New Comm Biz

I have read that Tuesdays are one of the best days to post your blog. For that purpose I’m going to try a new series of posts called [Tuesday Homework]. This will help you my reader by giving you an idea to post about or a tip to put into practice on your next blog post (which should be today). It will also force me to post something on Tuesdays, the supposed best day to post.

This first tip is one of those “little things” I recommend to people that isn’t immediately obvious.

If you write a blog you know how valuable comments are to your blog. It’s the dialog, the life blood, comments make your blog feel alive (or at least like you’re not talking to yourself).

Commenting on other people’s blogs also has huge benefit; it helps you make new friends.

Commenting let’s the author know you’re reading their blog and what you think of their ideas.

Commenting allows you to join someone else’s social group. If the blogger has frequent commenter’s it allows you to virtually “hang out” with this group. It’s like being invited to sit at the cool kids lunch table.

Most blogs allow you to add your name and web site to the comment. This provides a nice link to your blog. Now 90% of blogs place a No Follow tag to these links so you don’t get any SEO benefit from them (this helps keep away spammers and trolls). The real benefit of this link is that if you are insightful, have something cool to say and add value to the blog you’re visiting people will click through to check out the new cool kid.

Now the problem that I have is it’s hard for me to leave short comments. If someone writes something really insightful that gets me thinking I probably have a lot to say about it. Sometimes I leave an essay in the comments, esp if I ask further questions or know that what I have to say is going to spark some remarks.

But often times I take advantage of the trackback feature that almost all blogs have. Blogs run on WordPress use the permalink (the link to the specific blog post) for trackbacks while other platforms like TypePad require you to copy and paste a whole separate trackback URL into your blog editing software.

The really cool thing about trackbacks is that they (usually) show up before comments. On most people’s blogs this isn’t that big of a deal. So what if my one trackback shows up before the two comments? What if you’re linking back to TechCrunch or ReadWriteWeb? These blogs generate hundreds of comments per post, but only a handful of trackbacks.

But the absolute best part of trackbacks? It gives you something to blog about. If you blog not only do you understand the value of comments you understand the value of topic ideas.

Trackbacks, like comments, work best the more current the post. If you can be the first person to comment on a post and you do with a trackback you’re more likely to see better results than if you’re commenting on a post that’s days or weeks old.

I still get traffic from trackbacks I did back in December of 07. The trick (like all things in social media) is to add value. Don’t comment just to get traffic. Comment because you have real value to add. But if you’re going to comment you might as well get the most of it.

So here’s your homework for today. Find a fresh blog post and trackback to it. If you want to get extra credit make a habit of doing a trackback once a week.

Update: My friend George made the point that I should have explained how to trackback. He found this post which may help as well.

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