Hear you on the voice front too, say what you want to in a way you want to say it. If people like it, great, if they don’t feck em, that’s their problem eh.

Mines a Stella ;) (once ive completed my non booze new years resolution that is! )

I see what you mean now, I thought you had made a comment and ….. anyway.

Well at least he didn’t call it crap.

Nick is link meister general so I don’t really expect my first few attempts at out and out link bait to impress him, but I wasn’t really writing for him, I was more writing for me.

It’s like when Calancanis linked to me, I wrote the thing because I found the subject interesting and wanted to approach it in a different way.

It’s about finding your voice and I think I have finally found mine, some people will like it some wont. As long as it’s worth a read that’s all I aim for.

Whether Nick Wilson will deem my humble blog another visit, who knows. But I certainly owe you a pint for suggesting it. Cheers.

I thought it would have been interesting to hear his view though, hence the further prod.

You are right though, its about balance. Some are going to agree and some aren’t, sometimes vociferously too. T’would be a boring old planet otherwise ;)

I think it’s a different thing to go to someones blog and bait them rather than posting on your own blog and getting them to come over.

I don’t have a problem with pissing people off in the industry as long as an equal amount of people say, yeah cool.

Take last night, I baited Nick with a comment over at his blog, his reaction was one of I read the first couple of paras and decided it wasn’t worth the use of my time, or something like that.

Almost made me spit my tea through my nose, could almost feel the sneering contempt for someone who dared suggest that linkbait was a waste of time!Ha!

I do wonder whether his reaction may have been different had your profile, and possibly mine, been considerably higher.

Funny creatures these humans :D

“Make that splash in the pond, get all the other fish to ask ?whats that noisy so and so over there up to, lets go check the bugger out”, I like that.

I think in this world of noise and infinate information fatigue one benefits from being able to create a bit of sensation.

Although it’s easy when you know how, I have a feeling that the path to linkbait Nirvana can only be traveled by people who are creative, intelligent, hard working and most importantly the ability to not really give a toss what people think of them. At least not some anonymous nonce on the Internet with zero trust.

When you know people it’s different. You listen to them.

But being able to withstand tidal waves of hate, even though it is only cyber hate, it’s still hate and I think there is a psychological aspect to this. Not trying to be zen about it, but I think you do need to acheive a certain state of mind. Grashopper

I see Graywolf cross legged in front of the linkbait shrine, meditating on what the great unwashed wish to click on that day. The pungent smell of incense in the air. A bell rings. The Graywolfs eyes open And as if by magic a keyboard appears…….

Yes, bang on, agreed -if you are going to be outrageous or provocative then you’d better have something worth reading; else you are just going to illicit what a lot of crap type responses as well as see your credibility plummet too! A little like the boy who cried wolf and all that stuff.

You are either pretty good at it, or pretty crap. I don’t think there’s any credible middle ground on it. Nothing wrong with a fine period of observation ;)

Its great to get a good title and then read through and either laugh ones niags off, or sit there going, hang on a feckin minute and coming back with a deconstruction or defence of whatever it is thats riled you.

I guess that is the thing is it not – its about stimulation, making that emotional connection, feeding the intellect and sparking the curiosity.
Hit those targets with what you say and before long you’ll be getting the attention of your peers en masse. Make that splash in the pond, get all the other fish to ask ‘whats that noisy so and so over there up to, lets go check the bugger out’.

On the flipside,should you overdo or overplay it, you could get labelled as Mr Sensationalist but hey, I can think of worse labels :D

p.s your link to NickW is the same as stuntdubl’s

Knowing that you can push your own agenda across a series of online news sources is seductively frightening. Sure media manipulation has been going on for years, but it used to take a lot more resources than two guys working in their bathrobes could pull off.

It’s all about stimulating. Reaching down into the ancient parts of the mind and setting off an explosion.

Write like the Sun, think like the Economist. That’s the style I think works.

It’s the noble savage thing. Damnit, I can’t think of sources right now. Although John Carlton spoke about this in a podcast with Perry Marshal. I need to dig that out and reference it. Gary Halbert is also plugged in when it comes to grabbing peoples attention.

But the thing is, you have to have kick ass content to back it up, sure the headline can be incongruent to the main post but it needs to follow a logical arguement.

Look forward to hearing more ;)

I saw it in my reader having read Todd Mailicoat’s superb post on ‘link baiting and the art of’ this morning and thought wtf? Is this guy for real!

So of course, like the fish that I am, I was hooked and hauled in, ‘reel em in pardnor’ style.

I must confess I was one who used to cringe at some of NickW’s finer titled posts over at TW as they didn’t fit in with my established mindframe of public politeness, but of course overtime I realised that thats what people want, people want a little bit of spice and juicyness, people like to be provoked and prodded and pushed, its what gets the juices flowing and stimulates debates.

A bit like that awful rag the Sun. Its utterly full of sensationalist she-at but it hits the spots, it appeals to some peoples baser instincts, it dares to go to the heart of prejudice and ignorance and sticks it up on high on a flag and says, look! We think it too you ignorant fool, come on board and join the party – it gets people talking.

Anyways, damn, I’m late. More of the same later. :D