How To Use The Wordpress Trackback Feature

What is a Wordpress Trackback?

A trackback is plain and simple a link back to another document, page or blog post. A trackback lets the linked to webmaster know who is linking back to them and what page or post is being linked to. There are three common ways to link to another document and they are a Refback, Trackback and Pingback, they all differ in how they accomplish the job. A trackback is a powerful way to obtain natural backlinks with like sites and can increase your sites traffic. Trackbacks are usely used when refrencing other non Wordpress legacy type blog platforms like Moveable type. Trackbacks are a way to notify legacy blog type systems that you’ve linked to them. If you link to other WordPress blogs in your post they will be notified automatically using pingbacks, no other action necessary. Today we will focus on Trackbacks to other non Wordpress blogs using the Wordpress trackback feature.

When you reference a blog post on another blog in one of your posts, using the trackback URL will ensure the other blog owner will be notified when published. This trackback notification will appear in the comments section of the linked to post.

How to leave trackback in a new Wordpress post?

Follow these easy steps to trackback to another blog’s post from your post.

1. Write your new post as normal and click Save. Do not click publish the post at this stage. Your blog post might include a quote or an excerpt from another blog and this is why you want to leave a trackback to it to give credit the other blog owner.

2. Next you will need to find the trackback URL of the blog post you are referencing. Visit the other blog you are referencing and find the trackback URL. You will likely find this URL between the end of the post and the start of the comment section of the page or post. Depending on the blog, the owner may or may not always show the Trackback URL.

3. After locating the Trackback URL, right click and choose Copy Link Location in Firefox or Copy Shortcut in Internet Explorer.

4. Return to your blog post and page down below the post editor section to the heading titled Trackbacks. You might have to click on the > sign to expand the section.

5. Right click and paste the Trackback URL from the referenced blog into the Send Trackbacks to: area of your post.

6. If you need to reference more than one blog post or page in your post, you will need to locate the Trackback URLs individually for each page you are referencing. Separate your multiple Trackback URLs in the Send Trackbacks to: area with spaces.

7. You are now ready to publish your own blog post. An excerpt of your blog post that links back to your blog post will now show up in the referenced blog’s comments or trackbacks section. It may be a short wait for the referenced blog author to allow your trackback if they have their blog moderation turned on, as the webmaster will have to appove it.

Why would I want to send a Trackback?

Trackbacks are powerful on both ends as they reference each others pages and are like a mini link trade of sorts. If done correctly within a common niche or subject, it adds credibility and authority to both sites.

How My Own Blog Taught Me Tons About Blogging And SERPS

3o1st post today! Seems like yesterday I started this blog. I had always read that to better understand the SERPS and blogging one needed to start a blog and be consistent with it. Now I had blogged before, but never consistent until I started this blog. Yeah, yeah, I have heard how using blogspot is wrong and you will never be taken seriously by using it, Yada, Yada. Whatever. All my many many other niche blogs are Wordpress and one day I might import this over to Wordpress but there is no hurry. This very blog ranks fantastically in the SERPS and in itself, really has helped me get a better feel for the SERPS and how effective and important it is to blog. If you are scared or overwhelmed by Wordpress as a newbie, start on blogspot, as it is pretty newbie proof and at the very least it will get you blogging and get you use to the effectiveness of it.

The SERPS love content! Original content! The more the better. Even 100 word post. You have to trust in that fact. You will get a feel of how to title post, what to blog about, what people are searching for and etc. I have urged several times in the past, if you do not have a blog, start one. Start one right after reading this post and post to it every day. Be consistent with it. It will take a couple of weeks to form the habit, but it will become a habit rest assured. Even if you just stumbled on BANS yesterday and barely know how to use that, start blogging now. It will be crucial to your long term success to learn how to blog properly. The more you blog the better you will get at blogging. When I read my early post, I shrink in my chair, but I have learned how to blog better by blogging daily and reading other blogs.

