linkbait

Repairacar’s Dream Job Is Awesome Link Bait

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April 12  |  Link Bait Tactics  |   Ryan Clark

I just love it when I get a chance to cover awesome examples of link bait in the wild, and this time it wasn’t really intended to be link bait. I’m a daily reader of Autoblog.com and came across this post about how Repairacar.co.uk’s latest job offer is a dream position that is going to become reality. The job is basically picking up and returning people’s amazing exotic and luxury cars to and from the shop. What gets even better, that might require him to drive to all corners of Europe! I’d literally pack up and move over there for the job, and I imagine most of you fellow car nuts would as well.

Because of the high-liability nature of the job, Repairacar is being very particular about whom it will hire. Ten years’ experience with high-performance driving is a requirement of the job, and showing up for your interview in a Civic with a fart pipe will likely get you automatically disqualified.

Now I’m sure a lot of you have used a job/hiring process into your companies link building plan, but how often does a job go viral? I already mentioned the Autoblog post, as well Carscoop wrote about it and now they’ll have dozens of other sites doing the same. These are amazing, niche related links and it would do you some good to pay attention to how it all plays out. They’ll surely be getting a lot of Twitter traffic, and I hope they really pimp this on Facebook because it could result in a lot of new followers.

How could Repairacar keep things going in the marketing department? Well if I were them, which I clearly wish I was, I’d do the following to maximize this exposure.

  • Video document the first client’s “trip”
  • Offer a discount for the first client
  • Create a video podcast with the best cars/trips
  • Hold a driving test and release the candidate videos online
  • Press release for more exposure
  • Repeat the process again when they need a second drive(or just hire me)

It’s also nice to see some link bait that isn’t a lame infographic, nor a top x list or anything of the usual sort. I also offer my congrats to whomever manages to get this job, but I also secretly hate you. If you folks see anything like this ever, give us a shout via our contact form, Twitter or Facebook so we can blog about it!

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Hennessey Performance: Cadillac Wagon vs GTR R35

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March 16  |  Link Bait Tactics  |   Ryan Clark

While the auto world has been chatting up a storm over a video put out by the fine folks at Hennessey Performance, they’ve been lapping up the exposure. While you folks are in for another motorsport marketing example from me, and this won’t be the last but I’ll at least keep it short. They pitted their latest beast of a creation, their Cadillac wagon vs my personal favorte, the Nissan GTR. They ran the car on slicks against last years Nissan which is what has most people bickering about all over the web. Moral of the story? A little controversy that pits people against people will always drive traffic and branding your way. The story has been picked up on Autoblog.com and Jalaponik, two of the biggest auto industry blogs there are. Not to mention that, but Twitter and just about every related car forum is linking and chatting up a storm. All I can say is, way to go Hennessey and keep up the great work! Our CEO is saving his pennies for your Venom GT and he has very sexy dreams about that car every night!

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3 Places To Launch Your Link Bait

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January 25  |  Link Bait Tactics  |   Ryan Clark

In this day and age it is becoming increasingly more difficult to go viral. This is especially true for companies to overcome the feel of spam which means creativity is your only weapon. Comedy is usually the best weapon, and creating the content isn’t the easiest of tasks. Old Spice obviously hit the nail on the head with their commercials and ran with it just long enough to keep the brand in the minds of millions. They’ll most likely never be able to duplicate that amount of buzz again, but take a look at just how much traffic they got blasted with;

For most of the companies out there trying to get a piece of the pie, they’ll most likely not have the option to just launch viral right from their website. Getting that extra push will require the help of the social web, and while getting hot on Digg just isn’t as easy these days, there are other places to turn your attention to. Keep in mind you cannot just jump on these sites and expect to go viral, it could happen but most likely not. Building your social fan base is key, and for this we recommend building up a couple months of fans and social participation on these sites.

Launchpad 1) BuzzFeed.com

Buzz Feed is not only a great site to read on a daily basis, it is also a great place to go viral. I’m an active user here just for the purposes of entertainment, but if you got some hilarious or strange link bait, you stand a great chance of getting attention. Keep in mind on a site like this there are thousands of other content pieces in the queue, so you’re link bait is going to need to be grade A awesome. Have your social media manager build up a strong account here beforehand and put forth a positive image of your brand. From the viral content we’ve launched here, you’ll see a lot of Facebook shares and ReTweets from the users, as well the thousands of sites that aggregate the content.

