Small Biz Blog Wiz - Easy, Affordable and Productive Blogging for Small Businesses

What is a TrackBack?

What is a TrackBack? It is a great way to engage people on the web, market your business on other sites and drive traffic to your small business blog. Here's how:

1. I saw a post I thought was interesting on the Freshbooks blog and wanted to write about it on my site.

2. I wrote a post about the article on my site and sent a TrackBack to the Freshbooks blog.

3. After sending the TrackBack, a portion of my post along with a link to my post appears on the Freshbooks blog. This allows the conversation to continue and informs others who read the Freshbooks blog that I have written about it on my site. The direct link from the Freshbooks post to my post is an easy way for Freshbooks visitors to read what I have to say at my site.

TrackBacks are a great way to engage the conversation and build traffic to your site. They are easy to use, work nearly flawlessly and are guaranteed to bring visitors to your site interested in what you have to say. So, if you're writing a post based on what you read elsewhere, be sure to send a TrackBack and watch your traffic grow!

What is RSS?

RSS. Those three letters have risen to a place of prominence in the last few years. Some believe that RSS is the end of email (wrong). Others believe that RSS is a bit player, that it won't last and is of no use to the small business owner (also wrong). We'll cover the potential for RSS to transform your marketing in a future post, but first we need to find out...exactly what is RSS?

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) in the new technology that people are using to "subscribe" to their favorite blogs. Think of subscribing to a blog much like subscribing to the newspaper. The newspaper arrives at your doorstep each and every morning. No need to leave home and go get it, no wondering if its there and no concerns that you have mistakenly receive yesterday's newspaper.

The same applies when using RSS. By adding a blog's RSS address to your computer's software, all of the latest posts from the blogs you subscribe to are delivered to you every morning or whenever you choose to log-on. You just log-on and all of the posts that you haven't read yet are ready for your review. You can pick and choose what you want to read, subscribe or unsubscribe from different blogs or share posts  and other useful content with colleagues.

The beautiful thing about reading blogs and other web content using RSS is that you don't need to go from site-to-site checking to see if the content has changed. One log-in delivers all of your new content right to your virtual doorstep. No surfing to a bunch of sites that may or may not have been updated since your last visit. Let the software do the hardwork of checking those sites or blogs and you can enjoy the fruits as you sit down to read the new content that has been electronically delivered to your virtual front door.

As RSS technology becomes more widespread, the type of content or information you can receive via RSS becomes broader. Not only can your favorite blogs be delivered to you every morning, you can also receive weather, news, your calendar appointments; heck, even your favorite World Cup team's schedule can delivered to you via RSS. So, start by getting an account with Bloglines or Newsgator (two easy-to-use, web-based "newsreaders" - this is the software that finds new content from your favorite blogs), subscribe to a few feeds (start with this one) and let the fun begin!