Linkbait Debate: Spam or Not?

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33
Sphinn It!

Went Hot: Nov 13, 2007 - 03:45 pm
Posted By: ViperChill 819 Days ago
Source: http://blog.dolphinpromotions.co.uk
Category: Link Building

So there has been a lot of mention about linkbait over the past few months. Some SEOs seem to treat it as the be all and end all when it comes to promoting a site. While I have no doubt it can be superb for a promoting a site by generating incoming links and, in my opinion more importantly, increasing a blogs subscription level it has also generated a huge spam issue.

7 Comments

Comments

from DolphinPromotions 819 Days ago #

Votes: 2

Hey thanks for sphinning(is that right?) my story!

from ViperChill 819 Days ago #

Votes: 2

Yeah I guess that’s what you call it, there’s no rules though. Call it whatever you want.No problem, was an interesting piece.

from MediaMonkey 818 Days ago #

Votes: 1

Intresting Article. Digg and its spam drive me mad too!!

from Jill 818 Days ago #

Votes: 1

Isn’t linkbait simply creating something really cool, unique or whatever, that is worth linking to? How could that ever be considered spam?

from lasellers 818 Days ago #

Votes: 1

Frankly the article just seems to be an attempt to get other people to agree that linkbait == spam. It does not. Spam is essentially "active" -- it pushes in an attempt to get an immediate visceral reaction of some kind (clicking mainly). The desire for which soon or immediately passes. It most likely will result in a negative or empty emotion.The classic "linkbait" in general is a more passive thing. It is viral in nature and results in positive emotions -- perhaps even elitist feelings for being among the first to stumble *cough* *cough* upon it. With good link bait a person who adds the link may want to share their find with others. The link will also persist upon a site for many years (and through possibly several different "webmasters"). Doesn’t sound like "spam" to me at all.

from leadegroot 818 Days ago #

Votes: 2

One can do spammy things with linkbait, but it isn’t of itself spam.

from DolphinPromotions 818 Days ago #

Votes: 0

@Jill yes that is totally true. The problem in my eyes is that people try and exploit that fact by ripping off other peoples work and also artificially generating attention to it so they can reap the benefits of it rather than the original auther.@Lasellers, I suppose Spam is not the correct term for what I have written about, and I do not mean to try and get people to percieve linkbait as spam. I actually said in the article that some members of Digg may think linkbait as spam, I have read Digg for a while now and some users just seem to bitch about everything on there. The 1st few examples I gave were viral in nature and they were all positive. Wether someone writes something to act delibrately as linkbait or not it is normally it can be an intresting, useful or fun thing to view for many years. However ripping an article off and then trying to gain the benefits that stumble/digg etc gains you is, in my opinion, unfair and very similar to spam techniques. I am sure anyone that reads Digg has seen crap blogs/websites covered in adsense adverts reach the front page with a plagerised article or ripped off pictures that have been on the front page half a dozen times before.