Here’s an advanced link baiting strategy that really works. It’s not for the new blogger or the faint of heart, and in fact I haven’t tried this one yet myself. But there’s no doubt in my mind that this is a very powerful technique.
The strategy centers around faking your own death. For added buzz, you should also consider spinning the story so that you died while blogging in order to gain maximum A-List penetration (reminding them of their own mortality might be the last way available to get them to link outside of their personal echo chambers).
You’re likely thinking that this sounds like a solid strategy, all except for the being dead part. I hear you. While there’s always the rejuvenating option of adopting a persona who is carrying on with the blog after your unfortunate demise, let’s take a look at some “back from the dead” techniques that have worked for decades in sophisticated character dramas such as Days of Our Lives, One Life to Live, and The X-Men.
- It was really your evil twin who died
- You were cloned shortly after birth
- You were temporarily in the witness protection program, sorry for the inconvenience
- Abducted by aliens and replaced with a replica droid always seems to work
- You are now blogging in a dream sequence
- Actual resurrection from the dead (requires the right family connections)
Like I said, it takes some imagination and work, but the payoff can be huge. You should get an entire new round of links when you miraculously re-appear and everyone debates the subject from every conceivable angle on TechMeme.
What do you think? Any other ideas on how to pull this one off on this fine first day of April? 
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LOL first time I’ve heard this one.
Is there any legal reason why faking your death is a bad idea?
If not, It got me thinking of all kinds of little publicity stunts.
Bloggers…got love em
As I’m reading this I’m thinking, “Is he smoking crack?” Then I realize what day it is. Hilarious. Thanks for the giggle.
Very creative! Witness protection program might just work…
A couple more ideas:
You died and went to hell, and the devil forces everyone in hell to continue their blog
We all live inside of a computer program. You died, but you were replaced by a blogger program.
You’re a schizophrenic, and you killed off your alter ego
You’re dead, but you’re being channeled by a spiritual intermediary
Your site was hacked by an obsessive fan that planned to kill you
In fact, why don’t you turn this into a “101 ways” post and make it to the front page of digg? I’d be glad to help.
I tried faking my own death a couple of years ago. It was really disheartening to see the joyful reaction from co-workers, friends, family, acquaintances from high school, our local Neighbourhood Watch group, and others.
It sort of hurt my feelings, so I don’t think I’ll try it again.
In a day and age where people still debate whether dead celebrities are really alive and living somewhere in the Caribbean (i.e., Elvis, Kurt Cobain, Tupac, B.I.G.), I’d rather not encourage anyone to attempt this kind of ploy.
There’s only one person out there who I think would willingly and maybe successfully pull this off, and that’s because he’s pushing for increasing celebrity in every way possible. I won’t mention his name, but ever since he left Weblogs, Inc., he sure seems to be going after blog celebrity.
OK, I’m on my death bed. All people reading this, please come, (yes, you, the 13993 readers of Copyblogger!) and visit my blog, so I can enjoy my last moments alive. I also have a blog contest going on, so if you hurry up, you may win free hosting for one year. I am going to die within the next two weeks, so don’t rush, I don’t want you to crash my server
this post would have been much more impressive if you’d actually taken your own advice mid-post. then, i really would have been imp..ACCK! OOG! OW, MY CHEST! OHH THE PAIN!!!
[hello this is dave's wife. my husband passed on at 8:01am PST. please send virtual flowers to deadblogger@500hats.com]
LOL!
Ooo, ooo… Before you announce your death, blog that you were an orphan. Then, they can start even more links, arguing over who your real parents were.
Just a thought.
You got me! I forgot it was April Fools’ Day. Cool idea, though.
Hehehe This is like the second time I nearly fell for it…1st of April is already over down where I live…
Blogging and the Art of Mortality Maintenance.
Haha! I’m surprised this hasn’t already been done!
April Fool! You can’t be serious, right? If you are, then I am now announcing my death on this day in 2007. I think I will entitle it “Dead Duck”. LOL
How do we know this isn’t really your evil twin posting this & laughing all the way to the blog bank? Seriously, good one, and the comments are priceless and creative! Ya’ll inspired me!
Elvis is dead? I could swear I just saw his picture on a blog somewhere.
Actually, I think really trying to fake your death is illegal. I do not think saying so on your blog would likely count in court though.
I am sure someone really did this for real!
Not cool. Joke’s not funny in climate of blog death threats even if it is April Fool’s Day.
Whoa!
I must say that I was fooled alright.
Great idea Brian!
Cheers!
Hysterical Brian!
Well done!
I think April 1st would be a terrible day if we knew we could no longer coorespond with The Copyblogger. Stay safe.
You got me.
Shane
i just like how you referenced to soap operas ha!
I run a progressive political blog (http://www.theliberaloc.com) and we sent out press releases to local media and blogs saying that we had just been acquired by the local Republican blog.
We got a lot of “You’re selling out!” emails, and there was even a small bit on the local paper’s blog about the acquisition (The reporter finally figured out the prank and retracted the story).
We redesigned our site so it looks like the Republican’s.
Happy April Fools Day!
Haha. Very nice.
How about faking your own abduction? Then death. Then an actual arrest. Then your court case. Then insanity. Then your release from prison. BAM! Neverending publicity.
… or you could head to Matt Cutts’ place and see what he is upto !
Everyone seems to be pulling a quick one on their readers today.
Judging by recent events, faking a death threat would work just as well.
Really desperate scraping-the-bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. So what do you do for an encore.
I realize that this is an older entry - not sure how I stumbled across it.
Being an ‘old blogger’ around town, I’m reminded of an incident where someone actually did fake their death - but not before amassing a huge following of people rooting for this young girl who was supposedly dying of cancer.
Huge hoax! Big news in the Metafilter community et al… (took place in 2000).
You can read a summary of it here:
http://www.bigwhiteguy.com/mess.pdf
It’s really amazing what some do to get some attention. Are there any recent copies?
I’m in no hurry to die … could I just fake leprosy or something? With the progressive nature of leprosy, I could probably blog for 8-10 years before having to ‘put up or shut up’. One of my young friends has a great case of ringworm … maybe I post a couple pics of that, eh?
BTW … it’s March 31, 2008 as I type this. Guess what tomorrow is.
I suspect it’s a tactic that you can only try once.
I prefer to fake a UFO abduction. This is an equally dramatic strategy, and can be repeated as often as required.