The flaw of link bait is clear- no control over the links text. Doing it over many mediums means you don;t know where the contents going. If you write is to well, people will copy it and put it on there site.

@jessedictor - while you don't have control over the link text most people link back with the title of the article. so if you get your keywords in the title, and it's relevent, you likely will be satisfied with the results.

Regarding people stealing content, that's going to happen whether it's a blog post, linkbait, or what it is. If they are scrapers, embed a source link in your content so you'll at least get a crappy link back and it'll be an indicator to search engines where the content originated. Social links pointing back to your site is also a big indicator of content origination but not always.

Great break down of what is involved in link bait. Great read...