A Guide to Create Ego Bait Posts

Ego bait is content created to capture the attention of a certain group of people. It is basically producing something so that the ego of the person, group or company, in particular, is boosted.

Each individual has an ego, even industry influencers. And so if you process your ego bait posts in a manner that is subtle, you will not be recognized as a flatterer but instead gain a lot of exposure, traffic, and links. If the work you do is good, even after realizing that you are trying to stroke your ego, people will tend to help you out.

Ego bait posts are not widely used and therefore, most individuals still struggle to understand how they can be created. They cross over in various areas of content. Here’s a guide to different types of ego bait posts that can be created.

1. Play the curators role

Organize a talk-show on your website and be the host. Ask experts and industry leaders to share their knowledge with you. Curate these comments, reap out maximum value and promote it in collaboration with the influencers.

2. Prepare a top list

A top list instantly attracts the attention of the target audience. In fact, it is one of the most successful forms of ego bait posts. If a list is prepared correctly, it is cost-effective and helps to generate links. Some of the examples of a top list are as follows:

  • Top 10 blogs on electronic music in 2017
  • Most shared SEO content in 2017
  • Top 10 tricks for lead generation

3. Produce a badge

One of the most popularly used forms of ego baiting is badge baiting. However, successful execution of the same is only possible when you have a reputed and established brand presence. If that is the case, badges help in enhancing your brand visibility and massively boosting your link profile.

4. Regular ego bait

A mention of any individual or company can change the way your regular blog post interacts with the target audience. A lot of SEO blog posts have an individual or a tool mentioned and suddenly those mentioned want the piece of content to be read by as many as possible. This is why you must never say ‘an expert’ in the field of marketing, and use the actual name of the individual instead.

5. Laser Targeted Egobait

While badge baiting helps you reach a larger target audience, laser targeted ego bait posts are more crisp and precise. Suppose you interview an industry veteran, it is only one individual and his or her viewpoints have been covered. This is not a bad thing since you are guaranteeing to get at least that one link from the individual, which is good enough for stroking egos.

How to Get Ego Baits Right?

Knowing the different type of ego baits does not mean that you will be able to get them right instantly. Read on to understand how you can optimize the results of your efforts to the fullest:

1. Ensure that the Website is Maintaining Standards

Just like any other form of decent link building, you will require a basic presence or reputation if you want to be successful in your efforts of promoting ego bait posts. The chances of an individual helping a completely unknown brand are low.

If the current condition of your website is not satisfactory, getting interviews can be tough. Not just that, a lot of people would not even want your badge and you will not be able to curate the inputs of influencers in your industry.

2. Get in Touch With Them

There are a lot of people who create fantastic content, mention the right individuals in the industry but do not inform the featured individuals about it. They hope that the individuals would notice on their own and this is one of the worst mistakes to make.

You must subtly inform the thought-leaders of your industry about your efforts it can completely change the output of your ego bait post.

3. Do not be a Sycophant

While it is good to respect the influencers and give them a high pedestal, do remember to maintain your self-respect. Be polite and let them know that you understand their value but don’t become a bootlicker because they also need to buy into you.

If you treat influencers as someone above you, they will always perceive you like that. Your goal in the future is to be an influencer yourself and you must behave at par with them.

4. Don’t forget the Call-To-Action

Brands, sometimes, send an email with all the information about the piece but without a direct call-to-action. This does not result in any kind of association.

The influencer you are trying to reach out to is in all likelihood busy and does not have the time to find what he is supposed to do. For instance, if you want the influencer to tweet some information, put in a direct link that takes him or her to the option of retweeting that information. A call-to-action tends to give in more benefit than an email with lots of information and no such action-based communication.

To conclude, always remember to be subtle in your communication. Asking for a direct link is not recommended since the influencer could feel that you are using their popularity for your own benefit. If you really want to do the same, make sure you know what you are asking for and where you want it to be placed.

Guide to Create Exceptional Content for Your Business

It is totally your choice on how much time and effort you want to put into creating exceptional content and helping your brand prosper. You can choose to go on with bad content but you will definitely not get anywhere with it. It will prove to be a total waste of time, energy and money.

In order to boost your ranking in SEO and increase website traffic, you need quality content on your website. If the content is original, then that could help you get more exposure on search engines. In fact, Google penalizes sites which have copied or duplicated content. So, quality content would not only help to make your website look more attractive but also help to improve the overall ranking of your website.

