Tag Archives: people

Using Link Bait To Attract Massive Free Traffic

Here is a technique I have long used to attract massive free traffic to some of my websites. Recently, more and more people are discussing this largely intuitive technique, and giving it a variety of names. The name I most embrace is “link bait.”

“Link bait” is anything that you put on your site that encourages others to link to your site, and then drive massive amounts of free traffic to your site by telling others about it. It’s some feature that by it’s very nature makes others reference your site and want to tell others about it.

Examples of this could be a service that they need to visit your site to access, or an outstanding article that they have to visit your site to read, or even some type of list that they need to visit your site to access.

Examples of link bait that I can think of (actual and hypothetical)… things that would cause other webmasters, publishers, and just people in general to send you traffic include:

– The site http://formatit.com/ has a software utility that formats emails for free. This is where I format all of my ezines and emails to a max of 65 characters per line 😉

– The site http://selfpromotion.com/ has a program that allows you to semi-automatically submit your sites to all of the major and minor search engines and directories for free.

– A site that has a listing of all the major blog directories.

– A site that has a listing of all the major places to “ping” when posting to your blog.

– A recipe conversion chart on a cooking site.

– A chart showing calories burned during various exercises.

– A listing (with hot links) and maybe reviews of major internet marketing forums.

– A list of 100 top rated directories to submit your ezine articles to.

– A list of the 100 most popular baby names.

– A list of foods considered aphrodisiacs… and why they work.

… you get the idea!

If you can incorporate something similar to the above on your blog or site, then after the word gets out, it will be natural for people to link to you. They’ll feel good linking to and telling others about your site. People enjoy appearing “in the know.”

You should do some brainstorming today, and see what ideas you can come up with for link bait to add to you site and then tell the world about.

As I said, it can even be an article. For example, an article on how to really optimize a website, 20 top traffic generation methods, some type of webmaster tricks, etc.

As an example, I recently wrote an article, which I expanded into an ebook called “20 Insider Techniques Of A Super Affiliate.” I recently decided to post these techniques as a 20-part series to my blog at http://WillieCrawford.com/blog/

Once people start referring to this series, it will attract traffic to my blog for a very long time. The key then is to have links in my blog’s navigation that make it easy to locate this series even months from now!

Go ahead… do some brainstorming, and then put some link bait on your site. Then tell a few others and ask them to help spread the word. After all, link bait only works if the word gets out. Once it does, the flow of traffic will become unstoppable.

Beating Adware, The Sneakiest Software (Page 1 of 2)

Promoters of adware, software that shows advertising on a user’s computer, use some cunning tricks to get you to install their software on your machine. Here’s what to look out for.

Adware is, by definition, something reasonable people don’t want on their computers. That’s why malware can’t just come out and ask people to install it. Often, the computer owner is completely unaware of it being installed. But not always.

When adware doesn’t want to sneak in through an open window, it will try to trick you into letting it in through the front door. Don’t think you could be tricked? Don’t be so sure until you’ve checked out these most common ways people have been tricked into allowing malware to be installed on their machines.

Adware Installation Trick 1: Piggybacking

• How it works: malware may come bundled with a legitimate piece of software the user actually wants, such as a game or emoticon. The malware is merely labeled “companion software,” without any indication of what it will do.

• How to fight it: be very suspicious of any software that comes bundled with other software. Don’t installed software that comes bundled with other software unless you know everything that the bundled software does. After all, if the bundled program has anything to do with the program you actually want, why couldn’t the software developer just get both programs’ functionalities into a single piece of software? Software developers are now very sensitive to malware concerns and will provide a lengthy explanation of just why the bundled software is necessary, in the cases when they actually do need to use bundled software.

Adware Installation Trick 2: Bait and Switch

• How it works: since people are getting more and more suspicious of bundled software, the malware’s developers may simply label it as valuable software, for instance, a browser plugin that supposedly accelerates web browsing (but in reality only shows ads).

• How to fight it: again, a suspicious mind is useful in avoiding malware. Ask yourself some questions:

o What will this software actually do? Malware often comes with very fuzzy claims attached. Sure, it says it will improve your browsing experience, but how? Often, this improved browsing experience just means a browsing experience with more advertising.

o If the software is so great, why is it being given away free? Most commonly, software is only given out free in two cases: if it’s OpenSource (designed by a community of developers and not proprietary–OpenSource software is always clearly labeled as such); or simply a come-on for a fuller-featured version of the software. If neither case is true, there’s a real chance the software is financed by adware.

Adware Installation Trick 3: Outright Lying

• How it works: malware may even be labeled as something else entirely, such as a well-known piece of software or a crucial component of the computer operating system.