Don’t you just hate top ten posts

Don’t you feel a little reluctant to click through to them?

However, I found each of these articles to be very helpful when it comes to link building, mainly because they contain some great new ideas, rather that simply treading tired, old ground.

• Linkbaiting Or Link Building Strategies - SEOBook.com
• Golden Rules Of Link Baiting - Smashing Magazine
• 5 Crafty Outside The Box Link Building Tips And Tricks - Link Building Blog
• Andy Hagan’s Ultimate Guide To Linkbaiting And SMM - TropicalSEO
• Are You A Master LInk Baiter, Or Just A Flasher - GrayWolf
• The Link Baiting Playbook: Hooks Revisited - Stutdbl
• 2007 Guide To Linkbaiting: The Year Of Widgetbait? - SEL
• Rand’s & Steps To Linkbait Success - SEOMoz
• SEO Advice Link Bait And Link Baiting - Matt Cutts
• How To Get Traffic To Your Blog - Seth Godin

Great articles, all. However, is there a problem with the way I presented them?

When you saw the title of this post, did you hesitate for a second? Did it feel like you were being drawn into a marketing stunt?

I think we all know know the feeling.

Part of the problem with top ten posts, or any post that follows a format that has become cliche, is that they are less likely to stand out in a crowd. They’ve lost a quality of uniqueness through overuse. In many respects, that’s a shame, because the format isn’t a marker of quality, or lack thereof.

So what to do?

A common theme of the articles I’ve linked to above is to "be remarkable". "Be unique". "Take a different angle". And that’s great advice. The internet is not short of content, but it is short of remarkable content.

My angle was to skewer the "top ten post" style post, although, secretly, I really do like lists

Or is going meta, self-reflexive and post-modern just another cliche?