Power of Pingbacks or How I got naked with the Fairy Blog Mother
Pingbacks, and the older form trackbacks, are a powerful blogging tool to build relationships and stimulate conversation in the blogosphere. When a blogger pings another blog, two things happen. Most importantly the blogger is extending a conversation between blogger and readers to become a conversation between blogs, bloggers and readers. Secondly, when a blogger pings a specific post on another blog, that blogger is giving credibility and authority to the other blogger. Basically a pingback is: “Hey, look what this person is saying. I may or not agree with what they are saying, but it is worth reading and talking about. What do you think?”
Pingbacks build relationships between bloggers
One of the first posts on this blog was about using contests for blog promotion and pinged back to a promotion by Rachelle Chase and Lorelle Van Fossen. Because of that pingback, Lorelle visited this blog and added to the conversation. In the year since that post, we have exchanged pingbacks on various topics where we wanted to expose our individual audience to each other’s point of view. Now, we are beginning collaboration on a new project that we are very excited about. We nag and nurture each other in equal measure and she has definitely helped me out in times of need. I have had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with a number of bloggers as the result of a pingback.
Pingbacks stimulate conversation
Blogs are basically a conversation initiated by the blogger. When a blogger pingbacks a post of another blogger, they are extending the conversation further into the blogosphere. Instead of the conversation being limited to one blog, it has expanded to two or more blogs. Barb at Over Coffee was inspired by Liz Strauss’ post on visible authenticity to write her own post on being authentic and letting go the status quo. The ensuing comments bore testament to how the converation wove between the blogs.
Pingbacks add value and perspective
WordPress had a few glitches in the new auto-update feature for 2.7.1. I found some solutions in forums and blogs and tweaking on my own. I wrote a post on troubleshooting the initial upgrade, consolidating my findings and adding my own experiences. Other bloggers started pingbacking to that post as a service to their readers as they discussed their own experiences with the upgrade. Their readers benefited from their perspective AND my handy dandy troubleshooting guide.
Pingbacks expand your audience
The pingbacks to that troubleshooting post brought a much larger audience to my blog, making it the most popular posts on the blog. Writing a pingback on another blog can also increase the audience of your blog. This week, Viki in the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune class, posted this on the class message board, I am reprinting it here with her permission to .
Bean, I wanted to tell you that I’ve gotten a good deal of exposure with my most recent post on upselling, which contains a pingback to a post on Michel and Sylvie Fortin’s web site . Michel himself tweeted my post(!) and is now following me on Twitter(!) and ever since then, I’ve gotten an outpouring of people following me on Twitter (more than 40 people in less than 24 hours!) Hopefully, some new blog subscribers, too. So pingbacks can be a very effective marketing tool, like you’ve been telling us all along, of course.
How to create a pingback
- Make sure that your post has its own unique content and perspective. You can use the original blog post as inspiration for your post, a supporting document for your content or as an opposing view. Just copying content from another blog and giving credit via permalink just creates a blog echo and dilutes the amount of innovative and original content on the blog. Lorelle has declared this the Year of Original Content and explains why this is so important.
- Include the link to a specific blog post, not the general blog URL when writing about the other blog post.
I am blessed with artists in my blogging classes and I believe that blogs can be a great way to inspire, share, teach and sell art. Karol shares a lot of the inspiration behind her art, in her Folly beach post, she shows us the inspiration of the collage and her love of patterns. Pete is an artist of photography and conversation, he shares his artistry and techniques in Thinkin’ Spring. LVS Online is blessed with a number of art teachers. Dia, who teaches painting and abstract art, shares an example of student art from her abstract art class. Carla sells her exquisite custom clothing via her web site. You can see the artistry in her work in these custom leather pants.
In the above sample paragraph, my point is that art blogs can serve a variety of functions. I used pingbacks to current student blog posts to support my view on art blog functions.
Why doesn’t my pingback show on the other blog?
Three things need to happen for the pingback that you create on your blog to show up on the original blog.
- You need to make your link to the other blog to a specific post, like http://lzydaz.com/getting-started/why-buy-name-brand-food-items/. It isn’t a permalink if you just link to the blog as a whole, like http://lzydaz.com
- The other blogger needs to have permalinks enabled on their blog and their blog theme.
- The blogger needs to approve your permalink, like they approve the comments on their blog.
How do I get other bloggers to pingback my blog?
The key is quality, original content. Create content on your blog that will inspire others. If you write or display thought provoking content, it is much more likely that another blogger will want to talk about it or share it with their own readers.
Summary
After a long day of blogging, you probably aren’t going to end up naked in a hot tub, like I did with the Fairy Blog Mother. It is likely that you will never meet face to face the bloggers that you ping back. That in no way diminishes the relationships incurred, the ideas inspired nor the conversations sparked when bloggers pingback.
Tags: Permalinks, Pingback, Trackback
Okay, I’m embarrassed to admit, that I didn’t quite understand pingbacks and trackbacks a year ago. Nor did I know the proper etiquette – like, was it okay to leave a comment on the site that pinged you? Fortunately, I’m a little more savvy today.
You do a wonderful job of breaking it down, Bean! And I learned yet another new thing – that you have to link to a specific blog post. I’ve now subscribed to your blog – so I can continue to learn new things.
Welcome Rachelle,
I am glad that you found the content in the post helpful. You deciding to subscribe just reinforces the power of pingbacks! Even a year later, a ping back to your post encouraged you to come here, learn something new and subscribe. Others will be coming to your blog as they peruse this post. It is a win-win for both bloggers and their readers
Yes, I see how powerful they can be, Bean. I have two blog posts to do this week — I’m going to make it a point to incorporate what I’ve learned here! Thanks for the tips…
Rachelle Chase’s last blog post..A Weekly Dating Contest – Yes or No?
Fantastic! I am looking forward to seeing your new posts
This is great, my friend. And hey, Rachelle, my other friend. It’s a like a party, which is a way that pingbacks and trackbacks work. It connects us so we can continue the conversation across and beyond our blogs.
I’m dreaming of the day when we can create a virtual hot tub.
Hi Lorelle – nice to “see” you. If anyone can create a virtual hot tub, you can!
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