How Linking to Blogs Can Increase your Traffic

Things change pretty fast on the web, and this is especially the case with the blogosphere. If you're a blogger, you probably want to know how to increase your traffic, get more readers, sell more stuff, etc. One often overlooked feature of blogs that can instantly send a wave of traffic your way is called "trackbacks" or "pingbacks".

First, what exactly is a trackback? A trackback is a link in the comments area of a blog, indicating that another blog is talking about it. For example, when you post a blog article, another user may find it interesting and link to it from his own blog. That's great, because you've just received an inbound link. As a bonus, if your blog supports trackbacks or pingbacks, your site will automatically link to his article too. Think of it as an ego boost saying "Look at all these people linking to my article".

So how can this turn into a windfall of traffic for you? It's becoming a common tactic for people to race to be the first to post a comment on a popular blog. The first to post gets seen by the most readers, and thus gets the most traffic. But with trackbacks, it becomes a lot easier. You can post an article on your blog and then search for relevant blogs under the same topic. Add links in your post to the blogs you've found and reference their material. Finally, submit a trackback (your blog software may do this automatically when you link to them, otherwise you can use tools such as TrackbackSpeed and others), and you'll instantly create a relation between your blogs.

As an added bonus, trackbacks and pingbacks not only get you eyeballs from readers of the blogs you've linked to, but some search engines also factor this into page rank calculations. Of course, the best part about trackbacks and pingbacks is that both parties benefit by a link and share readers. They also help make it easier to find related content.

There's also plenty of chatter from other bloggers on how to safely use trackbacks and pingbacks, here's just a sample:
Don’t Trackback. Use Pingback : WordPress Profit
howtomarketyourstuff.com » Blog Archive » Trackback, Pingbac..
Blogging for Business: Search engine benefits of trackbacks, pingbacks, and..
Deciding whether to use a trackback or a comment
Countries in colors » Blog Archive » Beginners’ web: h..
Blogurple-The News Blog » What Are Trackbacks and How Do I Use Them?
Freaklamp Dot Com » Blog Archive » Publicize Your Site and I..
Using Pingbacks And Trackbacks With Wordpress
How to use trackback links » zated.com » blogging/marketing/rev..
Blog Definitions: Common Terms of the Blogosphere
Trackbacks and Pingbacks Scraps Of Mind
Get Traffic with Trackbacks Super Blogging
http://www.ablogaboutnothing.com/5-tips-for-riding-the-wave-of-success

is Dmoz corrupt?

Shoemoney has an interesting live experience with a DMOZ editor apparently attempting to extort money in order to keep his listing in the directory. There has certainly been a diminishing effect of how important Dmoz is in the post-google/blogosphere era. Read the full story at http://www.shoemoney.com/2007/08/26/dmoz-extortion/

As usual, plenty of people are talking about it too:
Creative Dingo Media - Discussion of SEO and Web Development » Archi..
ArticleSnatch Blog » Blog Archive » Shame on DMOZ
DMOZ Gets Ugly Artifexus.net
DMOZ Sucks!
DMOZ is corrupt Thomas De Maesschalck's blog
Dewitts Media » Shoemoney got removed from DMOZ
Extortion by DMOZ by BpMonaco
DMOZ Extortion by INTERNET ZING
DMOZ extortion · Webmaster Journey
When Did DMOZ Go Corrupt? at Apples of Gold
Sind DMOZ-Editoren Erpresser?
Dmoz: ora si rasenta la follia ! at Pochi Maledetti e Subito
Corruzione in DMOZ? SEO facile

What is The Golden RSS Feed?

I came across a new site recently with a unique little spin on RSS feeds and apparently a shot at making some traffic. They call it The Golden RSS Feed. The idea is for advertisers to bid on spots within the feed and duke it out for rank. Bid more and secure your rank. Bid too low and slip down the feed. They also have a cute term for links who fall of the list, called "Penny Players".

It's interesting, their take on RSS feed technology. If you check out the actual feed, they list their items in rank order, rather than chronological (the typical way for RSS feeds). This must be so that feed readers display the topics in the proper order. Not crying foul or anything, after all, RSS is a public format for anyone to utilize.

With a starting bid of $10 for each rank spot, it could be worth your while. I've seen other sites like this explode (ahem milliondollarhomepage, 1000tags).

Problem With Google Cache: Not Working

Is it just me or is there a transient problem with the cache feature on Google? That is, when you do a search and click the Cache link to view Google's stored copy of the page. I noticed it this week and it seems to happen on certain computers. Growing pains?

Your search - cache:QS9jTFA52OcJ:www... - did not match any documents.

How to Block the Google Search Cookie

There is an interesting post about how to block or delete the Google search cookie (for those of you serious about privacy) to help prevent Google from tracking keyword searches to your PC. It comes with a free download tool called G-Zapper, which was pretty easy to use. Check it out.

FeedFlare Anyone?

In other news, has anyone noticed the little graphics and links FeedBurner is including at the bottom of their hosted feeds now? I believe they call it FeedFlare, but I find it somewhat distracting. I can picture this leading towards a PPC method, possibly competing with Google's Adsense. Interesting to see how that turns out.

FeedBurner Tip: Create a private area for your RSS subscribers only «..

RSS Submit with FeedBurner Integration

If you recall my post about using FeedBurner to monior RSS feed traffic, well a very handy feature has been added in the latest version of RSS Submit to allow users to view FeedBurner traffic stats right from the software. I have been using this product with great success for quite some time now, and am happy to see the FeedBurner integration. Certainly makes submitting even more satisfying.

The folks at ksoft have a brief tutorial on exactly how to use their product with FeedBurner. Very neat stuff. Check it out