Best cross linking strategy for micro sites?

[spoiltchild]

Hi Guys.

I created a micro site (A design showcase gallery) away from the main website to attract a lot of links in my space from competitors. It works so well it has become a valuable resource in my industry and I believe I will keep it running and adding content to it.

Is the best SEO strategy for the main site simply to link from each page to the main site? Or should I be looking at something else?

Thanks,

Alan

[HiveDigitalInc]

You really only need 1 link, preferably from the home page. If anything, I would make it look like your main site was just being featured. That being said, it seems like an awful lot of work to get a single link, regardless of whether it had attracted links from your competitors.

[spoiltchild]

Thanks Russ, that's just the kind of information I need to know
If I raise the value of the micro site will it not increase the value of the link? Or again do you not see it being worth the effort?

I do not mind being too overt with the link as it has become such a good resource that competitors are linking to it even knowing we are behind it.
Another reason to maintain the site is it generates a lot of good click through traffic.

A second related question as I dig into this deeper.
As I mentioned, we received a lot of links from some high value sites to individual sub pages on the micro site. After 6 months, could I look at adding a 301 from those pages to my main site? Maybe a with a duplicate of the original content being linked to...

And lastly, a lot of my showcase content is getting copied and pulled into "Best 50..." posts with no link backs.  I have emailed and asked with moderate success to get links back. 
Has anyone a strategy for increasing back links in a situation like this? Maybe hidden or overt watermarks? (Not too overt or it will lower the value to current visitors).

Or perhaps I should be looking at a more radical option of moving the entire micro site into a sub domain or sub directory of my main site...

Sorry for the stream of questions. New to the more technical aspects of SEO and trying to put a strategy around what started on a whim.