Tangible gifts as link bait

[Nectarine]

A lot of sites now are giving away mp3 players as gifts to random people who link to them:

www.cutmeinhalf.com/2007/06/03/its-not-a-contest-its-a-gift/
www.upstartblogger.com/can-i-give-you-an-ipod-shuffle
www.johnchow.com/evil-blog-contest-win-a-microsoft-zune

There another blogger that comes to mind (also giving away a zune), but I can't recall the name of her blog. She also gave away a nano last year.

I'm wondering what everyone's thoughts are on this type of linkbait tactic. (CMIH isn't even a commercial site, but it's owners are still trying to generate some buzz about it and might wind up giving away shuffles all summer. Upstart Blogger has basically said the same thing, giving away more gifts if people get hooked on the link bait (seriously, no pun intended). And of course, John Chow was just trying ot get rid of a random gadget.:D)

With a lot of people talking about paying for link directory inclusion and buying backlinks from high PR sites, I'm starting to wonder if it would be better/cheaper to just hold a contest like this. Granted, you wouldn't get a lot of high PR traffic, but you'd probably get a lot of incoming links from random sources (which might indicate popularity and might influence PR a lot). Either way $80 for a shuffle is a small price to pay for maybe 1000 links with the possibility of a large network picking up the story.

I'm just wondering how high it'll go eventually. Depending on how high your advertising budget is, it might be worth it to offer a car as a random gift to a linker. Now THAT'S some link bait.:p

[Sundquist]

I wouldn't use this tactics. It's too pricy plus it feels wrong. More like a bribe than an exchange.

[mad4]

Most top blogs won't link to somebody just because they are offered a bribe.

However you might get a few of the lower quality blogs doing it.

Its a good tactic but not for everybody.

[eslsociety]

I'm offering some patches on my new blog, but most of the people who are reading it at this point were reading my old one, anyhow.

I watched the video of the SEOMoz party over on their blog, and THAT seemed like really effective linkbait.

Buy booze and throw a party for a bunch of industry or niche important people, and then put up photos and videos of them partying on your site.

I actually rented out a club and I'm going to try this next month for one of my new sites.

[mad4]

I actually rented out a club and I'm going to try this next month for one of my new sites.

If you pay for me to fly over I will link to you.:p

[Nectarine]

I'm offering some patches on my new blog, but most of the people who are reading it at this point were reading my old one, anyhow.

I watched the video of the SEOMoz party over on their blog, and THAT seemed like really effective linkbait.

Buy booze and throw a party for a bunch of industry or niche important people, and then put up photos and videos of them partying on your site.

I actually rented out a club and I'm going to try this next month for one of my new sites.

Nice! It would probably work best in an area where you have a lot of relevent people to invite. :D

[Raithe]

I doubt any serious people would do it. It might work for medium size sites.