Batten down the hatchets; this might be the biggest link-o-rama ever, since I was on the road last Friday and I have two weeks of stuff to cover.

Shimon Sandler shares thoughts on discovering valuable links: Criteria & Time Period for Link Effectiveness. I think this is a good complement to my recent Building the Perfect Link post, in which I didn’t really get in to the area of how soon you’ll see results from good inbound links.

One of my fellow moderators at the Small Business Ideas Forum, Chris Logan, has launched a new site right up the alley of small businesses struggling to get started with online marketing: FreeLinks.com. It’s a place where you’re going to learn about free marketing resources, and there’s a message board just for FreeLinks.com users, too.

Another of my fellow SBI moderators, Karon Thackston, writes about Opening Sentences That Close the Sale. I always get something out of Karon’s articles.

Speaking of writing… another problem small businesses often struggle to overcome is the need for quality content. If that sounds familiar, check out Making the Most of Limited Content by Karen Sams on the Online Marketing Blog. And while you’re there, don’t miss Lee’s SEO Benefits from Blogs.

John Jantsch has been wondering, as many people have, what are the pros and cons of LinkedIn? John’s post simply poses the question, but be sure to click the “Comments” link for some interesting thoughts from LinkedIn users.

(Speaking of which, here’s my profile. If you want to make a connection, send the invite to matt [at] smallbusinesssem.com.)

If I were using Google Base heavily, this is something I think I’d be doing religiously: Brian Mark explains How to make Google OneBox results appear where there weren’t any. I mean, is it really that easy?

Yahoo is joining Google on the “quality score” bandwagon. When the new “Panama” system launches in full on February 5th, the current bid-only system will be replaced by a more sophisticated ranking model. Loren has a good overview at Search Engine Journal.

Google Checkout took a hit on the chin with a J.P. Morgan report that said only 19% of users reported having a “good” or “very good” experience with the service. Coverage from Search Engine Journal and Digital Ghost.

Also in the news, comScore’s December search share stats put Google at 47.5%, Yahoo at 28.5%, and MSN/Live.com at 10.5%. And MarketingVox sums up what small businesses already know: Family and friends are more influential than the Web and TV when it comes to influencing purchase decisions. For small business, good word-of-mouth marketing is a must.

And finally … link-o-rama wouldn’t be complete without some local search talk, right? Sebastien P. gives a good overview of the recent discussions on why newspapers don’t own the local search space.

Whew! All done.

Currently listening to: “Last Boat to America”, David Gray

Technorati Tags: links, link building, freelinks.com, chris logan, karon thackston, copywriting, karen sams, lee odden, john jantsch, linkedin, google base, brian mark, quality score, yahoo, loren baker, google checkout, digital ghost, comscore, local search, sebastian provencher