Sure, linkbaiting has gained a bad reputation, but the reality is this practice is an effective means for boosting a site's traffic. Depending on which measures are taken to gain incoming links, the practice in and of itself isn't necessary illegitimate or bad either.

Despite some bad reports, linkbaiting is actually one of the best ways to promote a website and its content. The only marked difference involved in linkbaiting over regular site building is that much of the content added or created for a campaign is designed with the idea of gaining incoming links at the forefront.

Working linkbaiting to its fullest advantage really does rest on having the ability to come up with the right content. Many publishers pick their site's focus area and then track the big "trends" to guide their writing and content focus. Sites like Digg.com, del.icio.us and Technorati can be very useful to watch to this end. Although this method of topic selection is pointed, it can be a great way to choose engaging suspects. The hook is making sure a site doesn't muddy its real focus while its writers and content producers chase trends.

Another effective, and perhaps less pointed way, to have some fun with linkbaiting is to simple do what comes naturally. Add content to your site in the manner you see fit. Just make sure it's solid, relevant and appealing to readers. What a lot of blog owners do is create informative lists, run statistics, add contests and even write very strong opinion pieces on the topics they focus on. Controversy, rants and gripes tend to gain incoming links rather well, too.

No matter how good content happens to be, sometimes the links just don't come. A promotional effort can help here. One possibility involves contacting publishers of similar sites and trying to garner their opinion on a particular piece. This contact can produce solid advice and it might result in a link, too.

Social tagging and sites that rank popularity, such as Digg.com, can be very useful for linkbaiting, as well. Once these sites pick up a story, it can literally be viewed by thousands and linked to over and over again. Some blog writers create their own Diggs. This particular practice is questionable, but it can work.

The entire idea behind linkbaiting is to garner incoming links. This, in turn, can increase a site's traffic and income potential. The addition of incoming links can also help sites and blogs rank better on their page rankings, too.

It might have a negative image, but linkbaiting is a common practice that can produce great results. If the concept is approached with a careful touch, content is worthy and a little fun is had, it generally works out quite well.

It can be very rewarding to watch incoming links for a site continue to rise. This shouldn't be the only focus though. Just make sure the content created is useful, or the linkbait can turn out to be a big flop for future traffic. Relevancy, usefulness and quality should always be a top concern when trying to gain traffic from linkbaiting efforts.

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Author Jeff Alderson develops newbie-friendly SEO software. He is an expert on boosting traffic and sales. Jeff recommends using Ad Word Analyzer to uncover website keywords for your website. Don't reprint this article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.