The big event that I had worked for so hard with my colleagues went off smoothly; in fact it was super duper. No, am not blowing my own trumpet, check what Saptarshi has to say about it. The stars of the show held at Hotel Clarks Inn were of course Andy Hagans and Rich McIver. They held forth on SEO, Link Building, and Link Baiting techniques and the sixty odd lucky guys who attended the show were held in thrall.

The learning was great, the discussions yielded a lot on the subjects, thoughts, notes, and contact numbers were exchanged. The event was a great opportunity for SEO enthusiasts to learn about their craft and build relationships. Lest you think, it was all work let me tell you that there was a lot of play as well. A cocktail party with peppy Bollywood tunes had everybody in the mood for some dancing; Andy made a good fist of shaking a leg and Rich commandeered the mike and let us have his rendition of Hotel California.

The latest news is that am playing host to Andy and Rich and we are off to see the Taj Mahal, will keep you guys posted and add pics as well.

Neil Patel moved from London to California in 1998 and has since then established a name for himself in the SEO circles. His ventures Pronet and Crazy Egg have been well-received. I thought his next step would be to try and become the king, (if not the king then at least duke, earl, etc) in the SEO kingdom. But it looks like our Neil fancies himself as a princess.

What is this about – a new age stress busting therapy, a crusade for gender equality or is Neil desperate for attention. Hmmm…Neil = Princess, wonder how this will impact Google’s equity when people search for “Princess” and Neil’s slender smiling visage shows up.

Here’s a quick question for all you link-building champions out there – What do Paris Hilton and link building have in common? The answer is VISIBILITY. Guys, we can learn a thing or two from the millionaires’ babe about capturing mind space, all we then need to do is apply that philosophy to link building. The heart of the matter in SEO is links and Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz opines that even if the content is not that great, if you can manage to get links you’re in business. This does not mean that content is out of fashion, it only means that great content is only a means to the end.

So, like Paris you got to ensure that the netizens pay attention to you, a great way is to catch the attention of social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us, and Reddit. Social bookmaring is currently the rage in the link building scene and used intelligently, which means you don’t end up getting banned for gaming the system, you can really profit from such sites. A great way to post your content to these social bookmarking sites without having to actually go to each of them is to use tools like http://www.onlywire.com, http://ekstreme.com/socializer, and www.tagtooga.com/pg/delicioso. These allow you to submit your links and tags to various social bookmarking sites at one go.

You need to be particularly keen if it is a blog or a website that represents a known brand. People expect more of a website in terms of quality, online presence, and ranking when the site has to do with a respected brand. So, you are essentially putting your brand at stake when you decide to go online. Thus it is fair to say that brand building equates link building and as links grow so does your brand.

In an ideal world you would create content, impress the hell out of webmasters and they would come running to you with links, alas its an imperfect world we live in and to get links, we first need to drive traffic to our site and how do you get traffic…. well – through links. This is the Catch-22 that pushes webmasters to tactics that include begging, borrowing, buying, and stealing and in the process invoking the wrath of the search engines. Reciprocal linking is not dead but is quite frowned upon and so is purchasing text links; however, these are not illegal.

For those who are beginners and even the experienced ones, there is a quick crash course on link building at http://www.isedb.com/db/articles/1534/. The hottest link building strategy doing the rounds these days is link baiting – a catchy name for getting links, basically it involves some ego massage, you write some nice stuff about a guy, tell him about it, and either obliquely or blatantly ask for a link. A well-written link bait article can get you a lot of trusted links that can boost your site’s traffic and consequently your AdSense earnings.

So, girdle up buddy, seize the day and unleash the link lions within you. Systematic effort is all that is required.

Link baiting: verb; the process of creating natural inbound links to ones own website by creating remarkable content.

“It means to create something that naturally attract backlinks for your web page by getting people to talk about it, discussing it on forums, blogging about i, posting it on del.icio.us/Furl/Digg/Shoutwire and linking to it from their sites. It also attracts a lot of visitors.” By Jim Westergren

Now that you know what link baiting is, how do you go about doing it and why? If you don’t know how to or don’t want to dedicate the time to link baiting, are there services that can help? These questions and more are answered below.

Purpose of Link Baiting
If you have a website, any website, you want to attract a specific type of person to view your content. Whether it’s a “See my Family” or “Buy my Widget” site, you have information, services or merchandise you want to distribute.

The purpose of link baiting is to build traffic to your site. Unlike a land-based storefront where your customers can see you as they pass by, web visitors won’t know where you’re at (your URL) unless you get your address into cyberspace. By link baiting, you are helping your potential visitors find you.

Ways of the Successful Link Baiter
In the real estate business, the key mantra is “location, location, location.” Your URL is your location and, unless you’re on Main Street, you need to draw attention to your address. This can be achieved by adding neon lights, in the form of original content, illuminating the way.

Avoid duplicated content – articles or information that appears the same or very similar to articles or information on other sites – as it will tend to not rank as well as unique content.

When creating or purchasing content, your title should grab the attention of potential visitors. The title should contain the keywords that sufficiently describe your article. Ultimately, the title needs to be remarkable or outrageous enough to encourage bookmarks and links.

So what types of link bait work well? Regardless of your product, service or information, you can post a “Top 101” list for your field. These are easy for visitors to read and you can incorporate keywords multiple times while maintaining a clean look. While you’re at it, add “Tips for”, “Myths About” and “Jokes and Stories” sections about your industry or field.

Interview an industry big-wig. Not only will it make them feel important but you’ll get hits based on their name appearing on your site. Consider posting surveys, industry news reports and studies on your site.

Professional Services
If all this seems an impossibly large task to take on or if you prefer to spend time running your business instead of marketing it online, there are professional link baiting services available. Andy Hagans, an Internet industry expert, has a link baiting service available at http://www.andyhagans.com/link-baiting.php, with the price starting at $4,000 USD. Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz also offers a link baiting service available at http://www.seomoz.org/linkbait.php, starting at $20,000 USD. Both are well-known SEO professionals with a track record of impressive results.