I first heard of the term “link bait” from Aaron Wall (www.seobook.com) at SEO Book (http://www.seobook.com/archives/001113.shtml) when he mentioned it back in a post on his SEO blog back in August of 2005. He says in his post that if “you are in a field that can't build links naturally create linkbait”. What really is link bait? It's something on your web site that causes someone to link to you. Aaron gives some examples in his post, but a classic example of link bait would be the Subservient Chicken web site by Burger King. So many people ended up talking about that web site that they linked to it—it currently enjoys about 29,300 links according to Yahoo!, and ranks number one on Google for the word chicken. By creating something on your web site that's funny, controversial, informative, or creative, it will gain natural links—which is the key to top search engine rankings.
You don't have to be a big brand or have a lot of money to create link bait. Many people have created link bait on purpose—and many have created link bait without even knowing it. It doesn't have to cost that much to create something that people will link to. For example, it's sometimes difficult—if not impossible—to get your competitors to link to you. But, consider this—take, for example, the case of Andrew. He works for a high tech company with a lot of competition. Andrew recently took his digital camera to an industry convention where he took photos of many of the attendees, the booths, and some of the after-hours events. He posted the photos on his web site after the convention, sent out a few emails to his colleagues and other industry insiders he met at the convention. Before he knew it, most of Andrew's competitors were linking to his web site and the photos he took.
One way to create link bait is to get ranked well for phrases that will become popular in the future. As I sit here writing this article, the term “link bait” might be a good target if you're in the search engine marketing industry. By searching Google for the following: allintitle:"link bait" you can determine about how many web pages on the internet are targeting that search phrase. Right now, as I write this, Google returns 25 results. Since that's not very many, writing content about link bait would be a good thing for your web site. By informing the search engine marketing industry about link bait—and because the term is new, there's a chance that others will search for it as it becomes a more popular phrase. As that phrase becomes more popular, others will need something to link to—and by ranking well for that phrase there's a good chance that your web page about link bait will get links from other web sites. This is a phenomenon that I've been following since 1996 when I created my first “link bait” type of web site. If you're a search term innovator, people will link to you—and links from other web sites mean better search engine rankings.
One of my ‘pet projects' over the years (since I started doing search engine optimization in 1996) has been to follow the news—and if there's a topic that I am passionate about I usually create a web page or a web site about the subject within minutes of the ‘breaking news'. In the cases where I have a web site about a particular topic and there's breaking news about that subject, I immediately post it on my web site. Since I'm one of the first to have information about that subject, I end up ranking well fairly quickly—sometimes within 24 hours. Other people follow suit and post information on their web sites about that topic—but since my site is already ranking well for that search phrase, they end up linking to me. What they don't realize is that they've fallen for my “link bait” which catches them—they're actually helping me by linking to me and I end up ranking well in the search engines for a very long time, sometimes even many years. How can you take advantage of this? If there's news in your industry, be the first to post it on your web site (or add a new page to your site). Be the first to get it to show up in the search engines and other people will link to it naturally.
Create an entirely new web site on a new topic. The new site could be funny, controversial, or just informative. Take, for example, Paul English's IVR Cheat Sheet that he recently created (http://paulenglish.com/ivr/). Mr. English is now enjoying thousands of links to his web site because he created a web page that's helpful to all of us. Not only that, because of his cheat sheet that he's posted on his site, companies are now seeing a backlash according to an article posted on Yahoo! (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20060118/tc_nf/40949). “Companies that rely on automated call centers have been weathering a consumer backlash in recent weeks…” reports the article. I don't have access to the number of visits to Mr. English's web site, but I would suspect that he's getting a lot of traffic based on all the high-quality links that he has—and I would suspect that he hasn't requested any of them.
How To Catch Better
Once new traders reach a certain level of proficiency in market analysis and trade execution the majority of their trading mistakes generally fall into two categories: trading psychology and trend-relativity errors. The first is an issue of self-control. The latter refers to an equally common problem: often a trade will look beautiful on one chart (in one time frame), but ill-advised at best on another chart (another time frame).
A market that looks like it is beginning an uptrend in the daily time frame, for example, may be only pulling back into resistance on the weekly chart, where the momentum and trend are down. The problem is magnified even further with intraday charts, where trends in multiple time frames often conflict with each other.
To combat this problem, trader and trading coach Alexander Elder invented the Triple Screen System, which he outlined in his now-classic book Trading for a Living. (Buy it. Read it. Study it.) The idea of the Triple Screen Trading System is based on the concept that the market moves in waves of energy, and every larger wave consists of smaller ones, which themselves consist of even smaller waves. To trade successfully a trader should choose to enter the market the moment when the waves are all moving in the same direction. This is when all of the market energy is aligned, and your chances of success are much greater.
If you are trading the daily chart, for example, you don't want to consider only the daily chart, because you would only be getting a limited picture of what is going on with that market. You need to study the weekly chart also. And you need to study the hourly chart when the daily chart indicates it might be time to enter or exit the trade, or you risk a greater chance of being stopped out with a loss.
The triple screen trading system requires that the chart for the long-term trend be examined first. This ensures that the trade follows the tide of the long-term trend while allowing for entrance into trades at times when the market moves briefly against the trend. The best buying opportunities occur when a rising market makes a brief decline; the best shorting opportunities are found when a falling market rallies. When the monthly trend is upward, weekly declines represent buying opportunities. Hourly rallies provide opportunities to short when the daily trend is downward.
First Screen - Market Tide
The first screen is the highest time frame you will use. Most stock swing traders use the daily chart to find trades. In their case, the weekly chart would serve as the first screen. The first screen sets the overall market direction, or trend. The market tide, if you will. Always swim with the tide. Experienced surfers will tell you you'll catch better waves when surfing with the tide.
Second Screen - Market Wave
For most traders the daily chart would serve as the second screen. The idea is generally to catch a ride on any wave in this time frame when it moves in the direction of the tide, or weekly trend. Your chances of catching a nice, long and smooth ride under these conditions are much more favorable than if you are swimming against the greater tide.
Third Screen - Market Ripples
This time frame identifies the short-term frame and is used primarily for executing entries and exits. This allows you to enter with more precision, enabling you to use tighter stops, while increasing the chance that the trade will move immediately in your favor.
Markets cycle through the same technical patterns in virtually every time frame, whether a monthly chart or a 1-minute chart. You can use these patterns or indicators on the third screen to execute trades that look good on the second screen (and are aligned, of course, with the trend on the first screen).
Elder recommends using time frames that are roughly 5 times higher than the time frames below it. The hourly time frame generally works for the daily chart, and the daily chart for the weekly. For intraday charts, for example, one might use the one-minute, five-minute and 30-minute charts. For charts of FX pairs which trade 24-hours a day, four-hour charts are commonly used to execute trades made from the daily chart.
Let's look at an example using the GBP/JPY pair. This pair began a strong weekly downtrend in August and then pulled back into its 21-ema on the daily chart in October. At this point, having noted the weekly downtrend, we would be looking to short any rallies on the daily chart, that is any moves against the prevailing tide. When the daily chart reaches the area where we think resistance would be found, we turn to the 4-hour chart to look for a reversal in that time frame and to enter our short position.
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