There was a great image in a slide-deck at Web 2.0 Expo where the announcing cone was turned around.
You need to listen to your customers more than you shout at them.
Webwright mentioned 37Signals shouts and markets like mad, but I believe they (in contrast to Jason Calcanis) listen more or just as much as they shout. Could be that is just their marketing spin though.
I've never really done link baiting... I've always just been brutally honest. I call it like I see it and that creates some attention for me, sure.
however, that attention will do nothing for you if you don't have a great product.
I got a lot of attention for Engadget, Autoblog and Joystiq at Weblogs, Inc.--and it was a great product so people stuc around.
I got a lot of attention for TechCrunch50 the first year--and now we've got a packed house in year two and a VERY strong start to year three.
I got a lot of attention for Silicon Alley Reporter by speaking my mind--but people stuck around by the articles by other folks like Xeni Jardin and Clay Shirky.
I've gotten a lot of attention for Mahalo by doing This Week in Tech and my email newsletter--but people are sticking around because of the power of Mahalo Answers.
so, the lesson I've learned is that you need to not only be able to get attention for your product, but also have a killer product.
frankly, i'm not that far out there as you would think.... Valleywag has made my reputation into 10x what it actually is. I'm not saying I'm not out there.... I am, but not that out there. :-)
I'm just a normal guy and if you grab a beer with me sometime you'll realize that the media/blogosphere has turned me into this larger than life guy that i'm not.
