"Link Baiting" is an online marketing term that the newbies to this market probably are scratching their heads about.

Basically it is considered a very good idea to have a lot of websites linking to your website. It's even better if those links are from similar types of websites to your own, and even better still if the content around the link is relevant to your type of website.

Why is it good to have links to your website...
1. more direct traffic - people will click on those links and arrive at your website.
2. search engines will give your website more attention and it will likely result in your webpages being listed higher in relevant search engine results.

So how do some people build links to their website? One way is "link baiting"... you write something controversial or informative and other sites (probably blogs) will link to that content (ie: one of your webpages).

Here is a Gooruze article on 5 basic link baiting tactics.