Linkbaiting usually works in terms of driving short term traffic bursts to your blog. A hot buzz topic that people are actively searching for online will undoubtedly drive traffic to your blog.
If you're one of the first bloggers to write about a buzz topic before it truly catches fire across the Internet, then you're likely to have a lot of other blogs and websites link to your post as reference. That means a boost in your Google and Technorati rankings thanks to those links.
Linkbaiting works in that it drives new visitors to your blog who may not have found it otherwise. The hope is that some of those visitors will turn into loyal readers and return again and again. It also works in terms of getting your name out there across the blogosphere and helping you gain a reputation.
Linkbaiting drives traffic, but most of that traffic is usually short-lived. The vast majority of people who arrive at your blog through linkbait won't return. However, if the linkbait topic is directly related to the subject of your blog and you have something useful to contribute to the linkbait topic, then you do stand a good chance of driving some conversation on your blog and some repeat traffic.
Additionally, linkbait not only brings short-lived traffic, but it also brings the wrong kind of traffic. In other words, the people who arrive on your blog via linkbait might be very different than the audience you want to visit your blog. Linkbait can often bring visitors who don't know you and your blog community and may leave offensive comments or attack your loyal readers.
The bottom line about linkbaiting is this - use linkbait with caution and use it for the right reasons. For example, don't write a post about a buzz topic strictly to drive short term traffic unless that topic is related to your blog and you can bring something new and useful to the topic.
Don't annoy your loyal readers with linkbait posts that are useless to them. Also, don't annoy new visitors by writing a linkbait post that doesn't deliver information they are likely to be interested in. In other words, your post should still be compelling and relevant even if it's linkbait.