As for my 300 post plateau , thank you to all my past, current and future readers. This blog serves to help the every day niche store builder and I hope it has served you well thus far. I have tons of great things coming down the pike as well. So in closing, start blogging today as it will really teach you a great skill and will also serve to help you understand the SERPS better as you study your stats.

Cool New Link Diagnosis Tool

Link Diagnosis is a cool new tool to help examine site backlinks and important competitor site information. Link Diagnosis uses the Yahoo search engine to get backlink information about a certain site. If the pages are not indexed in Yahoo then link will not be shown. There is also a site diagnosis feature that goes through every url in your XML Sitemaps file and reports if its indexed properly. They also have a great Firefox extension to go with it. Great little tool to play with to check up on what your competitor is doing.

Look Hard At Your Search Engine Keyword Competition

You can really learn a ton from merely looking and studying your competition for keywords or phrases in the search engines. Type in a keyword or phrase into Google and click through to every page in the top 10.

Here are 5 things to examine on each and every page you land on:

META tags: Right click and view the source page of each page. Look at the title, description and keywords used in the META tags in relation to the keyword phrase. Use this tool and see how they rank for the keyword or phrase.

Backlinks & Anchor Text: Insert the page URL into the backlink checker tool to see what backlinks the page has and notice what type of sites the are linking to the page and the anchor text used in the backlink. If they are internal links from the same site itself also pay note to the anchor text.

Age of Site: Use the Web archive to see the age of the site and the Whois for when the domain was registered. Check to see if age is playing a factor.

Check Top Keywords Driving Traffic: Use this Complete tool for the top 5 keywords driving traffic to the page. Is the site ranking well for those keywords as well?

Do not limit yourself to just Google results, also check Yahoo and MSN. See if the same sites are ranking in the top 10 on multiple SERPS and pay particuliar note to those that rank in the top 10 on all 3.

Build A Niche Store Wordpress Plugin WP BANS Review

I received an email from Casey Christensen who owns Designs by Casey. He wanted me to test and review his new Wordpress BANS plugin and give a review of it. The plugin is called WP BANS and can be found at http://www.wpbans.com. I gladly accepted being a beta tester and am grateful for the opportunity to review it.

The plugin simply put, pulls a designated amount product listings from your Build A Niche Store and inserts them into the bottom of your Wordpress blog post or page. It can ad products using keywords from your post title, top category or a custom field. The colors of the background and border can be changed as well.

THINGS YOU NEED BEFORE INSTALLING

You will need Wordpress installed on the root of the domain and BANS installed in a folder preferably named store. While not a must, it is a good idea to have a Wordpress/BANS template in place as to have a matching seamless template throughout the site. It appears it will work with both using different templates though.

THE INSTALL

I downloaded and unzipped the plugin to my hard drive and first noticed there was not a README or directions file enclosed. I am sure it was because this was a beta package and am sure it will be included in the purchased product. Dealing with tons of plugins in the past, I had a pretty good idea what to do. The plugin folder gets uploaded into the Wordpress plugins directory as with any plugin. You then log into your Wordpress admin and activate the plugin. Click Settings and then WPBANS in the menu bar. It nicely told me that WPBANS cannot find your store. You need to edit the BANS store location in the WPBANS Settings. I then inserted /store into the path area and was on my way. The "Get keyword from" option is a bit confusing and will need more clarification as I myself have never really used the Custom Field option of Wordpress and clarity on that would help. The other options are pretty straight forward and are very user friendly from my standpoint. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the easiest, I rate the install process an 8 and can easily be upgraded to a 10 with a detailed README file.


THE USAGE

I proceeded to write my first post and chose to use the title of the post to base my product selection on. Once I get a better handle on the custom field, that will likely be my selection in future use. Upon viewing my post I found what may be a bug. It did indeed pull matching products, but the product display runs into the title of the next post and also seems to have inserted an extra table row above the product listings. The listings seem to overlap the post area as well in the template I am using. The products indeed matched what I was wanting to show. This indeed is likely just a cosmetic bug and should be simple to fix. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being fantastic, I rate the initial usage process a 6 and it can easily be upgraded to a 10 with a fix of the bugs and clarification I noted.


