Initially Search Engine Journal was going to include Best Linkbait as a category in our 2nd Annual Search Blogs Awards, but not all linkbait is done on a search blog.
In fact, some of the best linkbait of the year was outside of the searchosphere realm and made its way outside of the barrel (thanks to viral marketing, social optimization, and good ol’ press & public relations).
Salary.com’s Housewife Salary Calculations which came out on Mothers’ Day is a great example.
As for publisher oriented linkbait, who will forget Chris Hooley’s DrinkBait? Or the V7ndotcom Elursrebmem SEO contest?
So, as a follow up to the 2006 Search Blogs Awards Nominations and Awards (which are currently now up for voting), please take the time to nominate your favorite Linkbait campaigns of 2006 in the comment fields below.
Comments
26 responses so far ↓
Neil Patel on Dec 20, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Elf Yourself (http://www.elfyourself.com/)
187,000 plus links according to Yahoo Site Explorer.
Todd on Dec 20, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Some of the burgerking stuff this year really rocked - I love the pocket bike “kings pain is your gain” commercial.
The “shave everywhere” campaign.
Drinkbait still wins hands down.
randfish on Dec 20, 2006 at 7:24 pm
Lonelygirl15
Zillow housing price estimator tool
Red Paperclip Guy
Million Dollar Homepage
Loren Baker, Editor on Dec 20, 2006 at 7:28 pm
Awesome suggestions Rand & Neil.
And thanks for adding a metric to the listing Neil, ideally such metrics should be part of judging the competition.
Perhaps:
* Yahoo Backlinks
* Technorati Links & Buzz
* Diggs
* Bookmarks
* Compete.com Snapshot
* Keotag Link Lists?
Loren Baker, Editor on Dec 20, 2006 at 7:34 pm
Todd, didn’t Chris Boggs use the Shave Everywhere example in his presentation, I’ll have to look that up. Thanks, Loren
Jarrod Hunt on Dec 20, 2006 at 7:37 pm
I have no life outside of our industry, and I have a short memory, so here it goes…..
My pick for “Best Linkbait of 2006″ goes to
The SES Chicago 2006 Comic Strip by Rebecca Kelley and SEOmoz/Rand that funded the whole thing :)
It was a small group of people that it appealed too, but it was something very unique.
Including pictures of dozens of highly active bloggers in a comical way is an awesome way to encourage linking.
I’m sure I can think of other great examples of link bait but this one was very recent and had a definite impact on me. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I have such fond memories of SES Chicago…
But hey, Linkbait that appeals to the emotions is just plain smart!!
Jarrod Hunt on Dec 20, 2006 at 7:43 pm
Great idea to have some sort of Metrics to judge by.
It would also be great to have a description or some links to describe some of the finalist.
I would really digg an article that has all the top 10-20 linkbaits of the year, has desciptions/links, and provides some hard data/metrics to back up the results.
Loren Baker, Editor on Dec 20, 2006 at 7:48 pm
Great idea Jarrod… Can you digg it? I knew that you could!
Andrew B on Dec 20, 2006 at 8:12 pm
The PubCon Drinking Game even though I didn’t make the list.
John Scott on Dec 20, 2006 at 9:03 pm
V7ndotcom Elursrebmem wasn’t really link bait. It got us a ton of links, but when I think of linkbait I think more of the HatBait stuff.
Cameron on Dec 20, 2006 at 9:47 pm
Diet Coke/Mentos video
Jeremy Luebke on Dec 20, 2006 at 9:53 pm
I say
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/search-engine-marketing-scholarship/
In may have not gotten the most links, but it sure got the most widespread links over many pages of the website. I pointed over 200 links to only my article.
nonBot on Dec 20, 2006 at 10:13 pm
I vote for this failed attempt:
http://www.nonbot.com/blog/google-post/new-seo-shirt/78/
LOL ;)
David Temple on Dec 20, 2006 at 11:02 pm
I gotta agree with Jarrod on the SES Chicago comic strip. Definitely linkaitable and I was there which makes it more memorable.
Drinkbait would be a close second though and I wasn’t there but it did get a lot of notice.
Li Evans on Dec 20, 2006 at 11:06 pm
Rand & Rebecca’s Comic Strip
Diet Coke & Mentos
That 1938 Dude on U-Tube
and……
Weird Al Yanokovic’s “Don’t Download This Song”
oh, and just for kicks
Anything that Stuntdbl does *haha*
Hawaii SEO on Dec 20, 2006 at 11:10 pm
One red paper clip
Chris Hooley on Dec 20, 2006 at 11:50 pm
Oh man, if we are going to actually MEASURE then DrinkBait is screwed. I bow to anything Neil has ever produced. In fact, I am in the process of hiring the dude right now
Aaron Pratt on Dec 21, 2006 at 12:18 am
I did a linkbait awards 2006 post not long ago if you want to see it: http://www.seobuzzbox.com/linkbaiting-awards-2006/
Matt Inman on Dec 21, 2006 at 1:12 am
Can we nominate ourselves for something?
If so, I’m gonna nominate us for our web 2.0 awards:
http://web2.0awards.org
Can’t beat over 100,000 links :)
Loren Baker, Editor on Dec 21, 2006 at 8:35 am
Thanks Aaron. Matt, of course you can nominate yourselves.
Jasmin B. on Dec 21, 2006 at 9:38 am
http://www.shaveeverywhere.com
Diet Coke & Mentos
One red paperclip
kid disco on Dec 21, 2006 at 12:58 pm
The SNL “Dick in Box” sketch is spreading like wildfire right now!
However, my vote is for DrinkBait. Go Chris! :P
Jason Murphy on Dec 21, 2006 at 3:48 pm
- Ze Frank and his duckies
- Drinkbait!
- SEOBook’s 101 Link Building Strategies
- YouTube (All of it, especially their hostile takeover by Google)
- Time Magazine - Person of the Year (nice call by Darren Rowse)
- Burger King /Xbox 360 Ad Games
- Democrats in Washington FTW!
- EliteRetreat’s pricing strategy and convenient timing.
- PayPerPost vs. ReviewMe on disclosure policies
- SEOmoz’s “How Pagestrength Works” - love the angry monkeys!
Egobait of the year: Jason Calacanis - I finally know how to spell his name after typing in his domain so many times to see how he was reacting to the Digg/Netscape lashback.
Joe Whyte on Dec 22, 2006 at 11:59 am
I engineered a Search Engine Results tool that searches Google, Yahoo and MSN and crawls 4 pages deep. I offer this tool for free.
http://www.webmastermydomain.com/current-ranking.php
Marc Macalua on Dec 29, 2006 at 10:57 pm
This award thing’s gotta be linkbait too right? I nominate it! :P
Macnerdzcare on Dec 9, 2007 at 5:24 am
The Best link bait award is a great award :)
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