Should I 301 redirect my country specific sites, or use them as linking root domains?

[jcarter]

I have loveelectronics.co.uk, but I also own 10 other country code specific domains.

I am short on links (i'm actually still setting up the website) and wondered that until i have country specific content, should I 301 redirect these websites to the homepage of my main site, or could I use them as links which would mean I have more linking root domains?

Sorry if this is a beginner question, but it would be good to know so I can sort this.

[firstconversion]

I would write a great single page of foreign language content on each of the country TLDs. The stick in a single english language paragraph with exact text links back to your site

You rank for your terms in the foreign language
You get exact text links back
You get 10 unique domain links

Heres one I made earlier http://www.mendeley.de/

Note the footer is in English, How Mendeley works is the exact text links I wanted to point back to deeper pages on mendeley.com

Also note that the language in the html is correctly changed to DE

But, they didnt change the title or description from the English. and they made up some German words instead of using the real ones (sigh)

[jcarter]

Brilliant suggestion - I shall do just that!