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Linkbait: Tasty morsels to entice readers
It sounds nefarious doesn’t it? Makes one think of “bait and switch” or that run-down old bait store by the lake—the one where they store the containers of nightcrawlers in the same cooler as the egg salad sandwiches. Blech.

As restaurants display fresh seafood to
entice diners, you can create linkbait
to increase your readership.

This is the fourth in a series of posts that discuss Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and other Web marketing strategies.

What is linkbait?

It sounds nefarious doesn’t it? Makes one think of “bait and switch” or that run-down old bait store by the lake—the one where they store the containers of nightcrawlers in the same cooler as the egg salad sandwiches. Blech.

In reality linkbait is simply online content designed to attract an audience who will link to your site. But isn’t all content supposed to do that? In theory yes, but linkbait goes one step further. Instead of supplying the usual insight that your readers have come to depend upon, linkbait reaches out beyond your core audience, offering content that is topical, controversial or in some manner more exciting than the usual fare.

Linkbait is like your favorite birthday present. While you appreciated and needed the new sweater, books and CD’s, the Wii/Xbox/bicycle/train set/new puppy/or other object of desire was the one you told your friends about. Linkbait is the content that people tell others about through their blogs, Web site, Facebook pages, Twitters, Pownces, StumbleUpons, etc.

Examples of linkbait

Linkbait is more than supercharged content. It’s content with an edge, this edge could be something like a Top 10 list on a popular topic, a controversial opinion such as a vilification of Firefox (who would do such a thing?!), or a contest offering a popular prize. For example, Fetch Softworks has just announced their Take Fetch Back to School, Win a MacBook Contest (4 runners-up win new iPod Nanos). This contest should be great linkbait because it is geared to students, staff and faculty just beginning the academic year; offers great prizes; and is happening at a time when some of those prizes, the new iPods, are making a lot of news. As a user of their product I’ve already started pondering what to write, and as a blogger I’ve already linked to them. So I think it’s working!

When to use linkbait?

Like your birthday present, linkbait is for special occasions, meant to add to your content rather than replace it. The bait is only part of the overall mix. If you tried to use linkbait in every blog post you would soon end up with a site lacking in continuity. That wouldn’t really serve your goals. But on occasion, if you come up with a clever idea that is related to your goals, adds value to your regular content, and attracts attention, then go for it. Strategic bits of linkbait can help you expand your readership, acquire more incoming links and raise your rankings while adding a bit of excitement for your regular readers.

I could proceed to bore you with more details, caveats, pros and cons, but plenty of others have already written on the topic. If you are considering adding linkbait to your marketing toolkit, the following resources should give you much of what you need to know.

Linkbait Resources

• Wikipedia: Link bait
• Matt Cutts: SEO Advice: linkbait and linkbaiting
• An Introduction to Linkbaiting
• Golden Rules of Linkbaiting
• Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and SMM
• The Art of Linkbaiting
• 2007 Guide To Linkbaiting: The Year Of Widgetbait?
• Leveraging Linkbait
• 5 Link Baiting Methods

University Main Web Homepage On-line Discussion
University Marketing and Communications is seeking additional community input as it continues its multi-year process of reviewing the university’s main homepage, which was introduced, with slight variations, along with the new university logo in 2004.

Current Homepage

University Marketing and Communications is seeking additional community input as it continues its multi-year process of reviewing the university’s main homepage, which was introduced, with slight variations, along with the new university logo in 2004.

In the next of what will be several phases of input from the university community, University Marketing and Communications is hosting an opportunity for faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of the university to offer ideas on-line through this blog and a forum discussion.

University Marketing and Communication asks that the university community provide thoughts around these three questions:

• What are the two or three most important objectives of a university Web homepage?
• Who are the two or three most important audiences for a university Web homepage?
• What kinds of content would best meet those objectives and reach those audiences?

Thank you for your insights. We’ll be accepting feedback on this blog through September 7, 2007. For additional information on the homepage project, go to http://www.case.edu/webdev/homepage.

Paula Baughn, on behalf of University Marketing and Communications

Now that the feedback period has ended, comments on this entry are now closed. Thank you for your input.

