Why did my Linkbait bomb ???

[znotes]

I work at Uncommongoods.com. I ran a big linkbait brainstorming session a few months back. Several ideas came out of the meeting and we just released our first piece of "linkbait" that was conceptualized during the brainstorming session. I think it's safe to say this first piece of linkbait is a big fat failure as it has only received 2 likes and no comments in the past few days. I want to know what I could have done to make this post more compelling so our next post can be better.

http://blog.uncommongoods.com/2011/kindest-vs-angriest-cities/

Any thoughts ?

[ShaMenz]

Hi Zack,

I think most things have been covered, but I would just add:

Start at the beginning. Your title needs to be capable of earning the clickthrough all by itself. The current title is ambiguous - is Austin a city in Texas or a guy with a name that starts with "A".

Consider the difference in impact of a slight wording change. For example "Why is Austin such an angry city?".

Hope that helps,

Sha.

[RyanKent]

Regarding #3, the foursquare article presents itself as an analytic analysis of data. It has good and bad points. I think the intro is weak but it seems favorable in comparison to the article you shared.

1st sentence from 4square: "With over 400 million check-ins in the last year, it’s safe to say that our servers log a lot of data." It seems they will use millions of unique server records (their data) for analysis.

1st sentence from UncommonGoods article: "The holiday season is rapidly approaching, and as gift-giving authorities, we’re doing our part to stay informed of recent gifting trends." It seems somehow there is a connection between gifting trends and the angriest cities in America, and that relationship will be further explained in the article.

I am not a fan of either intro, but the 4square one seems more relevant. The 4 square article doesn't actually care which cities in America are the angriest. That is a means to an ends. Their article is about how data is captured and analyzed. They offer details as to their queries are designed and how Amazon's S3 service and Ruby on Rails can be leveraged to analyze data.

As you read through the comments on that article, notice it reads more like a Reddit post. The comments are mostly off-topic and random rather then related to the article. This indicates to me the respondents are not all that interested in the article.

IF your article was related closer to the 4square article, and the commenters were actually interested in the topic, then every commenter would be a potential member of your audience. You could certainly leave a comment in the 4square article and share it was the source of inspiration for your article. You could then reach out to any commenters as well and make them aware of your article.

With respect to research, the Distilled link James shared is exceptional. I find myself visiting the Distilled site more and more recently as excellent articles such as that one are shared.

As for choosing the next topic, the world is open to you. If you want a more engaging topic concerning "angry cities" some recent topics are:

• the Penn State sex scandal

• Occupy Wallstreet protests

• Casey Anthony trial

These topics have readers so completely engaged they are willing to get up from their pc and take action. People are literally in the streets, turning over cars, and to use a relatively calm word, interested. You can pick a completely different topic but find something readers have a strong want or need to read.

[EGOL]

Every article will appeal to a different population.  So a single article will appeal to some people and not to others.

When I landed on this article and saw the graph I though that it was a study based upon data... but there were only four cities listed and the article didn't get right into how the data was collected.

Then I saw the marketing message and that was a turn off... then saw the attempt at humor.

If you are creating a scientific study or an attempt at humor you need to make that very clear with your opening graphic and a slap-their-face-with-it first paragraph.  This story might fly better if you had an angry bird or cartoon of people throwing f-bombs at the top.  Get a good cartoonist to set that tone if that is what you are shooting for.  But, I honestly don't think that the current article or subject is not very funny at least not funny enough for me to tweet it, email it, or even read it very far.

If you are trying to create linkbait you need best-on-the-web content.  Nothing less.  When you have humor that makes people's side hurt or puts tears in their eyes then you have something.

[znotes]

Wow. i had not seen that yet. Def going to read that

[znotes]

This is awesome feedback and IMO tough love is always best..thanks for taking the time to give me honest critique.

In response to your questions..

1. What part of this article is "linkbait"?

We hoped that identifying angry cities would be controversial enough to be "linkbait"

2. Who is your target audience?

We have no target audience. Great point.

3. How did u come up with this topic? The foursquare rudest cities post was the inpiration...how do you think ours compares?

http://engineering.foursquare.com/2011/02/28/how-we-found-the-rudest-cities-in-the-world-analytics-foursquare/

4. Yes I see what you mean. Im going to discuss with our group..

we just relaunched our blog with a new design so we still need to add sharing buttons.. u are absolutely right on this.

