Is honesty the best form of linkbait?

Loren Feldman from 1938 posted a video on his blog saying that linkbait is for losers and honesty is the best form of linkbait. While I can appreciate Loren's opinion and he is definitely on to something I think maybe he went a bit to far. Yes, social media marketing should be executed in a way that you never want to lie to your customers and you should always be open and honest. But at the same time crafting a message with clever titles is just plain smart marketing.

I am not suggesting that you lie and maybe Loren is just trying to say that content shouldn't be created for the purpose of linkbait, or becoming viral. But that is like saying you shouldn't create a funny commercial with the intention of getting a lot of people to view it and laugh about it, it's all just marketing

One thing is for sure though, Loren's video was brutally honest and he is sure to get a bunch of links from it.

[via: Search Marketing Gurus]

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Muhammad Saleem, January 29, 2007

I think Tony at DJI said it best:

"You know what? It makes sense to me. In fact, its always made sense to me.

Linking to interesting, link-worthy content?

What an idea.

What��s confusing is why the jargon-y type of term like ��Linkbait�� is still being used. I mean, why don��t we just call a cow a cow, and call it ��creating great content��?"

Linkbait is just another name for interesting content that is guaranteed to get linked to, and there's nothing wrong with aspiring to produce such content.

Let me push the envelope a little and suggest that one should aspire to make every post good enough to warrant linkbacks. i.e. every post you write should be linkbait.

Kian Ann, January 31, 2007

I think it makes sense... but what is underlying it is the value of the content. Great content does not have to be honest content (although most of the time it is), and honest content are not always great. :P