Launchpad 2) Reddit.com

Reddit is my favorite website, I’m personally a 4 year user and couldn’t live without it! Reddit is not a site you can game very easily, nor do I recommend trying to at all. Their user base is above and beyond the childish Digg user, and they can smell a spam scam from a mile away. The only advice I can give you is to have awesome content and wait for a Reddit user to submit it on their own merit. If you’re team has a good account, make sure you stick to the sub-reddits which will greatly increase your popularity. If you can get content to go hot here, you’re in for a large amount of traffic!

Launchpad 3) Huffington Post

All you right wingers out there might be scoffing at this recommendation, but the left just does entertainment news so much better. This is mainly a news site, but it does have a very popular entertainment section where you’ll find write-ups on the latest viral content going around. This site is also user powered which means you can sign up, write your own posts and participate socially throughout the site. If your link bait is hot hot hot, then you’re chances to getting it to go viral from this site is very good. This is a place you’re going to want to build an account up for as well, don’t bother just signing up for the sole purpose of submitting one piece of content. Social media is about building relationships, so keep that in mind before you try and become a one post wonder.

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This is the section where I plead, beg and ask for our readers to suggest other sites that they are fond of. There are dozens of great sites to launch your link bait from so lets here em! If your company is struggling with its own viral marketing efforts then this is where I’ll offer our link baiting services.

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Interview With Jordan Kasteler On Link Bait Tactics

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January 25  |  Link Bait Tactics  |   Ryan Clark

Here’s a great interview with Jordan Kasteler of Blue Glass (formerly Search & Social) where he gives a huge list of link-baiting ideas. It isn’t easy to go viral these days, but there is more ways than one so pay close attention to what Jordan has to say. Creativity is key here, and this video interview at Pubcon certainly reminded me of the variety of options a company has to play with. Good luck and if you get stuck, you can always get our help with link baiting.

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Linkbuildr Trademarks Use of the Word “Link”, Tries to Sue Nintendo

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November 24  |  Link Bait Tactics  |   Geoff

techcrunch logoRyan sent me a link today with a rather unbelievable headline.  According to TechCrunch, The US “Patent Office Agrees To Facebook’s ‘Face’ Trademark”. But trademarking a single word has famously been denied many a times before and why should Facebook be any different? Well, it isn’t.  Obviously, like all major news outlets, bloggers can sensationalize their titles to get people’s attention and maybe even get them a little worried about the power that some of these massive corporations wield.  As it turns out, Facebook does not own the word “face” and won’t anytime soon.  The title, however would have you believe that they do. Not unlike this post, TechCrunch’s article doesn’t really get into detail and Alexia only writes 180 some odd words on the subject.  You can’t really explain the intricacies of the US Patent and Trademark Office’s decision to accept Facebook’s proposal in 180 words and they know this.

facebook logoWhat TechCrunch is really going after is the fact that your ignorance of trademarks and willingness to overreact to a headline will translate to controversy and some activity on their website. It works too; they got a link out of me… In the 19 hours the article has been up, it has received 786 Facebook likes, and more than 1200 retweets. In reality, Facebook is going to have no legal grounds to come after you for using the word “face” and this Trademark will in no way affect your life even in the slightest. What the Trademark does do is grant Facebook the use of the word “face” in electronic and online applications offering social services. If you are trying to brand or market the word “face” for a social networking app and it has nothing to do with the literal definition of face, you might have some issues. Hell, I don’t even know how true that is. They really have played to my ignorance.

One of the few reasonable comments left stated that this is very similar to how Caterpillar trademarked the use of the word “cat” when it comes to construction equipment. nobody else can make a backhoe called a “Cat” but they have no say over things like CatFeeder or lolCats. This hasn’t really ended the world.

Anyways, I’ve nearly doubled the amount of the original article so I’m going to shut up here. Just remember that if you can bring some emotion out of a reader, be it fear, hatred, sadness, or amazement, the odds that you will get a click in and a link back are vastly improved. You don’t even need to have any idea what it is you’re talking about!

