THE TRACKBACK AND THE FIGHT AGAINST THE SPAM BLOGS

THE TRACKBACK AND THE FIGHT AGAINST THE SPAM BLOGS

The degree to which you respond to comments can also set the tone. Bloggers who quickly answer comments and lead discussions usually get more comments than bloggers who essentially lecture to their audiences and leave comments unanswered. But there should be no judgment of that approach; some bloggers prefer to let readers talk among themselves. It’s a matter of personality, really. If you’re a conversational type who enjoys group discussions, you’ll find a way to encourage participation from your readers. If you are quieter,your writing style will probably encourage reading but not responding. If comments make you uncomfortable, simply turn them off.
Beyond comments, I want to cover two other, more elaborate, ways that bloggers track their influence in the blogosphere: TrackBacks and blog search engines.

TrackBacks offer a unique way for you to know that other bloggers are aware of your work and are responding to it on their own blogs. The TrackBack is also one of the trickiest concepts for new bloggers to understand. Heck, even veteran bloggers haven’t necessarily untangled what a TrackBack is, thanks to overly technical and indecipherable explanations on the Web. The subject is a bit loopy (literally, as you’ll see), but I mean to illuminate TrackBacks with crystal clarity to every reader.TrackBack basicsThe meaning of TrackBacks can be encapsulated a few ways, because they mean different things to different people. I am listing a few descriptions here in case they prove useful to remember as you read through this section. If they don’t juice your brain right now, it’s not a problem. If you read steadily through the next few pages, you will understand TrackBacks perfectly.
So, TrackBacks are A way for two sites, each running a blog, to communicate with each other A form of remote commenting, allowing multiple bloggers to have a conversation spread out among their sites.A way for one blogger to insert a link to his or her blog on another blog.

Actually, more than two blogs can participate in a TrackBack conversation, but each single TrackBack occurs between just two blogs. So, we have Blog A and Blog B. These two blogs are similar, in that their entries are about the same subjects and their authors each read the other blog daily. As you examine how TrackBacks work in this section, you will alternately place yourself in the role of Blogger A and Blogger B. TrackBacks represent a two-way street, and bloggers who use them travel in both directions. In our scenario, Blogger A posts first; Blogger B posts second. Here is what happens without explaining all the details:
1.Blogger A posts a really good entry on Blog A. The entry is titled “How to save the world.” 2.Blogger B reads Blogger A’s post and is impressed. Blogger B wants to spread the word about Blogger A’s great entry, and at the same time he has some thoughts of his own about how to save the world. Blogger B could leave a comment on Blog A, but instead . . . 3.Blogger B goes to his own blog and writes his commentary as a blog entry on Blog B. This new entry is called “Does the world need saving?” Blogger B cites Blogger A’s entry (“How to save the world”) by embedding a link to it in the text of “Does the world need saving?” and also plants a TrackBack to Blog A.