OzWebMasters

According to Wikipeida:

Link bait is any content or feature within a website that somehow baits viewers to place links to it from other websites. Matt Cutts defines link bait as anything “interesting enough to catch people’s attention.”^[3] Link bait can be an extremely powerful form of marketing as it is viral in nature.

Here’s a brilliant example - a funny parody of one of the most talked-about sites on the web. Creating it was not expensive, but thinking of it is pure gold. I’m linking to the source because they deserve it:

(yep, it’s too wide for this site - full image here)

(it’s English, so folk from other countries might not get all the jokes…)

Aaron Goldman has found a topic for a blog that will never run out of material - he discusses URLs and whether they are good or bad. An example of bad is the funny SpeedOfArts.com, which could also spell “speedo farts”.

His rules on what makes a good or bad URL are worth paying attention to:

Dos

1. CapitalizeTheFirstLetterOfEachWord.

2. Whenever possible, use YourBrandName.com.

3. If .com is not available, use YourBrandName.net.

4. If .com and .net are taken, find a new brand name. Seriously.

5. Use YourSlogan.com when running an integrated media campaign.

6. Use subdomains when driving people deeper than your homepage — e.g. Product.YourBrandName.com.

Don’ts

1. Don’t include www. We know to go to the World Wide Web to find you.

2. Don’t include http://. If your audience isn’t Web-savvy enough to know where to type the URL, you shouldn’t have a Web site.

3. don’tusealllowercase (canyoureallytellwhereonewordendsandthenextbegins?)

4. DITTOFORALLUPPERCASE

5. No-hyphens/or slashes.

6. Don’t use acronyms, abbreviations, or numbers unless your brand is widely known as such.

7. Don’t bury your URL at the bottom of a billboard. I’m the only nerd driving around with a 4x zoom lens to find URLs.

Michael Organ has written this book and posted it online for all to read, very generous, and befitting the intended audience: Cause Marketers

But just because it is aimed at charities and the like, does not mean it has general usefulness. Indeed I recommend it as an online marketing primer - not the best, but one of the best you’ll find for free.

Witness this press release:

MEDIASPAN’S NETWORK BUSINESS UNIT HAS added nearly a dozen additional newspaper and television Web sites to its network of over 1,200 local Web site affiliates,

What is wrong?

1) No link to their site, forcing me to guess

2) Their name is a superset of a semi-popular web site. They are MediaSpan Network, I went to MediaSpan.com

    I limit my email to once per month, and I have the coupons valid all month. I know nothing about website creation or HTML, but I can fill in the email form, upload my photos and play with the look. Then I hit “send,” and all 1,667 customers receive my specials in their inboxes.

Sounds to me she might be “cannibalizing” her sales a little, but the strategy is sound:

1) You have a real world business
2) Offer a prize worth $200-$500
3) All they need do is fill in a form including email address
4) Tell them you intend to send them vouchers!
5) Send them vouchers sometimes
6) Do anything else that web marketers do - you have an audience!

I enjoyed reading Christopher Locke’s Gonzo Marketing: Winnning through Worst Practices, so am pleased to see that is earlier, famous joint effort is available for free online.

“The power of conversation goes well beyond its ability to affect consumers, business, and products. Market conversations can make — and unmake and remake — entire industries. We’re seeing it happen now. In fact, the Internet itself is an example of an industry built by pure conversation.”