I heartily agree with your addition. It’s old-school to be fearful that linking back to a source or someone you’re mentioning will cause people to leave your site for theirs. That’s fixed-pie thinking, in mediator-speak.

Mediators get “expand-the-pie” thinking, so apply it to your marketing, too. Today’s marketing is about sharing, referring, connecting and being generous. If you link to a source and your reader goes there, they’ll remember you as the generous giver of useful information. That’s the new marketing.

In fact, I think I’ll do a post about this! Thanks for the spark, Diane!

I’d add one more thought, if I may, to your list of excellent suggestions. That would be “Give credit where credit is due.” Sometimes I see new bloggers “borrow” ideas that I know they discovered elsewhere and omit giving credit to the source. (Remember those college term papers you wrote? And how you have to give attribution to your sources or you risk getting a failing grade? Same idea works here.)

Link back to the source of your ideas. If you’ve seen bloggers use the word “hat tip”, followed by a link, then you’ve seen attribution at work. It’s nice to acknowledge the blogger(s) who inspired you, and it’s a great way to get their attention and gain their appreciation. They may even return the favor some time.

Linking is the currency of the economy of the blogosphere. Build your capital by linking to others.

Again, thanks, Tammy. As always, a terrific post on an important topic.

Diane Levins last blog post..See a man change his mind before your eyes: learning that waterboarding is torture after all