10 Link Bait Tips for Small Business Marketing

by Dev Basu on September 18, 2008

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Creative Commons License photo credit: robertodevido

Small Biz Can be Creative Too

Sometimes it can be pretty hard to come up with creative social media link bait ideas for otherwise un-interesting small businesses. After brainstorming for a bit, I think I’ve come up with some ideas that can be applied to almost any SMB regardless of what they do. If I’ve missed anything you can come up with, leave me a comment and I’ll credit you in the post.

10 Creative Ideas for SMB Social Media

  1. What to Ask Your [Business Type] Before Hiring Them.
  2. 10 Ways To Save Money by Using a [Business Type].
  3. How to Choose a Good [Business Type].
  4. 5 Totally New Ways of Sprucing up Your [Business Services].
  5. How to Get 50% Off Your Next [Business Service].
  6. The Latest and Greatest in [Business Service].
  7. 10 DIY [Business Service] Tips You Can Use Today.
  8. 15 Factors That Affect Your [Business Service] Quote.
  9. How to Become a Certified [Business Service] in 6 Months.
  10. Ten Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a [Business Type].

Real Life Examples of The Above

  1. What to Ask Your Car Mechanic Before Hiring Them .
  2. 10 Ways To Save Money by Using a Chartered Accountant.
  3. How to Choose a Good Mover.
  4. 5 Totally New Ways of Sprucing up Your Interior Design.
  5. How to Get 50% Off Your Next Oil Change.
  6. The Latest and Greatest in Aromatic Massage Oils.
  7. 10 DIY Carpentry Tips You Can Use Today.
  8. 15 Factors That Affect Your Car Insurance Quote.
  9. How to Become a Certified Hair Stylist in 6 Months.
  10. Ten Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Plumber.
  1. WordStream Launches Two Free Niche Marketing Tools for SEO and PPC...
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  3. Speaking at Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2009...
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{ 17 trackbacks }

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{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }

Bilal Jaffery September 18, 2008 at 10:30 pm

Great post Dev!

Michael D September 18, 2008 at 11:41 pm

What’s so great about a list like this is that a small business owner can easily put all 10 of those tips into action asap. Who knows more about choosing a good [your industry here] than you?

While not viral, a few years ago I wrote an article I had a lot of knowledge on [how much money a chiropractor can make]. It’s been a solid source of traffic ever since it posted. I will almost guarantee similar searches are taking place in [your industry here].

Dev Basu September 19, 2008 at 7:04 am

@Bilal – Thanks!
@ Michael D – Glad you found it to be useful. Do you have a link to that article of your’s? I bet it’d be a good read.

Jeremy September 22, 2008 at 9:35 am

Great content ideas. How often have we heard, “oh none of that viral marketing stuff works for me, my business is too niche…”?

Do you suggest packaging stories like these and pitching to bloggers and journalists for syndication/re-publishing, or just putting it out on your blog and trying to attract inlinks? Seems like some industries require that you bring the content to them.

Earn money online September 22, 2008 at 12:07 pm

Great article here. Thanks for sharing. Creativity is the key to success.

Dev Basu September 22, 2008 at 1:19 pm

@Jeremy – You bet, I’ve worked with clients in the ultra interesting industry related to fuel cards for example, but there’s always something creative that can be done with such clients (all credit goes to a former coworker of mine who came up with such awesome ideas).

I would just put them out on your blog as much as possible, while either syndicating to other outlets, article marketing, or even doing PR releases where appropriate. If the article gains no steam in social media or search, then revise the titles and content a bit and make it fodder for article marketing.

Internet Marketing Joy September 22, 2008 at 3:31 pm

These are really great and interesting ideas for small business marketing…I’m sure lots of small business owners will find these ideas helpful..^^ anyways thanks a lot for sharing it with us..^^

Amy September 23, 2008 at 10:09 am

Great article…and excellent advice!

As a small business owner engaging in SEO, I have successfully employed some of the same strategies on my own website. We, as small business owners, have a rich collection of experience and knowledge that can create powerful content…the cornerstone of any SEO strategy.

In particular, we are a home remodeling contractor and put together a section on how to choose a remodeling contractor. This is relevant, interesting content to our target market and has subsequently received great traffic.

wheel September 24, 2008 at 7:01 am

That was a concise yet fabulous post – simple but very stimulating! Those are some great ideas.

jen mallery September 28, 2008 at 4:01 am

Great list. I remember reading somewhat that 10-best-type “lists” like this have one of the best possibilites of becoming a viral article. If you look at Digg, you’ll notice that a lot of the articles at the top are actually lists of some sort.

