Buzz Marketing with Blogs: Trackbacks, How I Hate Thee…

Trackbacks, How I Hate Thee…

After a weekend offline (gasp!) I return to a Monday morning wading through the email notifications that I have a trackback on my blog. 178 of them. Of those 178 trackbacks, only one was a real trackback. I’ve been pondering turning off trackbacks for about a month now, mainly because it’s irritating to have to download and delete all those email notifications, not to mention the impact of the spam on the blog, but then that one real trackback comes along and I think, “Well, see, they are useful.”

So, I’m trying something new this week. My blog software (Expression Engine) allows me to randomize the trackback URL. Up until now, I’ve had this turned off, for no particular reason. This morning I turned it on, and I’m hoping it makes some kind of difference for me. Here’s what it does:

A random code number will be added to the end of each Trackback URL displayed on your site. This code will be stored in the database. When a Trackback is received the code must match in order to be accepted. This feature works similar to the Captcha feature in the comment preferences. It’s purpose is to prevent “throttling”. Only one trackback per code number will be accepted.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Posted by Susannah Gardner on 04/10 at 10:15 AM • Blogging Tools

Comments

The randomized trackback URL has been working wonderfully for me. I was getting about 15 trackback spams a day before it and now not one. (I’ve only had five legitimate trackbacks on the blog ever.)

Posted by cybele on 04/10 at 11:48 AM