If I get thousands of backlinks to a domain (e.g kerosenebacklink.com), can I then use htaccess 301 to redirect that domain to my new projects to give them an immediate PR boost? Does the 301 pass the PR onto the new domain?
in theory yes. in practice it depends on a lot. google are aware of this and try very hard to stop people abusing it. read minstrels post about patents and expired domains. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1033155