Anyone with a blog has noticed that trackback spam is on the rise. The usual PPC spammers have figured out how to send trackbacks and bypass many blogs’ spam filters. But there’s a new kind of trackback spam out there.
Let’s review what a trackback is supposed to be used for. A trackback is sent by a blogger who references another blogger’s post in their own post. It notifies the original blogger that someone has written an article and linked to them, and provides an automated reciprocal link. This is generally a win-win situation for both parties as people who read either blog can become aware of the other and find out more information. When used in this way trackback is a great way for your blog (and the other blog!) to receive wider exposure.
Trackback spam, on the other hand, takes advantage of the situation to create a one-way link from the blog receiving the trackback to the spammer’s site. The spammer has not linked to the blog, and the blogger doesn’t want to create a link to the spammer. (At least, not without being compensated for the link.) The spammers hope to drive traffic to their sites and thus gain revenue.
Therefore, the easiest and most effective way to stop trackback spam is to check the linked site, and ensure that it links to your blog. For instance, Spam Karma 2 does this and it is completely effective at stopping trackback spam.
Lately I have been seeing a lot of people sending trackbacks from their own blogs, but not linking to mine. I have taken the time to contact them and explain the situation, and all but one placed the link. I then released their trackback from moderation. But it’s that one who I want to talk about today. When I contacted him about the issue, he simply deleted my message and did nothing. I was not amused, and did not release his trackback from moderation.
If you hope to drive additional traffic to your blog through trackback, be sure you provide a link to the blog you are sending the trackback to! Not only is it the right thing to do, it will prevent your trackback from being marked as spam.
In the future I will keep a complete list of any blogger who sends trackback spam here. With nofollow on the link. The list currently is:
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Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
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michel v
Jul 16, 2005
The Death and Return of the Trackback-to-notify-links Misconception!
When the Trotts came up with TrackBack, it was still peace and quiet in the blogosphere. There was no idea of “profiting from a link” because you would be linked in other ways anyway if you weren’t linked in the post itself.
Basically, a TrackBack is a service to your readers, not to your blog’s traffic. It tells them “if you’re interested, here is what I blogged on the subject”.
Say you’re blogging about britpop and mention Blur; next day I blog about Blur’s latest album, do really I have to link to your post on the history of britpop (and its correlation with the increasing quality of kebabs in rural parts of Wales) to notify your readers that they may be interested in reading my review of Blur’s last record?
The whole spam problem is another thing, it’s not an etiquette issue.
If I want to notify someone that I linked them, I just use a PingBack. That’s what they’re for. :)
Michael Hampton
Jul 16, 2005
Remember, pingback is not universal; most blogs out there do not support it yet. Trackback, however, is, and it’s the usual way of making such a notification. The trackback scenario at issue here doesn’t serve anybody except the spammer.
michel v
Jul 16, 2005
The example scenario I gave is about trackbacking some generic post with a link to a more precise one. It could be replaced by the usual cross-blogs conversation scenario.
As per labelling link-less trackbackers as spammers… I just find that unfair and bullying.
Unless they’re posting about things irrelevant to the trackbacked post, I don’t see a reason to believe that they’re out for your traffic, holding a knife between their teeth.
Firas
Jul 16, 2005
That’s just bitter, io_error. You dropped their trackback, fine; your site, your choice. Now you have to mar their name everytime it’s typed into a search engine?
Michael Hampton
Jul 16, 2005
What can I say, I’m just a bitter, hateful person. :)
I hate spam, and there’s virtually no difference between this guy’s trackback and the thousands of other trackback spams this site receives daily.
The only difference being this guy has a blog he’s trying to make money from. (Don’t we all wish?) Oh, wait, I’ve gotten spam from other such blogs before, too. Remember the spammer with the porn blog?
Christopher Black
Jul 16, 2005
His blog doesn’t seem, to me, to be just a blog where he’s trying to make money. So he has some Amazon links and some Google ads. Neither of which seem to make up the majority of content on the main page. Did the trackback consist soley of ads or something? Or did it go back to a relevant post? If the latter I don’t think chastising the guy by marring his name for not including a link back to you is the right way to go about things.
Michael Hampton
Jul 16, 2005
I wouldn’t have bothered, if the guy had done the minimum courtesy of responding at all. I didn’t “mar his name” because he didn’t link back to me. I posted it because he neither responded saying “nevemrind about the trackback” nor “okay, here’s your link back.” Not even a “Fuck off, asshole!” (Though if I’d gotten that, this post would be somewhat different.)