Quick Accessibility Testing
A recent project of mine required me to do a quick review of the accessibility level of a site. Nothing serious, just to show what was possible to test and where the site scored right now. I managed to assemble a small list of tools that I believe did a rather good job. This article […]

Future of web standards (my take)
Stuart Landridge sums up the ongoing debate about the future of CSS. My thoughts on this are that we should: 1. Let browser makers run loose with implementing new features, based on feedback from web developers. 2. Have a standard body (or some other group) that look at those existing features and see how they can be […]

A picture is worth a thousand words, but that’s not always enough
How to add captions to images in Photoshop On the Web it is preferable to place your caption in the HTML. If that won’t work and your captions are long, you should also link to a place providing a description of the image and an alternative rendering of the text. Colleagues of mine are involved in a project that involves adding captions to photographs. Like many of you, they aren’t full-time designers and haven’t spent a great deal of time using Photoshop. While they know how to crop and resize photos, they’ve not yet worked with type. For those…

How to add captions to images in Photoshop

On the Web it is preferable to place your
caption in the HTML. If that won’t work and
your captions are long, you should also link
to a place providing a description of the image
and an alternative rendering of the text.

Colleagues of mine are involved in a project that involves adding captions to photographs. Like many of you, they aren’t full-time designers and haven’t spent a great deal of time using Photoshop. While they know how to crop and resize photos, they’ve not yet worked with type. For those of you who may someday face the same situation, here is a quick tutorial on adding text to images.

Establish your project parameters—size matters

Are your captioned images going to be used on the Web, on hand-outs produced by your office printer or in commercial print work such as a magazine? At what size will they be used? When editing your photos you will want to start with the largest image file available, crop it as necessary then resize it to your project specifications before adding your text.

As I mentioned when discussing image formats, your usage will impact your size specifications. Generally you will want an image that is 300 pixels per inch (ppi) for commercially printed pieces, one that is 125-250 for desktop printing (refer to your user manual to determine the maximum dots per inch (dpi) your printer will produce) and somewhere around 72 to 100 for the Web.

Note: measurements for print are exact; if your photo is 300 dpi and 1 inch square, it will be printed to be exactly 1 inch square. If you print it at 72 dpi and 1 inch square it will still be exactly 1 inch, but will have less detail. Measurements for the Web are relative because they are determined by your display. On my Dell there are 77 pixels in an inch, while on my Mac there are 98 pixels in an inch. Your display may be different. As a rule of thumb I just use 72 (which was common for most monitors back in the 1990’s) and keep in mind the fact that a 3 inch wide photo at 72 ppi will appear smaller on the Mac than it will on the PC. Either way it is 216 pixels, but the pixels on my PC are bigger than those on my Mac.

Consider the amount of text you are supposed to add to the image. Try to make this as brief as possible, especially if your project will be viewed online. While you may be able to use tiny type on printed matter, that type will be harder to read online. Fewer pixels mean fewer details, so 6 point type online will be tiny and jagged.

Also ask yourself if the text needs to be on the picture itself or if it can be read as a caption underneath the image. If the project is for the Web you can include captions underneath a photo in the text rather than in the image. For situations where that won’t work, such as HTML e-mail, just be sure to repeat your caption text in the alt tag of the image.

How to add text in Photoshop

For this example I’ll walk you through the steps used to caption the image used in this entry. We’ll add text on top of the image and below.

1. Open your image file in Photoshop. For practice you are welcome to use this sculpture photo.
2. Resize your photo by going to the image menu and choosing image size. Make sure that “constrain proportions” and “resample image” are checked. Set the resolution appropriate to your project. I’m using 72 for the Web. Choose the appropriate width for your image. I’m using 240 pixels.
3. Click on the foreground color and use the picker to select a color for your type.
4. Select the type tool, click and drag on the image to create your type box, and start typing your content.
5. If it is not already open, go to the window menu to open your layers window. Note that your type was created on a new layer.
6. Switch to the selection tool to reposition your type as desired.
7. If your background is too busy, you may find that your type is hard to read. Try adding a drop shadow or outline to it. To do this double click on the type layer in the layers menu (click to the right of the layer name). This will open up the layers style menu. Check drop shadow, then click on the words “drop shadow” to see your parameters. Drag the menu somewhere to the side—so you can still see your type—then adjust the angle, spread, size and distance until your type looks clear. You can experiment with drop shadow and other options to create different effects. You can also try changing the color. Just try to keep it simple. (Hot pink type with a lime drop shadow is usually a no-no—unless you’re competition is “Hello Kitty.”)
8. Sometimes a drop shadow isn’t enough. In this case you may want to experiment with darkening the background behind the type. You can use the burn tool to just darken an area (paint over your background with this). Another option is to create a rectangular area behind your type that is darker than the rest. To do this, create a new layer above your background image, and create a rectangle with your selection tool. Using the paint can fill it with black. Now you can leave it as is to call greater attention to your caption, or you can adjust the opacity to the layer to make it semi-transparent. In the sculpture photo I’ve set the opacity of the black square to 50%.
9. If you’ve tried a few of these options and your type still doesn’t look right, you may want to put the caption below, instead of on, the image. If your project is going on the Web you can do this in your HTML. If you are sending an HTML e-mail though you will want to include it in the image file. To do this, you will need to increase the size of the image. First set your background color to be the same as that of your document. In this example I’ll use white. Next go to the image menu and select canvas size. Click on the center top square in the grid then increase your height measurement to an appropriate size. I’ve added .5 inches. Now just add your type to this area. If you’ve added too much space you can crop accordingly.
10. Save the file in Photoshop format (in case you want to make edits) then go to the file menu and choose “Save for Web.” Select JPEG as your file format then click save. If you would prefer a .tif file (for print) you would instead flatten image (under the layers menu) and save as .tif.

