How I “Accidentally” Brought In 184 Unique Visitors To My Site With A Simple Trackback « Stanley Tang

Jan 14 2009

How I “Accidentally” Brought In 184 Unique Visitors To My Site With A Simple Trackback

I was on the plane to Korea for the ski trip during Christmas when I began writing a blog post about the fall of Cuil (aka the “Google Killer”) and how it was a complete disaster. As soon as we got off the plane, a RSS feed came in from TechCrunch that also covered the same topic about the fail of Cuil.

We had to wait one hour for the bus to arrive, so there was plenty of time for me to finish off the post (it was very short) and read the TechCrunch post. It was pretty relevant so I just decided to link to that post.

Little did I know how much traffic it brought me…

I was completely shocked and wasn’t expecting any traffic at all. Just goes to show the power of trackbacks. How an “accident” brought me 184 unique visitors of free traffic It’s not a lot, but keep in mind this was just from ONE trackback. What if you did 10, 20, 50? (obviously, I would recommend you to do so relevantly and not just spam/abuse)

18 Responses to How I “Accidentally” Brought In 184 Unique Visitors To My Site With A Simple Trackback

Leo Kan January 14, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Very interesting statistics, Stanley.
And yes, Cuil clearly is failing at the moment.
It is also ironic that Cuil called themselves “The world’s biggest search engine”!

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- stanleytang January 14, 2009 at 1:48 pm
  LOL yeah. First time commenting on my blog finally Leo
  
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Janis Krums January 14, 2009 at 2:24 pm
That’s very interesting. I had the same thing happen recently. It makes tracking your traffic and seeing what works that much more important.

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Bob Kimball January 14, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Stanley,

Very cool info. How exactly does one link to a site like that?

Bob

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- stanleytang January 14, 2009 at 3:06 pm
  You just link it like you normally would do to any other links.
  
  < a href="websiteurl" > link name goes here < /a >
  
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Ari Lestariono January 14, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Thanks, can you please explain what trackbacks is and how does the mechanic system works, I am newbies…lol

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- stanleytang February 23, 2009 at 12:56 am
  You just link it to another blog post.
  
  Like this:
  
  < a href="the link"> the link < / a>
  
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Andreas Obermüller January 14, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Hi Stan,
this looks pretty interesting! This should work in other non-english languages too, right?

Andy

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Blogging Tips January 20, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Interesting! I’m surprised it’s an accidental sorta of thing for ya. Anyway, it’s the smartest thing to outlink to popular sites that have trackback. Even spilled over traffic is good enough.

Yan

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- stanleytang January 20, 2009 at 2:48 pm
  Great to see you Yan!
  
  Was just reading your blog post about the 10 tips to making a good impression a few hours ago
  
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Blogging Tips January 20, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Yeah, I followed back all the retweets and I’ve found yours. Really impressed with what you’ve achieved so far. We’ll keep in touch, Stanley. It seems like there is lots of going-ons here.

Yan

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jan February 22, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Which then leads me to think – how do you do trackbacks? Written entirely for the clueless like me. A post that walks a newbie through the process will be valuable.

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- stanleytang February 23, 2009 at 12:58 am
  You just link it to another blog post.
  
  So something like this:
  
  < a href="the link"> the link < / a>
  
  Reply
Ross Beckham February 22, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Wow, pretty cool little trick there! I always knew trackbacks could be good traffic magnets if used properly. In the past, I’ve seen similar success “on accident”, but I sure didn’t mind it!

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william February 24, 2009 at 4:00 am
Stanley, an old boy is learning from You

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Blueschica April 9, 2009 at 12:42 am
Stanley, The trackbacks can be somewhat confusing at first, however you are Sooooo right about the unique link love it brings. I guess after you get the traffic it’s all about keeping your blog updated and fresh. Thanks much, I love your website.

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praveesh November 8, 2010 at 1:55 pm
I didnt understand…what did u do actually?

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