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.

As the internet evolved and websites became a source of information and revenue, it was inevitable that a measuring and regulating mechanism be introduced so that people wishing for information or to make a purchase were led to the right website. Since the maximum traffic to a website is driven from search engines, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) became the buzzword for websites and the one aspect of SEO that has emerged as having critical importance is LINK BUILDING . The reason for this is not hard to understand. Links are the most objective and unbiased evaluation of a website’s worth….. Well, at least in theory they are; however, knowing man’s penchant for shortcuts to success, it’s not surprising that this beautiful and simple tool for helping websites grow has been abused. Yet, do not mistake the power of organically acquired links. They are still the most potent weapon in your arsenal for obtaining traffic and converting leads into sales. This is the reason why you need to understand the importance of links and how to acquire them.

Since links equal popularity in cyberspace which in turn means a successful website, the art of acquiring links has grown in sophistication with time. Search engines frown on links acquired through underhand tactics such as link farms or wholesale link exchanges with non-relevant websites. The important thing these days is to get links from sites that are already established authorities in your field or at the very least they should accord the same significance to the subject of your blog/website.

On the internet world, people spend hundred of dollars to get traffic to their websites. One way to get more visitors dropping on your site is to have a predefined strategy for link building.

The basic concept of link building is to get as much links of your sites sprinkled all over the Worldwide Web. Now, that is how most people thought it should be, but strategic link building tells you that there is more to it than exchanging and posting your links to every single site possible. Link building is an effective way to get more traffic and get more revenues for your sites.

You too can start your own link building campaign at any given time. Here are simple and effective link building strategies you can follow to spread to the word that your sites exist.

Know who your target visitors are

The first strategy in link building is to know who your potential visitors and potential clients will be. You must understand by heart the behavior of your own market. Put yourself in their shoes. For instance, if you have a site where you sell your own e-books, where do you think most people would go if they want to buy e-books? Give that thought a moment, then you go visit the sites you thought of and exchange links with that site.

It pays to have a good content

You would never go wrong with quality contents. They are the life source of any sites. People search the web for something to read in the first place and to get information. If you have sensible and useful content, other sites would definitely give you a link.

Make your content SEO-friendly

Strategic link building thrives on how contents are written. Online users should be able to read your keyword enriched articles as natural as search engines do. Be aware of the right keywords for your site and generously scatter them on titles, descriptions, headings and main body of your site, most especially on the linking text.

Media sites are a good place to start

If you are set to start a link building campaign, better start one at media sites. Strategic locations like these can jumpstart your campaign for traffic. If you get linked to one of these sites, others would be encouraged to link you as well because these sites have an extremely large audience.

Identify your link targets

Link building strategy is basically knowing the tops sites where you are likely to attract visitors and adding your own link to that site. It is like building your network of links and all the sites you chose has a common denominator that is associated to your site. List down at least a hundred of these sites and check each site if they can post your link if you write a review or submit your writings to their site. If users are interested in the sites you chose to have a link on, they are most likely to pay your site a visit as well.

Evaluate your link building campaign

To know if your link building strategies worked, you should monitor your traffic closer. Determine which sites generated more visitors. Check your search engine ranking and more importantly, how your revenues increased because of your link building strategies.