Alternative Text for Captions

Captioning images can add value, but will also pose accessibility challenges. If your caption is short, you should copy it into the alt tag of your image. This will make it available to those who use screen readers or other user agents that don’t show images. If your caption is too long, you may also want to link to an alternative copy of the text, either on the same page, as a footnote, or wherever you deem appropriate. Read Andy Clarke’s article, Accessible alternatives, to learn more about these techniques. For this example I’ve linked to a description of the image and text and placed it here on the page:

Photograph of part of a sculpture featuring a man holding an umbrella next to a dog whose nose is pointed at the mans’s knee. Captions built into the image read as follows:

• Spot, can’t you find a squirrel to chase? You’ve been sitting here panting on my leg for years now.
• What, and you think this is my idea of the perfect view?
• This caption is part of the image file, but sits below the picture.

In Conclusion

As you’ve seen, it’s pretty easy to add text to an image. The tricky part is making it look right and ensuring that the content is available to all. But with a bit of experimentation you can accomplish both tasks.

Out of Office
I’ll be out of the office until December. If you have questions related to content development for your Case Web site, event postings, news stories or announcements in Case Daily feel free to contact the Office of Marketing and Communications. If you have questions regarding the username and password for your account on the main campus Web server (Aurora) contact webmaster@case.edu. If you need to transfer your account to a new maintainer, fill out an account application form and indicate that it is a transfer. If you have questions about uploading files to your account, review the entry on Uploading…

I’ll be out of the office until December.

If you have questions related to content development for your Case Web site, event postings, news stories or announcements in Case Daily feel free to contact the Office of Marketing and Communications.

If you have questions regarding the username and password for your account on the main campus Web server (Aurora) contact webmaster@case.edu. If you need to transfer your account to a new maintainer, fill out an account application form and indicate that it is a transfer.

If you have questions about uploading files to your account, review the entry on Uploading your files with Dreamweaver.

If you need to download Dreamweaver from the software center it is now part of the Adobe Creative Suite.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Usenet Newsgroups: Anachronistic Service or Useful Communication Tool?
Earlier this week ITS announced that it would be taking down the Usenet news server as of December 5, 2007. In a fit of nostalgia, I opened up my newsreader (Mozilla) to leave a farewell message on cwru.general. Oddly enough, my message got a response; others (not many) were still using Usenet! This led me to wonder what had happened to newsgroups. Did the generation that grew up on the Web not know about newsgroups, or did they know about them but prefer the Web? In this age of Web 2.0, where some update their Facebook status by the hour, users pose questions on discussion boards such as http://forum.case.edu, and writers merge their Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku posts into central RSS feeds that can be shared on their Tumblr blogs, is there still a place for Usenet news?

alt.politics.usa.constitution as seen in
Seamonkey (above) and Google Groups (below).
Click on the images to enlarge.

Earlier this week ITS announced that it would be taking down the Usenet news server as of December 5, 2007. In a fit of nostalgia, I opened up my newsreader (Mozilla) to leave a farewell message on cwru.general. Oddly enough, my message got a response; others (not many) were still using Usenet! This led me to wonder what had happened to newsgroups. Did the generation that grew up on the Web not know about newsgroups, or did they know about them but prefer the Web? In this age of Web 2.0, where some update their Facebook status by the hour, users pose questions on discussion boards such as http://forum.case.edu, and writers merge their Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku posts into central RSS feeds that can be shared on their Tumblr blogs, is there still a place for Usenet news?

I think perhaps there is. But before we ponder that, perhaps we need to review—for those who don’t know—what Usenet is/was all about.

History

Many users today think of the World Wide Web and the Internet as being interchangeable. But as most of you know, the WWW is only one of many protocols used on the Internet. Back in the era before the WWW (which most users didn’t access until 1994-95), Usenet was one of the most popular features of the Internet. To some it still is.