Your comment on topics is very interesting...do you have any resources you could suggest for topic popularity research ?

Thanks again for this extensive feedback, much appreciated by all of us!

[eTundra]

I agree with all the suggestions already given; just wanted to point out that I don't see anything about promoting your link bait.  Simply throwing it up on your blog and waiting for backlinks/shares to pour in isn't enough.  On top of adding more sharing links like Ryan mentioned, you need to actually find the audience you're trying to communicate with in various locations across the web and then dangle your bait in front of them.

No fish bites in an empty pond.

[jamesjackson]

i haven't read your piece, but this is probably the best resource I have found for creating linkbait. It's awesome.

http://www.distilled.net/linkbait-guide/

[znotes]

This is good, I think I see what you're saying...so a few things here to clarify:

Regarding "chest thumping" and "marketing"....do you think we need to start off with a more neutral point of view? Less biased?

Regarding the BS...it was included as a joke meant to soften the tone and show that we don't take this data to seriously since F-Bombs don't necessarily equal angry people...Do you think that it would be more effective it was written in a more objective, serious tone ? My thinking was that the data is not compelling enough to be linkbait on it's own and i thought we needed humor to make it worthwhile. Am I wrong? Do you think that the data is interesting enough on its own without all the BS jokes and random city facts ?

[RyanKent]

Hi Zack.

I will offer some candid feedback with the thought it will help you do better on your next try. I know you worked hard on this article so brace yourself for some tough love here.

Some questions which come to mind when I look at your article:

1. What part of this article is "linkbait". This appears to be a random article as opposed to something compelling.

2. Who is your target audience? I can't tell from reading the article. Is this supposed to be of interest to retailers? Consumers? It seems more like a random story.

3. How did you come up with this topic? What led you to believe this was a topic people want to read about?

4. You offer a disclaimer at the end of the article. "This post was written by Cassie Tweten Delaney, Zack Notes and Nina Mozes, without any academic peer review or serious fact-checking." What I am trying to figure out is how your article offers value to readers? Many articles offer value due to unique research being offered. Other articles compile research from several sources and offer a unique compilation of data. Your disclaimer basically says you do not stand behind the numbers (i.e. "no serious fact checking") so no one can rely upon your data.

Some suggestions:

• the first 2 sentences need to connect with your readers better, otherwise you will likely loose them. You need to reach out and grab them.

• You offer a facebook sharing opportunity at the bottom of the article. First, engage more social networks. Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn should be included at a minimum and several others such as StumbleUpon and Reddit would be helpful. Also, include these sharing links at the top and bottom of your article. Social sharing is very impulsive.

• Do research into what topics are current and of interest to readers. I noticed you worked to tie in your topic to the holiday season, but the topic itself doesn't seem current or viral in any way. I don't have any specific suggestions but an idea like "Holiday Shopping in America: Best and Worst Cities" would likely generate more interest then your current topic.

• The site itself seems to lack any standing. There are no trust symbols offered, no site logo, etc. Improve the presentation of your site.

• The site has some design shortcomings. For example, in the upper right corner you offer a RSS feed. The normal practice is to click the icon to add the feed. Your RSS feed icon is just an image. It took me a few seconds to realize only the word "email" offered a link. Examine your site in detail for any flaws.

• Your article offers 2 charts and 2 images. They are nice but not compelling in any way. They definitely don't rise to what I would call link bait.

A better example of an article all around, which is great but doesn't rise to the level of linkbait in my opinion: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/4-graphics-to-help-illustrate-onpage-optimization

1155 tweets, 300 likes, 181 +1s and 129 thumbs up.

Like your article, there isn't a specific time frame involved but it is very helpful. The graphics aren't difficult or exceptional quality, but I would suggest they read better then the charts you shared. The target audience is clear: all webmasters, website developers and SEOs.

[EGOL]

Just opinions...

The first three sentences are not linkbait... they are a combination of chest thumping (we are gift-giving authorities) and  marketing (buy our F-bomb).... then some BS (we decided to visit every city in the country),