This is the second 'plain-English' article of a series of 5, which share powerful tools and techniques to really boost your business blogging strategy. You can discover more blogging tips like these on my upcoming Advanced Blogging Teleclass training series. UPDATE: Or grab the entire series in my special report 5 Power Tools To Boost Your Blog Traffic by filling out the form to the top right of the page.
Part 2 - Comments and Trackbacks
At the end of most blog posts you will see a link saying 'Comments'. Click on it and you're taken to a list of comments and/or a comment form for you to leave your own. (Further reading on exactly how to do it right here: http://claireraikes.blogs.com/bizblogangel/2007/03/commenting_on_b.html.)
When I first started blogging I was often moved to comment on other people's blogs but then suddenly overcome with shyness, feeling that my opinion was in some way 'not worthy'! These days, I love browsing through my favourite blogs and discovering new ones and contributing by leaving helpful comments as I go. My challenge is creating the time to do so!
I have set myself the goal of commenting on at least one blog a day. Why? Because if done right, it's great for building traffic to your own blog and here's why:
a) It puts you and your blog address under the noses of your target market and
b) It creates another link TO your blog from another website/blog which is great for your Google Page Rank score.
So how do you do it right?
Well, you need to find a blog that shares the same target market or audience and which allows you to leave your URL - ideally without displaying your email address.
There's actually a third reason for leaving a comment... it's to let the other blog owner know about you and your activities, which may result in them returning the compliment and, even better, creating a 'Trackback'.
So what's a Trackback?
Put simply, a trackback is something you might create when you comment on a post on someone else's blog, within the pages of your own blog.
When you post the comment using a trackback, it automatically 'pings' the other blog to let them know and again if you've said something nice, interesting or even controversial, they may well draw attention to it on their own blog.
Now if their blog is a popular, 'high-traffic' blog, you will benefit as their readers click through to your blog to see what you've written and who you are. And, if you're blogging about a similar or related topic, you may have attracted another subscriber or regular reader.
How to create a trackback will differ depending on which blogging software you use. In Typepad it's pretty easy to do, but quite tricky to explain without showing you the post screen view.
Let's have a go anyway... (For clarity, we'll call the post you want to comment on Post B.)
So you start by simply creating a new post on your blog (Post A). In the body of Post A, you would include Post B's Permalink. You would then locate the trackback url on Post B (usually, but not always) alongside the Comments link at the foot of a post. Now back on Post A, you would paste the trackback url in the trackback box on your post screen. If you can't find your trackback box, you might need to configure the post view. Typepad users will find a reasonable explanation in the Knowledge Bank but if you find you are still lost you might want to reserve a place on the next Advanced Blogging Teleclass, where I'll be able to show you this, and a host of other blogging tactics, in real time.
Whatever you do, get it mastered. It's really not hard once you know what to do and both Trackbacks and Comments are well worth the effort in both traffic and networking terms.
Copyright 2006 Claire Raikes. All rights reserved.
