Back on April 26th, which is light years in the blogosphere I used the team ” link leak ” for the fist time that anybody can find.
I need to define it for my blog friend Martin Neumann, over at Small Office Herald, a blog that’s in it’s infancy, but will become a daily must read in the small business world, if I know Martin.
Why do I need to define it ? Because Martin said I had to. So he can link to it, wikipedia it and all kinds of good things that I know nothing about.
You’ll not notice a shortage of link leak around here at Simplenomics. I’m one of the few, along with Easton Ellsworth, Liz Strauss , Chad and a few others who are into blog tipping, which is the antithesis of link leak.
That should make it clear what link leak is: It’s the complete and utter abandon of worry about a link and all it’s mighty power leaving your blog.
It has to do with the Law of Reciprocity, with regard to blogs. You have to be willing to allow your readers to be set free and not care as to whether they come back or not. If you write original, interesting and readable content, you’ll never worry about link leak.
If you copy and paste from some of your previously written material, you’ll be scared to death that your readers will read a comment or see a Trackback from a blog that does all that. You’ll be a reader hoarder ( another new term ), which is the antithesis of a blog tipper.
Yeah, I know Martin, you want that defined, too. Okay. Okay.
A ” reader hoarder ” is a blogger who’s scared to link to another blogger. He/she thinks it’s all about him/her. They will never link out to someone who just might, with their original, interesting content, steal their loyal reader away.
They don’t know this fact : Your readers WANT you to find them some more info on the same topic that your blog is about. They will LOVE you for it. They WANT you to do all the dirty, hard work of finding more good info.
How’s that Martin ? Need more ? Is that enough ? Can anybody add to this ? I’m a PR6 blog and I’ll link out to anybody who can and does add to this conversation. Come get you some link love !
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Mike, the key word for me is Reciprocity. I love that word. It teaches so much about life – yes, even life outside of blogging! The more you share, the more others benefit, and the better off everyone becomes.
I know, that’s all very simplistic. But I really think any person who aspires to be a top-notch blogger or a great communicator needs to learn to compliment others, to hold others up in the spotlight, … to link freely to useful resources elsewhere.
I love what you said: Blogtipping is the antithesis of link leak.
I’ve never worried about “link leak” even since before blogging existed. You simply can’t control that “back” button up there on the browser or the X button in the upper-right corner, so outbound link scarcity isn’t going to keep your readers on your page anyway.
Do you know the difference between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee? Both are fed by the Jordan River. Why is one a Dead Sea in which almost nothing can live and the other is a thriving beautiful lake where fishing boats abound and lots of living things thrive?
The Dead Sea has no outlet. No outbound links. It attempts to hold all of the water that flows into it. It doesn’t succeed. Evaporation is still a way out (the X in the upper right corner). Another way out is to percolate into the ground water (the back button).
The Sea of Galilee has many outlets and is thriving. Water evaporates and percolates. It also flows out through many streams (outbound links). Yet, it flourishes as a living lake (the name Sea of Galilee is actually a misnomer… both the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee are actually lakes).
It’s up to you. Embrace “link leak” and be a fourishing site where people don’t feel trapped, but genuinely welcome… or be selfish with your outbound links and become a dead sea.
-James Brausch
Easton – Thanks. Glad to do my part.
BTW – simplistic is my word, go easy with it.
James – Wow. You said it better than I ever could. That parallel is fantastic ! What a way to compare it.
No need for more, that’s good enough for me Mike. Good stuff!
Now I can start up “The Link Leak Project” over at my blog.
Get after it Martin, I’m looking forward to it.
Thanks HART !
Your participation is appreciated !
I hope the world of pet blogs is enhanced greatly by your version of the Link Leak Virus.
Maybe you should start The Pet Lovers Virus !
Martin, you’re post is the stuff !
Liz,
Your additions to these projects is invaluable.
We gotta find a way to get you all the credit you deserve and even more than the 3,967,241 links you now have…and freely spread !
Hmmmm….wonder if there’s a connection ?
Hey Mike,
Tomorrow will be my 4th week of weekly good reads for my readers to get additional information.
Does that count as Link Leak or Blog Tipping?
I actually got that idea from Liz…
Joe
Hey Joe -
I’d say it counts as both and you go guy !
I’m gonna comment or send you an email about a post on your blog.
Thanks for coming by !
Ok I must be missing something. I don’t see what’s wrong with “target=_blank”. Honest.
Maybe it’s because I use Firefox browser and I’m absolutely addicted to opening everything in a new tab. But it really means getting to the source of my addiction, which is that my train of thought is verrrrry easily derailed. I may want to follow a link out of curiosity, need for more info, or whatever, but I really need that trail of crumbs to help me find my way back to the way out of the rabbit hole that I fell into and then found myself at the Mad Hatter’s tea party…and so on…
To make a long story short, it’s a habit I developed while creating splash pages for traffic exchanges, where you really do not want to be disturbed from the job at hand, and I thought I was doing my reader a favor…
It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve missed the boat =)
I’m not against opening in a new window, which is ( I think ) what that tag does.
To each his/her own, though.
Personally, I’d rather have it that way, BUT if others want to have the reader leave completely, that’s their decision. I’d have said perogative, but I couldn’t spell it !
Now for a bigger question, Kathryn, where the heck did this question/comment come from ?
Did I miss the boat, too ?!
Love the concepts of Link Leaking and Blog Tipping. I seek to be a tipper : ) Reader Hoarding kinda reminds me of the illusion that you can keep a lover by holding on tight. If you love someone…set them free…if they come back…then they are really yours
hehehe
BTW Feel free to leaks some links to me!
I’ll do just that !
Thanks for taking time to comment…around here we value our friends.
Yeah, that’s just what I was saying on my blog. Linking is not a bad habbit, its a virtue.
I’m fair in linking, if I read something from someone’s site and am going to talk about it, I’ll link it, you can bet on that. After all, it would make people come to my site again to find new and interesting links.
Thanks for the comment, TechZ. And congrats on being a SOB !
Try doing some blog tipping, link leak or link karma of your own.
Who the heck do you think started this and how do you think it got started ?
Link-leaking makes perfect sense to me. However, doing it consistently may be too much. If there isnt an apparent reason to do it, I wont. But if I’m writing about something that I’ve read about on another site, be damned sure that I will link to it.
Whether or not to use the target=”blank” tag… I cant see why not. Personally I only see it as a good idea, that you dont make people leave your site, but instead open a new window.
I dont know, I cant see a direct reason as to why not.
Regards
Thanks Peter.
Glad you’re with us and thanks for taking time to comment.