I can do link bait infographics too!

Posted on December 17, 2011 by .
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I ignored the popular “Bikes Can Us” infographic that linked to a spammy link farm, but people still link to it. Since I can’t beat ‘em, I’ve joined ‘em with my own link bait, inspired by a discussion with Byron @ Bike Hugger on link bait, SEO, and spam websites.

The takeaway — say something flattering and create a cool infographic for a niche special interest, and watch the links pour in!


EMBED THE IMAGE BELOW ON YOUR SITE


You’ve likely seen the original infographic, and TBD writes:

Yes, the splashy infographic, which trumpets the sustainability of biking, has all the appearances of a scam, and you, America’s bicyclists, just fell for it.

The legitimately pretty and well-done infographic has made the rounds of several news sites and blogs in the last two weeks. People saw the visual, loved it, published and commented on it, all the while linking to and supporting what would seem to be a link farm, a spammer, a farce of a website called HealthCareManagementDegree.com, which exists to game the Internet.

Click on the image for full size. The images are copyright the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society. I honestly have no idea how they react to mashups and parodies like this, so use this image at your own risk.



See also:

  1. Haiku is Cyclelicious link bait
  2. Global Post says "Link to us"
  3. SF City College, bike theft, and vigilante bait bikes
  4. Link love, Creative Commons, and attribution


  • http://www.rounds.com Scottie

    LOVE it! You show them…it’s always more satisfying to promote your message from the other side! :)

  • Anonymous

    Hi Richard,

    Thanks for the good thoughts on this and for the funny graphics. There’s often debate and discussion about these sorts of things within TreeHugger. Sometimes we agree it is link spam, but also like the message of the content. For this one, we’ve added “no follow” code to the link, so we are not helping support their SEO tactics.

    Lloyd shared some thoughts on this trend of using infographics as link marketing here: http://www.treehugger.com/corporate-responsibility/have-infographics-jumped-shark-survey.html

    I’m ChrisTackett on Twitter and Google+ if you want to talk more about this.

    Cheers,
    Chris

  • http://www.karnesdynorev.com/?p=843 On Bike Infographics & Link Marketing | Karnes Dyno Rev

    [...] Image: Cycleicio.us Satirizes the Original Graphic [...]

  • http://www.greediocracy.com/2011/12/20/on-bike-infographics-link-marketing/ On Bike Infographics & Link Marketing | Greediocracy

    [...] Image: Cycleicio.us Satirizes a Original Graphic [...]

  • http://jmd1125.blogspot.com/ Jennifer

    The first item under “See also:” is “Haiku is Cyclelicious link bait,” so I just couldn’t resist:

    That graphic is spam!Don’t click on it! Don’t post it!
    (Click “Like” below—Thanks!)

  • http://www.cyclelicio.us/ Cyclelicious

    I like :-)

  • Siouxgeonz

    This is what happens when niches get britches ;)

  • http://www.cyclelicio.us/ Cyclelicious

    ‘;-)’ indeed!