5 Reasons Why This Meme is Undercover Linkbait

by Scott Allen - June 1, 2007 
Filed Under Link Building, Random, SEO

Well, I got tagged. Yep, Will at A Daily Rant fired a link at me. Thanks, Will…now I have to be interesting…Damn. :)

So, I’m thinking that by now just about everyone has heard of the “5 Reasons Why I Blog” meme. In 2007, it’s getting harder and harder to say something original for a post like this. (Seriously, if you want to know the exact reasons why I blog, Jim Boykin couldn’t have said it better.) I don’t want to bore you with a repeat of what probably many other SEO bloggers have posted, and I’ve been inspired by some other creative bloggers who are evolving the 5 reasons meme. In that vein, I’ll give you 5 reasons why this meme is really undercover linkbait. Maybe I should say undercover viral linkbait. That’s right, and here’s why.

  1. Linkbait is anything that people can’t resist linking to, right?
  2. It starts with someone “tagging” 5 people by linking to them. Ok, so the virus starts to spread.
  3. If you get tagged, you have to write a “5 Reasons” post, and tag 5 other people by linking to their blog.
  4. If they all participate, they have to link back to you, and you just got 5 free links! Sweet! (Yeah, they also get a link from you, but we’re talking about selfish benefits right now. Besides, these are the good kind of reciprocal links.)
  5. It’s considered anti-social in the blogosphere if you don’t respond or take the bait. No one wants to be labeled anti-social blogger, right? Wow, what a great way to get free links from quality sites! It’s not even like sending automated spam emails to a webmaster asking for links…they can just delete those! No one can delete your post, and if they ignore it, they’re a stiff! And we already established that no one wants to be a stiff, right? That’s just bad karma. Watch, now no one will take the bait from this post. :)

So there you have it. 5 reasons why this meme is undercover linkbait. Ok, well, it’s not just linkbait.
Ok, here’s my list of tag-ees…let see if they take the bait:

  1. Sugarrae
  2. Visio
  3. Kid Disco
  4. Jim Westergren
  5. SEO Chicks

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Comments

2 Responses to “5 Reasons Why This Meme is Undercover Linkbait”

  1. 5 Reasons I love blogging… on June 6th, 2007 11:52 am

    [...] so WebGeek from hybrid6.com tagged me so I am assuming that means I have to write a “5 [...]

  2. Lisa Ditlefsen on June 6th, 2007 8:00 pm

    Hiya Scott,
    Thanks for the tag (and the link to SEO Chicks..we like it!) I’ll write a meme post when I get back to the UK. Still in Seattle (been to SMX all week). And yes you are right you might well have seen me on SEOmoz. I comment alot on there =)

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