…and you find out about this “hot new” linking opportunity, and you decide to tell them about it. What happens next? Chances are, some of your audience ends up abusing the advice in a manner you hadn’t foreseen, and sour tastes get left in everyone’s mouth. That’s exactly what happened recently as several websites went public with sources for “secret link building” sauce.

Publicly sharing link building information and resources has become difficult recently. With certain tactics on the outs and open sources now fighting back, sharing where and how to get links has become a touchy subject.

How much is too much information? Do you discuss principles and leave out the specifics? Do you talk about the type of site but never reference one by name? I’ve always freely shared ideas and sources because it’s how I was taught and how I continue to learn. I’m one of those old hippie types who believes in the communal nature of the Net so I contribute and give back by sharing what I know works. My defiant ying side wants to scream out stuff like this:

This is a subject I’ve touched on before, so I’ll comment again. How much is too much information? Really, just about any useful information can be misused by a group of self appointed SEOs and marketers. Not all of them will share your sense of morality, and even fewer will exercise restraint when it comes time to “shove a link in” somewhere, especially when the targeted website is a presumed “authority” website.

In the end, it’s still fine to share information on SEO. You just have to be careful to avoid any specifics that might actually be damaging to someone else. This is the reason so much stale SEO information is still laying about the blogosphere and forum circuit. To share too much vital info will end up in forms being shut down, and bad feelings arising.

I think we might be seeing less of the Earth-shattering ideas being released than ever before in 2008. Do you think it’s a good idea to share “SEO secrets” in open venues?