Comments on: TrackBacks & Pingbacks: Building the Blogosphere

By: Bean

Bean — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:24:04 +0000

Carol,
Check your Settings > Discussion > Email me whenever
Make sure that the box, Anyone posts a comment is checked. Then, you will get notification of comments and pingbacks.

To do a ping back, write a post in YOUR blog that discusses a blog post on someone else’s blog. Make sure that you link to that blog post within your own blog post. It does not work to leave a link to someone else’s blog post in a comment. If they have pingbacks enabled, you will see the title of your blog post as a comment at the end of their blog posting.

You can look at Average Joe and Cocoanut for a great example of how they have pingbacked each other and bridged the conversation across two blogs.

By: Carol

Carol — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:30:32 +0000

I almost missed the pingback from you. Since you had already been approved I didn’t get a notice of a new comment. Is there a way to set up a notification of a new comment?
I’m still working on trying to figure out how to do a trackback.
Carol

By: Bean

Bean — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:38:20 +0000

Wendy,
Most blogs have some sort of trackback or pingback system, but not all blog authors opt to use it. Some disable it. To register as a trackback or pingback, the Blog B author needs to have the URL of the Blog A post, not the blog URL in a blog post. Placing someone in your blogroll, or a link to another blog post in a comment doesn’t qualify.
Don’t be surprised to start seeing pingbacks now. Also in general, the more quality posts you have, the more pingbacks you are likely to acquire.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:34:09 +0000

When I think of all the blogs I’ve commented on over the last 6 months, I wonder why I’ve never got a pingback. A lot of people have linked back to me – maybe none of them had a wordpress blog!

By: Bean

Bean — Tue, 27 May 2008 00:11:51 +0000

You pointed out the big difference between trackbacks and pingbacks. In trackbacks, the blog owner could edit what appeared on their own blog, thereby changing the words of Blogger B. Well, unfortunately that was abused. So, you can’t edit a pingback. You can only approve/view, delete it or report it as spam. The drawback, according to my point of view, is that pingbacks aren’t as enticing, you can’t see a line or two of what Blogger B wrote, depending on the theme, you might see little more than the title of the Blog B post. Another reason why titles are increasing important, but that is in week five’s lesson

By: Val P.

Val P. — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:45:07 +0000

Well, I’ve evidently got pingbacks – at least from you – automatically approved. I got a message that you’d put one in, but the only options were to view it, delete it, or Spam it.

Still working on the theme thing. I got one I liked, but all the text was way too small, so now I’m tweaking the CSS in between doing plumbing projects and mulching flower beds.

Now to check out a few of those links…

Have fun!
Val P.