Best way to use a cartoon as linkbait

[MarieHaynes]

I have an idea for a cartoon that, once created, is likely to be shared a lot in my niche.  I'm currently hiring someone to draw the cartoon.  My question, though, is the best way to get SEO benefit out of this.

If you had a cartoon that was likely to go viral would you publish it as a blog post on your site?  People tend to like sharing things that are on imgur or flickr, but these won't help my seo.  (Other than perhaps if I end up getting good PR on a flickr image and then link back to my site.)

I'm likely going to just publish this as a blog post on my site, but I thought I'd float this out there for other people to give their input.

Have you ever used a cartoon or image for linkbait?

[DanielFreedman]

Try to get the cartoon published on other sites.

Make it an explicit requirement that any such publication also include a link back to your site -- and preferably to a page on which users can take a further action (e.g.. subscribe to a newsletter).

If can make the link one of the keywords you are trying to rank for, so much the better.

So if the cartoon were about the crazy world of office furniture:

• the cartoon would appear on the other site
• It would include something like: Courtesy of Mac's Furniture Warehouse. Check out their blog about office furniture for the inside story about how this cartoon was created
• this leads to your blog, which includes the cartoon and the details about how it was created
• your blog page might also include an email capture field at the bottom (or perhaps a discount offer)

This is quite a bit of work. You will have to contact the sites individually with a well-crafted and polite invitation.

But it sounds like the effort may well pay off in this case.