OVERALL

The plugin definitely has a bug or two but should be rectified very easily. It seems it will be very user friendly and seems to work with both EPN and Pepperjam versions of the BANS software. It is very straight forward and can be up an running in a post in a matter of minutes. My overall initial rating from 1-10 with 10 being the best is a 7 and it is only a days work from being a 10.

SUGGESTIONS

It would be nice in future releases to have the ability to decide which post you want to display products in. I suppose using the "wpbans Custom Field" it would be possible to just leave it blank and no products would show. It would also be nice if the whole product title could be displayed under the listing as well. I would suggest giving an option to not cloak the links as I am not a huge fan of cloaking myself and every user should have that option not to cloak. A very detailed README file should be included as well.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This plugin is a hit, especially for those BANS users that have moved on into BANS/Wordpress integrations . You can never have too many weapons to choose from in the affiliate marketing world. $67.00 is a fair price to pay in my honest opinion and this plugin will likely evolve very quickly. It is straight forward and beneficial to every BANS user. I appreciate Casey letting me review and beta test this fine Wordpress plugin and look forward to more works of his in the future.

The site I tested this on is below:
http://passionduo.buildanichestoretemplates.info/

Below is a preview video of the plugin:

My Thoughts On The Economy

As I looked at my front window this morning, I saw a U-Haul moving truck parked in the driveway of the house across the street. There is no for sale sign up and I thought one of the teens must be moving out. A little later in the morning I noticed a vehicle parked on the street in front of my house with a well dressed man sitting on the back of it. I went out to investigate and he informed me the house is being foreclosed upon. I live in a very nice neighborhood, but even it is not immuned to the economics in this country.

Also this morning Washington Mutual was seized by the feds. The fallout of the economy in my honest opinion is almost at it's rock bottom. Luckily the only way I have been affected is by the rise in cost of everyday consumables and utilities for the most part. Some investments have gone backwards, but I am not a panickier and know at some point they will rebound. All of my rental properties are paid for so I am in good shape there.

America is in this shape because of irresponsible lending and glut of us the citizens. People bought over their heads and lenders made bad loans as well. The bailout will help, but every US citizen needs to be more responsible for their actions. A ton of hardships are self inflicted by poor choices. Now I do recognize some situations are different and not all self inflicted, but overall you are where you are because of daily decisions you make in life.

My best suggestion going forward is learning from your mistakes and making better fiscal responsible choices going forward. If you have purchased the BANS software or are involved with any online marketing, you have made a great choice. It's gives you the ability to create another source of income and you are only bound on the limits of your imagination. Start really applying yourself to it and you will reap the rewards.

Start teaching your children the value of the dollar and the pitfalls of credit and over extending ones self. We live in a world where just because a friend or acquaintance has something, we feel we have to have it as well. The keeping up with the Jones's has to stop. The Jones's likely can't afford it either.

While it will likely be after the election until things get a bit rosier, now is the time to rely on yourself and not anyone else. Take matters into your own hands and educate others to do the same. Stop blaming the government and take responsibility for your own actions.

What's New With Google?

Today I thought it would be a good day to check in with what is new with Google. The Google blog has an interesting post up about the next internet that is worth a read. Pay close attention to the talk about mobile internet access as it is not new, but I think it will really mature by leaps and bounds over the next 5 years. Application, websites and everything related will be designed to accommodate this wave of technology. Tons of major websites already tailor to this. See ESPN.mobi and Yahoo.mobi. I myself have been buying a few .mobi domains and storing them. Another great read is the future of mobile.

Another big buzz story is the Google advertising agreement with Yahoo. Google has now dedicated a website on the facts about the deal that I am starting to digest myself.

Also fairly news is the Google Website Optimizer. This also is something I have been crawling through slowly in my spare time. Here is a link on how it works.

What have you found lately new with Google?