Yesterdayâs off-topic post of 250 movies made it to the digg / popular page and is right now climbing on the delicious / popular page (and more delicos would be nice â Hint. Hint.)
But was it REALLY off topic?
Todayâs post will focus on why that post was successful and give you 3 helpful lessons to write better link bait.
The real story started something like this:
From the land of off topic posts I present to you a list of the 250 Best Movies Made in the Last 30 years.
Why the last 30 years?
Well Iâm creeping up on 30. Since Iâll be returning to the States in December for a few weeks I want to get a 500 Gig Hard Disk full of movies I enjoy for my return trip to Brazil. One of the things I miss about being down here is not having access to movies.
So I started researching which films Iâve enjoyed and every time I see these âBest Film Listsâ they always include the same stuff from the 40s 50s 60s and early to mid 70s.
My younger brother owes me about $1500 and he agreed to try to round up and rip all the movies on the list to work off some of what he owes me. I just put in the order for the 500 GB external hard drive and a new Mac Book Pro. Plus Iâm sure if I post a list like this Iâll get some great feed back on the movies I missed.
I took a look at the post as written and realized it was shit. Why should you (my readers) give a rats ass about me? The focus needed to change from ME to YOU for you to be interested. Thatâs when the idea for the first Hook came in:
Wouldnt it be great if you had a 500 Gig Hard Drive full of all the best movies ever made?
By changing the focus from ME and my life to YOU and your life the post becomes 100 fold more engaging. Suddenly weâre working on hooking you up and fulfilling your dream rather than blabbing on and on about my life.
Link Bait Lesson 1: Good link bait focuses on the Reader not the Author.
Now if you recall from the ten ways to make the front page of digg:
9. Insult as many groups as you can. Flamewars are popular for a reason. Throw out bombs that dare people to comment on your story.
I didnât have to just omit the classics â I had to shit on them! That way someone is bound to get pissed off and throw out flames. I had to say that MY list was the best and that if you like old movies you suck. So the intro evolved to:
Who wants to see that old crap?
Link Bait Lesson 2: Controversy will incite passion. Passion drives links.
Then to pepper things up I remembered that everyone hates the RIAA. Since the post was not likely to get many DVD sales if it didnât get links Dugg or Delicoed anyway the best rout was to not bother with those Amazon links (less work less spammy) and say the reason was so that we can sick it to the RIAA!
but Iâd rather you go download or Rent & Rip them just to piss off the RIAA
Manipulative? Sure a little. But thatâs what link bait is. You have to think of these things so your stories have hooks to draw people in.
Link Bait Lesson 3: If you can pile on to a quasi-political cause that has widespread acceptance it will drive support and fanfare.
But Quads â who is the master baiter?
I am. Master Baiting is what I was born to do. 
