How Not to Cross Link Your Microsite

SEOMoz has done a great job with this brief whiteboard tutorial on why its a bad idea to rely on microsites for cross linking. Companies typically use microsites to help pass link value to their main domain by way of a keyword rich anchor link. They suggest that consolidating your link value is the best method for increasing your search engine authority.

Twitter and RSS Adoption Trends

Looking into some interesting Twitter search trends using Google Trends. It appears as though Twitter may be making some progress on the adoption of RSS. As you can see in the graphic above, RSS buzz had some real steam from 2000-2005. RSS began to drop off around 2006 and has been on a slide since.

One other interesting trend is the explosion of Twitter searches. It appears as though the increase in Twitter searches suggests that Twitter may be the magic bullet that RSS needed to reach a more broad audience. Perhaps having a brand rather than a technology behind the idea of RSS has helped fuel a user base. What are your thoughts on where RSS and Twitter are headed?

What makes Social Networks work?

I wanted to share some of my thoughts from a recent network discussion that I thought you might find interesting. What are you thoughts on why social networks are effective?

"Online social networks are just an internet manifestation of networking events/trade shows/happy hours (without the beer)/professional clubs/user groups/alumni groups .... the list goes on.

The core principal of networking remains the same, the only thing that has changed is access (not requiring travel), cost (free) and speed (real time). It's amazing to me how quickly social networking activity grows compared to traditional networking activities. The speed and cost make social networks so effective. These factors make online social networking one of the most effective ways to reach the greatest number of people in the least amount of time."