding images.

I’m not a good example of this. I always forget to put images on posts, but Adrian has reminded me that images can make a difference.

Images make a site more inviting and welcoming. Images make a site look much better.

Chris Pearson is great at using images on his blog. He’s also a web designer so I’m sure that helps.

Maki at Dosh Dosh is famous for his anime pictures on his making money site.

Iif you’re not using images, brainstorm on the type of images that would fit your site and try them out. See if you get more links, subscribers, and traffic.

Site Design

A well-designed site will always get more links. There are exceptions like Craigslist and Myspace, but for the most part, people like to link to non-ugly sites.

If you’re serious about internet business, you absolutely need to have a good site design. Not only that, but your site design must be usable and easy to navigate.

Domain Name

A clever and/or descriptive domain name is a great online asset for drawing links. In today’s internet world, there’s too many sites to keep track of. A great domain name helps people remember your site. The more they remember your site, the more they visit. The more they visit, the more likely you’ll get a backlink. Even if your site was found once, the internet user may never visit again. Why? Because not everyone knows about browser bookmarks or del.icio.us.

Try keep your domain name short so people can remember it. Long domain names with dashes (learn-how-to-make-a-million-dollars-in-30-days.com) just reek of spam.

Here are some of my favorite domain names in the online business arena.

ProBlogger.com
SEObook.com
College-Startup.com
SEOmoz.com
Performancing.com
Shoemoney.com
CashQuests.com

Unique Content

Of course, content is most important thing to a website. You can have the worst design and still get links with good content. But also what I’m talking about is producing content that no one else is producing. It’s not enough to avoid Google’s duplicate content penalty. There’s also the no-one-will-link-to-you penalty for writing what everyone else is writing about.

For example, I followed a couple blogs covering the popular TV show, Heroes. After a couple days, I realized that all the blogs had the same type of content - episode recaps, pictures, news, and preview clips. You could follow any of the them and get the same information.

A smart Heroes blogger will make sure his blog has different content. He could specialize on lists and get a lot of links. He could write lists like the top 10 moments of season one, 4 interesting plotlines, the top 7 characters, 12 excellent Heroes YouTube clips, etc.

On the other hand, the online marketing/SEO blogosphere is well-saturated with lists. Everyone is doing a list blog post, so writing stuff like “The Top 10 Ways To Rank On Google” may not be the best idea. However, the industry could use more practical content. I haven’t seen too many blogs write about case studies or step-by-step tutorials.

Maybe that’s why Matt got over 1000 Diggs with his tutorial on building a niche minisite. While others were perfecting their top 10 list, Matt found a gap in the industry and took advantage of it.

Here’s the lesson. First, know your niche well. Next, think about the content you wish people would create in your niche. Then, you write that content.

What It Boils Down To

If you want to get the most number of links, your best bet is to be different without being mediocre.

If you have a site exactly like John Chow’s, why would somebody to link to you when they could link to John Chow?

If you’re in ecommerce, don’t try being the next Amazon. It’s probably not gonna happen. You’re better off targeting a niche in a remarkable way (like Woot).

In marketing terms, you need a unique selling proposition, or USP. If you’re not clear on your USP, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and figure out what makes your site different from the rest.

So, what does this all boil down to?

Branding. Good, unique, practical branding. Stuff that sets you apart from the competition. Things that help people remember you site.

Good branding is the best long-term link building solution.

Set your sights high and build a good brand.

What are you doing or need to do to build your site’s brand?

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