Link Building in a competitive niche is one of the most difficult marketing tasks I’m asked to do. Not only do I have to work in link-saturated industries, but more times than not I have to find a way to out-rank a “complaint site” and/or Wikipedia. If you’ve ever tried to do this you know how difficult it can be and how it’s necessary to think outside the box in order to net the links you need.
Successful link building in competitive markets takes both traditional as well as Web 2.0 linking tactics to make an impact. How do you avoid being buried in the search results or move above the complaint/Wikipedia site? One way is to work on developing reputation link bait.
What is reputation link bait?
Reputation link bait is the combination of two marketing strategies: pitching the media with an interesting story, and developing link bait. Traditionally, media pitches involve floating story ideas to journalists in conjunction with an upcoming event, while link bait is written to attract links from a wider audience by using controversial content. Reputation link bait uses each tactic, but with a twistinstead of promoting events and...