It’s very unfriendly behavior, and for that reason as well his name appears here.
I would like to keep trackbacks open as a viable method of blog community building, even in the face of spam attacks and people claiming trackbacks are dead, but behavior such as this undermines trackbacks and makes them less useful.
Christopher Black
Jul 16, 2005
If you’re saying you’re not marring his name then I’m not certain I understand the point of posting his name at all. What’s the reasoning then if you aren’t trying to publicly shame the guy for not including a link back?
Ajay DSouza
Jul 17, 2005
You do realize that you are making John famous by linking to his blog?
Especially since yours is definitely a more highly visited blog?
Anne
Jul 18, 2005
Okay, I hope I’ve done this correctly. I’ve made a page that lists all my plugins, including yours. (See: http://www.cellojaren.nl/impressum/plugins-en-andere-zooi/). And I don’t write this comment to generate more traffic, because most of the readers of this page won’t even be able to understand what I wrote because of the language.
Jul 18, 2005
MacManX.com » Blogroll Dive: 7/18/05
James
Jul 18, 2005
So you apparently think you have a right to a link from this guy’s blog? As others have pointed out, that’s not what Trackback is for. Of course, you have a right to try and shame him here on your blog, but there are a couple reasons why you should re-think this:
1. You’re calling him a “spammer”, which isn’t true. He’s someone who’s using Trackback for its intended purpose (notifying blog readers of related or on-topic content at another blog). The fact that you think anyone who sends a Trackback ping ought to be obligated to link to your site doesn’t make it so.
2. Honestly, it makes you look like an asshole.
Michael Hampton
Jul 19, 2005
It’s easy for reasonable people to disagree on the appropriate use of trackback. This disagreement, in part, led to pingback, which is quite explicit about the linking notification, where trackback is not clear about it.
By the way, I am an asshole. And this is my policy on trackback. Unfortunately I get far too much spam here to deal with them any other way. You are welcome, of course, to not send trackbacks here if you choose.
John Doyle (call me Jack, please)
Jul 20, 2005
I’m very sorry that I didn’t respond to your message as you had expected. Frankly, I just figured you’d go ahead and delete the trackback and be done with it. I certainly would have responded to you had I realized that you even cared about a response.
Hell, man, I have no problem linking to your site from mine. I’m really not out to make any money off of my blog anyways. I only added the google ads on Friday just for the heck of it. I’ve made $0.73 so far, and I’m shocked. I figured I wouldn’t make that in a year. But hey, it’s money.
Anyways, I was a radio personality for a long time, and I have always felt that no publicity is bad publicity. I had no idea that you had posted my name on your blog with a link back to my site. It was totally by accident that I found it… and I appreciate the traffic that you have generated for me.
Anyways, again, I’m sorry that my response to your comment (deleting it) wasn’t what you had expected. I’d be more than happy to link back to you if you could remind me which post it is I had even sent you a trackback for. To be honest, I don’t even remember.
Again, thanks for the traffic… it’s more than I had envisioned. (did I spell that right?)
John Doyle (call me Jack, please)
Jul 20, 2005
Nevermind, I found the article you are referring to, and I have linked back to you, twice as a matter of fact.
Michael Hampton
Jul 20, 2005
Jack, thanks for your response. I’m sorry I had to go and blog about this, and I’ve removed the nofollow link for your page and released your trackback from moderation. Hopefully you’ll get a few more cents out of the traffic, and some Google juice, for whatever it’s worth. :)
Marco
Aug 27, 2005
I find your ‘policy’ rather strange. Sending a trackback, in my opinion, means you’ve blogged something that’s related to a posting you’re sending a trackback to. This adds something nice and relevant to the original posting and notifies the original poster and the readers of this posting about this very fact. Because of this I often find interesting side information when reading other people’s blogs. Quite often there are trackbacks below the posting with other interesting material.
I was almost going to send you a trackback about something rather relevant I posted about it but I guess I won’t know because you’d consider it to be spam…
*boggles*
Eric Wabant
Sep 23, 2005
Hi IO ERROR,
I was looking around your site and found this thread. So if I understand well (the wiki and codex states lots of things , possibly to many in one shot…) If I add your site to my blogrole I should ping you and if I read an article that interest me and could interest my visitors, I should take an exerpt and trackback to you ? Another really stu.. question: where are the pingback and trackback butons, are those the check boxes on the make a post page? If the proper procedure is to past an excerpt to create the post can one point to a comment in the same way?
Regards,
Eric
May 31, 2006
Rhymes With Right