First created in 1979, Usenet allows users to share thoughts and ideas with one another on a variety of topics ranging from the Internet itself to the latest episode of CSI. While T. V. viewers now discuss their favorite show on Web-based forums, in those days folks dissected X-Files episodes on alt.tv.x-files. (Actually they still do.)

How Usenet is used

As one uses a Web browser to surf the Web, one uses a newsreader to subscribe to and read/respond to newsgroups. Some news readers are stand-alone programs, while others are built into e-mail programs or Web browsers and Internet suites. Once the reader is installed, the user configures it to connect to a news server just as one would configure an e-mail program to use a certain e-mail server. Most Internet service providers offer news server access.

With the newsreader installed and configured to access the appropriate server, users can then subscribe to any of thousands of newsgroups based on their interests. This will be familiar to those of you who use RSS readers to read blogs. With a newsreader you would typically call up a searchable list of the newsgroups provided by your server and subscribe to those you like. Once subscribed you would select a group from your subscription list and download the latest headers (subject lines, that link to messages) to read the various posts. From there you can respond to an existing discussion or start a new thread, just as you would on a discussion forum, but more similar to e-mail in that you can include attachments.

There are thousands of newsgroups available on the internet with topics ranging from alt.tv.survivor to alt.politics.usa.constitution. Many of these will be available through your Internet Service Provider’s news server, but some may be limited to certain servers.

To learn more about using Usenet newsgroups refer to the resources listed at the bottom of this entry.

Is Usenet still viable?

Given the research I’ve done today, Usenet seems to be alive and well—particularly in certain circles. Those circles would be those interested in file sharing. As I’ve been exploring this issue I’ve noticed two trends:

• Newsreaders such as Binary Boy geared towards optimizing music, picture and movie sharing
• Uncensored News Servers, such as Tera News offering uncensored access to groups, anonymous posting and firewall counter measures

I’d like to think that the above are being used to provide more efficient news reading or to give access to users living in countries with unreasonably strict censorship laws; but I’m guessing these folks are making their money by offering an easy way for people to trade naughty pictures and pirated media. With prices for some servers ranging anywhere from $7 to $49 (and up, depending on download limits) per month, I don’t think folks are signing up to share their grandmother’s bundt cake recipes.

What about the rest of us? Is Usenet still a good way to share information, discuss politics and find out how to clean the headlight lenses on your ‘96 Passat? I think it could be. This evening I installed Mozilla’s Seamonkey Internet Suite, on my home computer, to use as my newsreader and subscribed to some of the groups I’d read in the past such as alt.www.webmaster. The group was alive and well, filled with the same kind of reasonable questions, helpful advice, spam and people who shouldn’t be thinking of starting a Web design business, as it always was. Newsgroups are like that, but so are discussion boards. Some members will be knowledgeable, others never will be, and some just want to push their product or start a flame war. A lot of good information can still be traded.

If one is looking for discussion geared towards very specific topics I think Usenet works well for two reasons.

• One Stop Shopping: One can subscribe to groups on cars, sports, T. V. shows, politics, philosophy, etc. and view them all in one place as one does with RSS readers.
• Threaded Discussion: This format is really easy to use. You are presented with a list of headers, so you can choose which topic to read, and then all the messages in the thread are listed below (the way this works may depend on your reader). Google Groups offers Web-based access to newsgroups, but if there are more than a few messages in a given topic it can be very hard to follow. Google presents them in full in order, rather like Gmail. But when you get a few hundred this also involves multiple pages and can be tricky to navigate.

Perhaps I’m just being nostalgic, but this still seems like a pretty efficient way to communicate. Back in the day, I got a lot of good information from newsgroups, and I think if one chooses a group with an active, knowledgeable subscriber-base one still can. And if that is the case one can use these to network, share ideas, promote Web sites and blogs (but only in the context of providing meaningful content to the group) just as one can with Web-based services.

What do you think? Is there a place for Usenet in your social media world?

Usenet News Resources

• An Introduction to Usenet News
• Choosing a Usenet News Reader
• How the Usenet News Protocols Work
• Internet FAQ Archives: What is Usenet? (Historical, yet definitive, read both parts)
• news.newusers.questions
• News Readers
• On the History and Impact of the Net
• Reference to Newsgroups (List of Groups)
• SeaMonkey (Web browser/e-mail/newsreader)
• Usenetpedia: An encyclopedia of Usenet Newsgroups related facts
• Wikipedia: Usenet
• Network News Transport Protocol (NNTP)

P.S. When mentioning specific newsgroups I linked to them using the news protocol. These will only work if you have configured a newsreader in your browser and are using a server that includes that particular group.