Mitch Mitchell did something a few days ago that few people do, yet it is so simple and so gratifying that I am surprised more people don’t do it.
Similar to many of you, he read my Saturday roundup on Google Buzz and wrote this comment:
Glossing over the fact he only used his first name (and thereby lose the branding associated with his last name), do you see his picture on the right side? Mitch had previously written about the benefits of using a Gravatar, echoing my thoughts on the picture-generating tool yesterday as part of my series on improving blog comments.
For 99% of commenters, his role would have ended there until he was inspired to add another comment. But Mitch didn’t end there. He kept going and wrote a follow-up blog post — on his blog — about the difference between generations online, including his thoughts why he doesn’t have a GMail account. By linking to my blog post in his first sentence, Wordpress told me he linked to me and I opted to publish his trackback.
Future readers of that blog post will now see his trackback before reaching the comments. If they’re anything like me looking at other blogs, they might be tempted to open that trackback in another window and see what that person has to say. I would.
Be like Mitch. Share your thoughts in a comment, then add a link on your blog with deeper commentary.
If someone links to you in a blog post, like Mitch did, be sure and add a comment of thanks on that person’s blog, as I just did to Mitch. In this way, I not only added a comment but also created a backlink back to my blog — furthering our online relationship both by words and links. Make sense?
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for that, Ari; you’re right, I am surprised, and very appreciative. As for the last name, it doesn’t do me any good because I’m competing with Jimi Hendrix former drummer. I did a test, which I wrote about last year, and found that out of the top 50 references to the name I only come up 4 times, so it’s a losing battle. But that’s okay; I think my name recognition is holding very well on the blogosphere, if only because of the gravatar.
From Mitch to you: Muppet Monday
Imagine competing with John Wayne! Actually, I’ve made good ground on that, but it’s taken a few years. Even still though, I don’t compare in any way to the Duke…never could obviously.
Maybe if I bought a horse…
Nah!
Now that’s funny, Wayne!
From Mitch to you: Expert, Specialist, Professional Or Hack?
Having a gravatar is a great idea. I didn’t really think about it before now.
Nice post. Keep up the good work.
From Joseph Condron to you: Quotes On Challenging Conventions
Thanks, Joseph. I look forward to your next comment having a gravatar instead of one of those default wavatars…
Trackbacks are a great way to gain exposure and links at the same time. Usually it helps both parties involved as well.
Personally I never look at trackbacks on an article unless there are only a couple and even then I am more concerned with the comments which most of the time will fall below the trackback. But that is just my way of doing.
From Keith@Hot Blog Tips to you: Drooling On PageRank
I’m a big fan of trackbacks but not trackback spam. I think the ratio is about a zillion to one, unfortunately in favour of spam at present.
That aside, this is a great way of making a comment stand out and pushing the discussion forwards.
Mark Bernstein has a great take on this:
I don’t necessarily agree, but I’ve always enjoyed discussions across blogs.
From Jon Buscall to you: Content marketing just got a whole lot harder
All trackbacks enter my moderation queue, and I check all out; so anything that is spammy isn’t approved.
The only thing I’d add is that all the mutual link sharing that goes on across blogs could be perceived as spammy by the search engine algorithms if they happened to be looking. So, while it’s obviously of benefit to us all to cross-link in terms of relationships and the social aspects it may ultimately have a detrimental impact on SEO; which despite appearances is still important for gaining new readers who don’t happen to follow the same blogs and feeds as we do…
..there’s definitely a post in this comment just waiting to be written (either for or against)
There may be another article to be written about such sentences that articles are pending.
Excellent tip Ari. I have an article in draft as we speak about always commenting on an article before sharing it on social networks…it goes viral, so do you.
Now I’ll add this post link and Mitch’s to it.
From Dennis Edell to you: UPDATED – THREE Plugins Needed – What Do You Recommend?
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