Link Building With Publicity Stunts

Link baiting with web content can really just come down to the good old fashioned publicity stunt.

When properly planned, targeted, and executed, publicity sought for publicitys sake can be an incredible force. It can turn an idea into a business and give a fading star a fresh chance to brave the media glare.

From Howards Sterns Union Square give-away of 500 free satellite radios to commemorate his switch to Sirius, to the Britney and Madonna kiss at the MTV Music Awards, to the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction, publicity stunts create attention.

But stunts are hard to control, and sometimes the after-effects can be mixed or downright nasty. Heres an example of an engineered maneuver that had the exact opposite effect from what was intended.

Elvis Presley laid the groundwork for the modern celebrity publicity stunt by joining the U.S. Army on March 24, 1958. It wasnt his stunt, though. Despite the lack of a war, he was drafted for a two year tour of duty in Germany until he was honorably discharged in 1960.

Presleys peacetime draft was a conservative political move to protect the country from the corrupting influence of his music, and it had exactly the opposite effect. Heres how Alan Levy's book Operation Elvis describes the move:

By pretending he was just like anybody else, the Army had demonstrated to the world The Importance of Being Elvis.

Thanks to a political miscalculation, Elvis became more famous than ever, and publicists ever since have worked this angle to amplify the importance of being [insert celebrity client name here]. The irony is, before leaving for Germany, Elvis had already agreed to make nearly ten years of really bad movies, which would help send his career all decked out in bejeweled white jumpsuits on a one-way trip to Vegas.

What can Elvis teach you about link building?

Brian Clark is the founder of http://www.tubetorial.com which provides free Internet Marketing video tutorials for effective online business. He also writes about online copywriting techniques at his blog Copyblogger.com

Copyright 2006 Brian Clark