Below are a few tips to create exceptional content for your business:

1. Create Original and Unique Content

Copying content from other websites could lead to severe consequences from Google and your visitors. When we say originality, we mean original ideas and not re-phrasing the existing content and concept. If you think that you can hire cheap labour to just fill up your website with content or just collect different articles available on the internet and re-post them, then you are making a big mistake.

Always remember, if you pay well, then you get quality and if you don’t have any quality content, then it is better to not write anything. These are two simple principles which you should remember. These would take you a long way.

2. Pay more focus on Headers and Sub-headers

Your content should have proper headings and sub-headings. If the headlines are interesting, then the reader automatically gains interest in the article. As per commonly known statistics, about 80% of the people tend to read only the headlines and only 20% of the readers actually spend the time to read the other content under the headers.

Have as many headings as possible in your article. You should try to highlight the headings to make them prominent to your readers. Take the time to create good, relevant to the topic and interesting headlines. A good way for deciding headings would be by thinking of a few and then shortlisting the one you like the most. Don’t ignore the headings. Depending on the headings, people decide if they are going to read your blog or not.

3. Give your Readers Actionable Content

You should give proper guidance on how to use or apply the information given in the content. Don’t feel that you are degrading the users by telling them what to do. You must give assurance to the readers that they are very well aware of how to use the knowledge they have picked up from the content.

In your content, you must give tips to your readers about what information you are offering to them. You have to write in a way that you cover all the possible questions the readers have in mind – why, what, how, where etc.

4. Your Content should be able to Give all the Answers

When people use a search engine like Google, they are looking for some answers. They search for a particular query and search engine delivers the answer to their query. Similarly, when a reader is reading your blog or article, then he is expecting some answer so that he can gain some knowledge about the topic.

You should make your content easy to read and scan because readers are looking for answers, that too fast. So, it is important to make sure that they get all the answers too quickly. Include as many titles and sub-titles in your content which makes it easy for the reader to read and understand.

5. The Source of Information and the Statistics should be Accurate

Thousands of people are going to read your content and it is extremely bad for the reputation of your business in case the information stated in it is not relevant.

The content on your website is the reflection of your business. You must get statistics verified before you mention them on your website. Accuracy is important to gain the readers’ trust. Below are certain tips which you can follow when tackling the accuracy issues:

> Be sure of the source from where you are picking up the statistic details. If you are intending to provide a link to another website in yours for statistics, then you must make sure that it is a genuine and authentic website. If it is a quality website, then it would help gain the trust of the readers.

> If you are linking content within your website to substantiate what you are writing, then that can be extremely helpful in gaining the readers’ trust. People start feeling that the content is authentic as it can be validated.

> If you link your content to other sources then that would help the search engines in knowing about your content and it will help them categorize it.

6. Create Content that keeps the Readers Engaged and Curious to Read more

If a reader finds your content engaging and interesting then he spends more time on your website. The only trick to achieve this is by writing your content well. Here are a few tips to achieve this:

  • Include many questions in the article which keep the readers thinking about what the answer could be. You need to build the readers’ curiosity to continue reading to get the answers. Remember not to leave any question unanswered in your article. This could make the reader feel irritated.
  • Most of the readers read the first few lines of the article properly and continue reading the article only if they like the introduction. You should have an interesting and involving start to your article or blog. You should discuss the key features of your article and give the readers a motivation to keep reading.
  • Visitors like reading about different experiences and stories that people have actually experienced in life. Stories keep people involved, engaged and give them a huge amount of information.

7. Adding Images and Videos is Always Liked

As we all know that people understand better by seeing, images and videos are always a good idea to make people learn about what you are talking in the article. Diagrams and graphs are also a great way to illustrate your point..

8. Content should be Crisp and Precise

You should always remember to make your content brief and to the point. Make sure you don’t repeat the same point in your article in different ways. Readers don’t like repetition. No need to worry about the word count, instead focus on making it precise. Avoid going off the topic, as that might make readers lose their interest in your article.

9. Keep Updating Your Article Frequently

Once you build a website, you should always remember that you have to stay committed to it forever. Search engines prefer those sites more who are regularly updating their content. Most of the top websites update their content very often. There are several statistics too which prove that websites whose content is updated frequently tend to attract visitors.

Don’t treat the content of your website lightly. It is difficult and extremely time-consuming to write good content. You must make sure that the language you use is simple and the article shouldn’t have grammatical and spelling errors.

After you have written an article, you should proofread it at least two times before publishing it on the website. Keep the content entertaining and original for the readers.