Learning How to Link

Image credit to Tom Cheredar (an upcoming journalist in Nashville).

In many ways my career took its first major upswing because I linked out as much as possible.

In late 2005 I became an avid Digger. At my height I was ranked 37th on Digg. Of course the community has changed a lot over the the last three years, but I’ll spare the analysis for another post.

Being a good curator and linker is an editorial service. It is something that, if you are not doing, you’ve lost. You will never save the princess Zelda, you will not pass “Go” and you will not collect $200.

If you serve up tasty hyperlinks, people will come back for more. It is that simple.

There are two types of bloggers: linkers and thinkers.

What is important to know is that you can be both. On this blog I tend to post my longer-drawn-out thoughts. But on Digg, Propeller, Publish2, etc – I create my links.

Background: Social Bookmaring 101 for journalists.
includes: history of social bookmarking, a lay of the land and tips for journalists.

I hope to eventually update that “Social Bookmarking 101” post to include Publish2, Google Reader, and other sharing tools that cropped up on my radar.

The social bookmarking sphere has evolved a lot over the last year. Unfortunately right now I don’t have time to do a real in-depth look at it.

The final point of this post will be pure link love. Who are some of the better linkers out there on the web?

To each his own – and these are some of mine. It is not an exhaustive list – but it includes people who really stand out as pushing the practice of linking and are themselves fantastic curators of content.

• Broadcasting Brain – on Google Reader this guy’s shared items are awesome.
• Gerard Barberi
• Scott Karp of Publish2 (disclaimer: I’ve recently joined the board of advisers for Publish2)
• Aidenag from Propeller (met him on Digg)
• Muhammad Saleem – Perhaps one of my oldest internet buddies.
• Kottke – one of the first bloggers I started reading in 2004. As an intern for Wired, before I used RSS, I used to start on his page and begin navigating the web via his links. That is why many of my early Wired articles were art-tech based.
• Romanesko – Still unsure about the value of linking? If you are a journalist you read Romenesko every day. Class dismissed.
• Amy Gahran– A force of nature in journalism. I wish I could bottle up her charisma and drink it to give me 10-hour energy boosts.
• Will Sullivan – the great Jour-Nerd-in-Chief
• Martin Stabe
• Adrian Monck
• Robin Sloan – on Snarkmarket
• NewsTrust – When I’m in the mood for only high-minded quality content (advisory disclaimer again)
• Mark Hamilton – lost o links.
• Jay Rosen on Twitter on his blog he acts as more of a “thinker” – but in Twitter form he serves up great links 140 characters at a time.

Tools You Can Use!!!

• Twitter search: Type in the words and I promise you’ll get some interesting links.
• Google Reader Shared Items: Has changed my reading habits online in a HUGE way. Can’t stress this enough. If you aren’t using an RSS reader. Stop what you are doing and register for Google Reader.
• Stumble Upon: Just get lost.
• Publish2 – The digital equivalent to a reporters notebook.
• Digg – No introduction needed.
• AllTop – If you don’t know about a topic, you can learn from the industry leaders.
• Delicious – An oldie-but-goodie
• Journalism.me – if you are looking for journo-content.

What tools/people do you recommend? Leave some links in the comments.