External Microsite VS Internal Folder

[BeijerElectronics]

We would like to create either a new website or a new section of our existing website that will feature (in time) a lot of content including a forum, video training, tutorials and downloadable resources. Logistically, it would be much easier to create this in a new site (we'll call it newproduct.com) and refer people to the new site. We would, however, like to keep all of that content on our existing site for the sake of content building and SEO.

Should we:

1. Duplicate the content and use no index no follow and/or rel canonical?
2. Host all of the content on our site and set up a vanity domain (www.newproduct.com) to point people to the deep linked area (www.mainsite.com/product/newproductinfo)?
3. Host the content only on an external site with the occasional link back to our main site?

I realize there are other options but they're mostly variants of the above. Our main objectives are to make it easy for people to get to while leveraging the new content for SEO purposes. What are the pros and cons of these different approaches? What seems to make the most sense?

Thank you!

[EGOL]

On my sites this type of content is in a folder on the primary domain. Look at the location of the blog and forum on SEOMoz - they are in folders on the primary domain.

[RyanKent]

I would recommend keeping your content together in one site. There are exceptions, but based on the limited information you have shared, it doesn't seem your site would be an exception.

Why intentionally create duplicate content, create the need to update two sites and then apply meta tags to control your data?

[BeijerElectronics]

Thanks, EGOL and Ryan. This is what I've been leaning toward - I just wanted to make sure there wasn't an easy and acceptable way to do this on an external site that I was missing. One downside to the onsite method is that we'll have to use vanity domain(s) to send new visitors to this site since our main domain is our (relatively unknown and way too long) brand name. It sounds like it'll be worth it to avoid the hassles of dual domains, dual content and the associated mess. Thanks again for chiming in, guys :).