Linkbait: Good Content Isn’t Good Enough

Just recently, I was talking with someone about a linkbait campaign. He suggested that, instead of creating one page with outstanding content, it might be better to create two pages with good content for the same price. I didn’t agree with this, and we had a discussion about this topic, which lead to an (in my opinion) interesting comparison.

For those who know a thing or two about cars – in my opinion, choosing between good content and excellent content is like choosing between giving away a BMW, or giving away a Bugatti Veyron. A BMW (I just couldn’t resist :) ) is a car. It’s a great, luxury car, but it’s still a car. You can see them in your street, on the highway, in the city, etc. And although most people can never afford a BMW, it’s nearly a commodity.

A Bugatti Veyron isn’t a car, it’s a space ship. It’s a dream. It’s the most exclusive car in the world. You might know someone who has a friend, who has a neighbor, who’s cousin has once seen a Bugatti Veyron, but that’s about as close as you’ll ever get to a Veyron.

Giving away a BMW is good. You’ll definitely attract some attention with the campaign, and some people will think “Whoah, I’d definitely want to win one of those”. However, a campaign like this has probably been done by others at least a few times, so it basically isn’t something new. Participants will enter, and move on with their life.

Giving away a Bugatti Veyron is amazing. It probably hasn’t been done before by someone else, so it’s unique. People will go “What the….? Are they out of their mind? Hey Mike! Come take a look at this, someone’s giving away a Veyron!”. They will participate, tell their friends about it, and keep a close eye on the contest to see if they’ve won. And even when they didn’t win, they’ll keep telling their friends that they’ve ‘nearly won a Veyron once’.

The first contest, just like good content, will probably result in some solid links and an increase in traffic. With the second campaign, just like with excellent content, you’ll see all kinds of press jump on it. If you promote it the right way, it can lead to dozens of excellent links, hundreds of other mentions, and a shitload of traffic.

My point is that, with linkbait, it’s well worth it to put in a few extra hours, dollars or whatever to shift your content’s quality from good to excellent. The simple equation below, which I use for link marketing, confirms that statement.

To explain the equation, in case it’s not clear to understand (I usually suck at making myself clear :) ) – the result is always fixed, because you’ve (hopefully) set yourself a goal.

Let’s say that the result you’re after has to be 100x. With an offer value (and your content usually is your offer) of 10x, it means that you’ll have to put in the same amount of sales to reach the end result of 100x. However, if you double the quality of your offer, you’ll only have to put in half of the effort that you originally needed.

Keep in mind that the sales quality (the quality of your pitch, how you use your network, etc.) plays a role in this as well. A low sales quality raises the amount of effort you need to put in, but a high sales quality can decrease that amount.

To make a long story short: increase the quality of your content, so you can take it easier on the promotional efforts to reach the same result. Or even better, put in the same effort you had planned, and achieve much better results.