Here at Alloyfish we've mixed feelings about bait, but there's one kind of bait which we unanimously support: link bait.
Far from being a tasty treat containing a barbed ticket to the deep frier, link baiting is a positive way of engaging with the wider internet community whilst raising the profile of your site.
See this extract;
"As much as you find your flea-ridden begging and wildlife chasing cat adorable, I cannot stand seeing it climbing into my garden. You have never asked permission to use my garden for exercising your cat, and if you cannot control your cat then you need to keep it locked. His next visit will be his last. I have a large butterfly net and a bucket of water at the ready and I will drown it and throw it out with the trash."
Why would someone write such a thing? Anger at a cat straying into their garden? Possible, but unlikely. The author is hoping to inspire a campaign of hate against himself from cat owning webmasters and bloggers; in order to denounce the cat-killing plan, a cat lover will almost certainly link to the offending article and boost the status of the author's website if not its reputation.
A cat-killing letter is very confrontational. It's like swinging a fist at someone to get them to swing one back. There are other ways to get the audience to link to you; we will discuss more of them here at Alloyfish's Inside Track so bookmark us and learn.
Alloyfish
