There’s a feature available to most bloggers that not many people make good use of. I’m talking about trackbacks, the ability to share a bit of love with your fellow bloggers and get some valuable traffic in exchange. This is part 5 of a series that highlights useful tips to attract traffic and monetize your blog (see list of articles).
So, what are trackbacks and why should I care?
Wikipedia defines a trackback (yes, it has it’s own page) as a “method for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents.” You’ve probably seen a section on most blog posts labeled ‘trackbacks’, usually stashed under the post itself or under the comments section. Within this trackbacks section is a list of links, each pointing to another blog post that links back to the current post you are reading. It is essentially a log of referrers for that particular blog post, notifying both the site owner and the readers of when someone mentions their post somewhere else.
More about trackbacks after the jump!
As I mentioned earlier, my partner and I launched UNCForum.com this past week. Over the course of five days and an intense marketing campaign, we were able to get more than 300 users registered and using the forum. Here’s how we did it:
Saturday
Mike (my partner) and I met at a coffee shop Saturday afternoon to discuss our game plan and strategize the launch of a local, niche product in a closed community. I had just graduated and Mike is still a senior, so combined we have a lot of contacts within the campus community. On Saturday we decided that we should start off with our Facebook friends, inviting each one of them to an event they could either accept or decline. This way, our first pilot group would hopefully be people we knew rather than complete strangers, people who were more willing to post a topic or reply to a thread.
Read more about it after the jump!
One of the newest buzzwords in web 2.0 is not so much a word but rather an acronym referring to Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O.). SEO is a relatively new science intent on perfecting the art of making a site appealing to search engines and internet robots. Correctly optimizing a website for search engines can effectively increase both volume and quality of traffic to a site, as well as increase overall value of the brand.
How do search engines work?
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Another key strategy to remember when operating a blog and attempting to create traffic fast is the time of day you publish your posts. There are a few key variables to consider when publishing, including audience, content and consistency.
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This one is another no-brainer tip for anyone running a blog or website that has commenting system. If a reader spends the time and energy to write a comment, whether positive or negative, you owe him or her a response. This mentality will not only keep your reader engaged, it will make you appear more human in their minds. There are millions of websites around the world, but only a portion of these sites allow you to “talk” to them (their authors) and get feedback in return.
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