Linkable assets.... yeah whatever

[JerryCrockford]

Yep, I tend to agree.

I was just talking about this today with my team. Years ago, (he says from his Zimmer Frame), you would hear these amazing stories about direct mail success. A huge response and bazzillion dollars in sales generated.

But when you looked into it, it was a huge brand like Apple or Hilton Hotels or General Electric who had a huge budget to throw at it. Or, a one-in-a-lifetime SME who stumbled on a cracker of an idea.

And now, we hear stories of great 'link bait' that attracted a gazzillion hits - but it turns out to be the "Compare The MeerKat" campaign or something similar.

I'm not saying your shouldn't try. But whether you can pin your livelihood on it is doubtful IMO.

Just sayin'

[Nightwing]

Mmmmm.... Nope I'm asking for evidence of a so called link bait artcle actually doing what was intended ie a company posts an article or whatever and it naturally gets linked to from a decent source. (not agency staff creating links)

Just one example please then my cynism will disolve like the morning mist

[Chris.Menke]

But that's like putting a great gadget out on the showroom floor and hoping that by itself, it will bring people into the store.  Sure some existing customers may come in and tell their friends when they leave but in a day or so, that gadget will be forgotten by many of the rest will forget where they saw  that cool  thing.

Marketers will be out there trying to get the exact kind of new customers into the store that are already looking for that great gadget (content), who also so happen to be the ones who will most effectively pass on the information of how great it was and where others can find it.

I think "viral" on  the other hand (a term I think gets used too often) is the rare kind of gadget that sparks growing interest without having to be marketed.  Those gadgets are few and far between--and short lived, too, for the most part.

[PremioOscar]

Well Nightwing,

I have tried many times to find this "link bait" examples for more specific industries but it was almost impossible to find successful stories unless you write an amazing post for your digital marketing company, post it on moz where will be seen by many others involved in digital and they probably will link to you.

What I am saying is that there are so many industries out there and for some of them certain techniques, practices just don't work because the audience doesn't really care about linking to what you write, and this gets even worse when you work for e-commerce site.

[DougRoberts]

What about Moz's Google Algorithm Change History or Beginner's Guide to SEO?

Edit: Or what about Jon Cooper's link building list (pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies) which has 1517 links from 407 domains.

[Nightwing]

I'm sorry Chris but maybe I'm writting double dutch (which i can do after too many coffees) but i am asking for an example nothing else.
Ive ran out of different ways to ask this, I just want an example.

[Nightwing]

Thank God an actual example! Nice one Doug

[DougRoberts]

There's also lots of attempts to build similar resources that just don't quite make it for a number of reasons (nobody cares - no audience, poorly presented, badly promotes - nobody knows about it, not as authoritative as the creator thinks, or there's a better/better known resource elsewhere...)

If you're going to do such things, you've really got to do it properly!

[DavidKonigsberg]

All infographics , guides, educational videos (white board fridays) ,curated lists and Tools etc are "linkable assets"

In short a linkable asset is anything i can take and show people who own sites that they want to reference or link to .

[Chris.Menke]

Hi Double Dutch, I'm Obtuse. : )

Here's one for you: Guide to Creating Viral Linkbait & infographics

[toddmumford]

Hi David, start with this monster of a curated / expertise document

http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies

Here's a sense of the metrics and links it has picked up.

http://grab.by/nXJw

This was developed by expert link builder Jon Cooper - who ironically shares a lot of great ideas himself about accomplishing the said tasks

I think that speaks for itself?

Send me a niche, and I can guarantee I can find you at least one good example of a well-done piece of content designed to create engagement, shares that has attracted inbound links.

Hope this helps,
Todd

[toddmumford]

Here's another:

http://www.w3schools.com/web/web_glossary.asp

http://grab.by/nXKk

The key David is in:

1. Brainstorming
2. Paring down / filtering potentials
3. Testing potential campaigns if possible (pre-promote, test the waters for response rate)
4. Create said content
5. Massively promote and outreach, share in SM
6. Feedback and analysis.

Like any campaign in marketing, it's all about planning well in advance, due diligence and small, incremental tests. I like to think of each of these campaigns as a "lean campaign" - to borrow the concept from many including Eric Reis.

Small testable campaigns allow you to pivot and change quickly if the results are not there, or there are assumptions that were made (hypothesis) that turned out to be less accurate than initially considered.

Hope this helps!
Todd

[Nightwing]

Thanks Todd

[KeriMorgret]

We published a YouMoz a while back from someone who did this for pool cues. In his own words, he writes "Before you grumble 'yeah, but I sell the most boring stuff on the planet' consider this - we write hundreds upon hundreds of unique descriptions about 58" long pieces of wood and each of those pieces of wood does the exact same thing." http://moz.com/ugc/ecommerce-content-doesnt-have-to-suck

He doesn't share link metrics in the post, though you could run an OSE report on the infographic that he cited.

As the head editor for YouMoz, I try to keep an eye out for things like this that people do, especially if it's a non-SEO industry. I'll come back to this question if I think of any other posts that have good examples.