For anyone who has clicked over here because of the article you read in the Central West Coast FPRA newsletter, here are more details about trackbacks.
There are three ways you can respond to a blog post.
1. You can e mail the blogger - there is usually an e mail link available on one of the sidebars.
2. You can comment directly at the end of the blogger's post - there is usually a place at the end of every post for a comment.
3. You can do a trackback.
The last one is recommended as a strategy for increasing traffic to your blog and generating a dialog - one of the major objectives of social media.
When you trackback, you comment on the blog post that interests you but do so on your own blog and notifty, that is, "ping" the blogger that you have posted a comment. In this way, you invite the blogger to visit your blog.
This is how the TypePad support team says to do trackbacks:
Look for the word "permalink" or "link" at the footer of the blogger's post.
When you click on this, it takes you to the individual post of your blogger. You will need both the address in the address bar and the Trackback Url listed at the bottom of the post.
In the text in your post where you have responded to the other blogger, you probably have a sentence that goes something like this: "Click HERE to see the cool video clip." You select HERE, click the link icon and paste in the address from the address bar.
Somewhere on your post page, you will have a box called Trackbacks. This is where you paste the Trackback Url.
TypePad says you need to do both these steps.
If you can't find the Trackback Url, they blogsite does not accept trackbacks. Not all do.
