Link policy

If I were Tyler and Alex, I'd probably call this post "markets in everything: links."

Links are the commodity in the bloggers' market. We spend them, and hope to earn them in return. Just like in the real economy, there isn't a fixed amount of wealth in the blogosphere. So it is a positive sum game: we can create more blog wealth by linking more. This isn't a perfect analogy: bloggers trade links, but we really desire traffic, not links. So our commerce is transacted in a real commodity, but it is only a proxy for the commodity we really want: traffic.

As a new blogger, it can be tough to receive links and build traffic. As of right now, Technorati shows that I have one link from the Window Manager.

Of course, that's somewhat frustrating. I can't complain too much; I just started this blog and people want to see that a blog is going to last longer than 5 days before they link to it.

But still, if I'm going to blog, I'd like to have some links. So here's some options for my marketing plan:

1. Join a geographic link exchange, eg the Bear Flag League for Californians.

2. Join a partisan link exchange, eg Blogs for Bush or the Liberal Coalition.

3. Email individual bloggers and ask for a reciprocal link.

4. Start submitting to the Carnival of the Capitalists.

5. Find sites that always reciprocate links.

1. I don't know of a league for Texas. Perhaps I could get one together.

2. This is a biz blog, so I'd prefer to stay away from politics. However, I'm willing to consider option 2.

3. I'm amenable to people emailing me asking for a link, but I am surprisingly lukewarm to the idea of emailing people asking to exchange links. At first I wasn't willing to consider this option, but now I think I will.

4. Obviously I should do this, but I'm hesitant to nominate myself. However, this is clearly an attractive option.

5. I don't know of any sites that always reciprocate links. James Joyner of Outsidethebeltway.com used to reciprocate, but apparently has ended the practice.

So, my link policy is this: I will gladly link to anyone who links to me. Anyone who does not reciprocate my link within about 30 days is unlikely to keep my link. This will hopefully create an incentive (to go back to my economic metaphor) to link to me. I'll try to email all of those people to whom I've linked and ask for a link before I delink them.

We'll see if it works.