Marketers World October 18, 2008 at 12:01 pm

Great template Dev.

Crafting an article title, is one of my weakness.

Once I wrote an article [Weight loss advice: Why you shouldn't consider becoming anorexic], and it is still giving me traffic till today. But I still couldn’t figure out why that article is so outstanding compared to other articles I wrote. Maybe because it was written with lots of passion.

Marlene Affeld January 8, 2009 at 12:15 pm

Thank you for all the on target advice. I am building a new website and have been applying your advice and it is starting to bring traffic. You are a great resource.

Pam Grubbs January 16, 2009 at 6:39 pm

Thanks for posting this very helpful article. Being new to the business end of a jewelry online business, I am taking a lot of time to read and learn about all the aspects of being successful. People like us make it because of people like you!

Angela February 24, 2009 at 3:28 pm

Doing some keyword research can help prioritize which topics would work best or should be handled first for a web site. For instance, a “how to” query might be more popular than a “why” query, depending on the business.

DeViLnoAnGeL InFo March 25, 2009 at 2:13 pm

i see know, thats why the title always look like a sentences, so maybe this will triggered the keyword to the title post. thanks man for showing me how to make a good title.

john April 6, 2009 at 12:08 am

Thanks for sharing! Tips like these are pure gold!
:)

Ecommerce Help - Tyrone Shum May 11, 2009 at 4:40 am

These tips sure are great. Especially if you are suffering from the i-dont-know-what-to-wrtie-about-anymore syndrome, small biz sure are great since majority of the people look up how-tos and facts online. I also think that having these type of topics will surely attract traffic since it answers a lot of queries.

Process Pipe - Adi May 28, 2009 at 6:20 pm

I was actually reading , “did you graduate link building …..”
when I found this. This is so much Info do you think I should run blog on my website or just have blog hosted by google and then write articles about sites that I promote……

Thank you for a overwhelming amount of good info.
Adnan

Alex Raymond May 29, 2009 at 3:20 am

I’ve got the same issue…currently running two blogs in two different languages and trying to figure out how to centralize and make the best use of them. The blogs are related to finance certifications and compliance systems, which are relevant to my business, I just wanted to take a less sales-y approach to marketing.

Appreciate your comments.

Jonathan June 2, 2009 at 4:39 pm

Gorilla marketing in today’s economy is everything, marketing to get through the recession!
If your interested in web optimization for your site, there is a free site for uploading video ads for your business, they also have image uploads if you are not yet up to videos. The more sites you can link to the greater your market will be. They have a free link exchange as well.

 http://adwido.com



Charlotte Homes June 24, 2009 at 7:02 pm

Dev, I like your ideas and plan to put some of them to work in my real estate marketing.

Tom McCarrick July 24, 2009 at 9:08 pm

Nice blog – good use of thesis

Tom

Pi TASARIM July 31, 2009 at 3:12 am

Tnx .. People like us make it because of people like you!

Aaron July 31, 2009 at 6:51 am

I completely agree, there are ways to create linkbait articles for any industry. The key questions to ask yourself are:

1. Do people search online for the type of products/services you offer?
2. If so, what questions specifically are they looking to have answered by searching online for your products/services?

devsmith July 31, 2009 at 9:41 am

Business Advertising Agency – To help small and medium businesses to reach their target market. We put your advertisement on the highest trafficked local Houston websites partners we are with.

Maren Finzer August 12, 2009 at 9:14 pm

These are fabulous tips for the small business owner. I help entrepreneurs build and develop their personal brands, and these can translate perfectly for every single one of them. Thanks so much for sharing!

web design glossop August 14, 2009 at 5:33 am

Great article and very useful info for a small business blogger

Anand September 18, 2009 at 4:16 am

Great article. Thanks for sharing this great information. Link bait is important and the message you send in your article, press release, or other web content needs to be “linkable” and “link worthy”.

Alex October 2, 2009 at 4:02 pm

Nice. Linkbait is a new term but I think I get it. Thank you.

Shubham February 11, 2010 at 9:08 am

Well its new for me too..Well explained…! i got you..!

Matt Saunders July 13, 2010 at 9:17 am

These are all great examples of articles, but surely anybody would have a tough time turning them into link bait.

I’ve seen a million articles on “5 new ways to…” or “10 questions to as you…”. Excellent for article distribution I’m sure but as link bait – content that will be shared across different platforms by third parties for the purpose of earning backlinks – unlikely.

Unless of course the content was absolutely fantastic and featured on an authority source to begin with, but therein lies the problem.

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