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Tequila Avion + Entourage = Big Brand Linkbait

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September 16  |  Brand Building  |   Ryan Clark

I end up watching a few shows here and there in my downtime and always enjoy Entourage for its blatant but workable product plugs. There has been a lot of talk lately about building brand links, and I thought we could dig a little deeper into that using the show. If you’ve been following the latest season, Turtle has been trying to make his next business venture with Tequila Avion. It’s a new luxury brand on the market, and has been a heavy set feature of the entire season. I took a look at the company after watching the final season and learned that it’s still in its infancy which makes it a great case study waiting to happen. Apparently, the owners are friends with show producer Doug Ellin and didn’t have to pay a dime for any marketing…makes you rethink your social networking tactics eh?

Avion Tequila LLC was formed by a group of entrepreneurs and beverage industry professionals with the sole purpose of creating and developing a tequila that defines a new standard of quality and taste. The announcement was made by Ken Austin, Founder and Chairman of Tequila Avion.

A Brand Going Viral

Breaking into the Tequila market won’t be an easy task, but done right the Avion investors should be sitting pretty. Since they’re a company with a virgin backlink profile, and a viral snowball effect that is currently hurtling towards success, I’d keep my eye on them as a shining example. Companies in the position to utilize these types of marketing channels will win big online without having to steer down a blackhat path.

If you have SEOQuake installed, load it up and take a quick look at the natural links obtained from the whole process. If you take a look at Google Blog search you’ll also see tons of sites spreading the good word. So you know that most backlink tools haven’t even caught up with the viral link effect, and I’m quite excited to check back in a month from now to see how the growth is going…so nerdy and sad, I know. No wonder my friends say I need to get out more.

Of course you’ll find this social media savvy company on Twitter and is doing a good job growing the brand from there. While everyone tends to want followed anchor text friendly links these days, they’re not all the rage anymore. URL shortening and social media networks have proven that there is more than one type of link on the block. Do a search at any given minute and you’ll see fans of the show and brand tweeting about where they got the product, that they’re drinking it now and uploading tons of their own media. You really cannot ask for a more when it comes to marketing these days. We’ll see if I’m right, and we’ll put Google Trends on my side as well..just to make me feel better.

Since blogging, social networks and apps you can bet that Avion will be featured on just about every luxury, drink, food and celebrity blog. So how is this going to really make a dent within say, the Google organic results? Well first of all, their brand name has their target keyword in the name. So this means the domain, and on-page SEO will pretty much take care of itself. There will be no need for a company like this to need targeted anchor text links…but don’t get me wrong, those links wouldn’t hurt either. As it currently stands, Tequila Avion isn’t ranking well at all for the keyword Tequila, but it’s really too early to tell. I imagine with the final season of Entourage the company will enjoy enough of a push to obtain a strong enough link profile to rank.

I’ll do my best to make the time to bring you more unique brands taking advantage of what’s going on right now in marketing. I still see so much cheesy, lame and downright terrible marketing efforts taking place these days..it’s sad really. I’ll also do my best to update this post later on, so if you see my slacking don’t hesitate to get in touch with me or send me a menacing tweet.

Read a follow up to their marketing: http://www.linkbuildr.com/tequila-avion-brand-update/

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Matt Cutts on Linkbait

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May 14  |  Link Building  |   Ryan Clark
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Lane Bryant Banned Commercial = My Favorite Viral Marketing

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April 25  |  Viral Marketing  |   Ryan Clark

Sex sells, and I’m quite fine with that. Lane Bryant seems to know its niche well, and when you’re in the lingerie business, it’s not hard to sell sexy. Combine that with a racy commercial that gets banned and a 40% discount, and you got yourself a viral marketing hit. This commercial wasn’t allowed on the air by Fox or ABC, but Youtube has it currently at 1.7 million views and counting. This is another clear cut example of how regular television just isn’t effective, and surely fears this style of marketing. This commercial will most likely see another million views and will have surely paid off itself a few times over.

This is proof in action that content is king, and if you’re in the position to create content like this for your brand don’t hesitate. You can only imagine the type of links they’re receive from this campaign. CNN, blogs, news sites, social networks and video sites galore have all got it mentioned which has resulted in a next level boost in targeted traffic. I thought this campaign was a great example of viral marketing that was still somewhat fresh and in the mix.

I have no clue why they were banned but I don’t think I would have cared all that much if I were doing their marketing. They’re actively engaging the situation via all social media channels, and I commend their efforts! You can see from a nifty little web tool called Twitterholic that within a year they’ve managed to leverage a nice targeted social media following. I hope you folks take this example in deep, because it is a perfect example of getting brand awareness and maximum link acquisition in one go.

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