So I get back home and check my e-mails. Wow! I suddenly have loads of them. Dozens and dozens. How exciting, I thought. So many people leaving messages about my blogs.
So I read them...
Jeeps? I havent mentioned Jeeps?
Mini's? I havent mentioned Mini's?
Whats going on?
I check my blog. I have had over 120 page views but only 8 visitors? My god, these people really enjoy coming back.
And then I see the messages, Loads of trackbacks! What are these trackbacks I wondered? So I looked it up.
The Help page says
Trackback is a function similar to a link that allows you to indicate to a referring post with a similar or adequate topic on another site. Every Trackback also has a unique internet address that one needs to use in order to refer to the proper post.
You'll often find the Trackback function pretty close or right next to the commenting function.
Here's an example:
Joe has a blog on sailing.
Tom, who has a blog regarding the sea, reads Joe's blog.
Tom just wrote a pretty interesting post that would perfectly supplement Joe's last post. Tom wants Joe´s readers to read his entry as well.
Therefore, Tom copies the Trackback-URL of Joe´s post into his Trackback function. Done. Tom's blog now sends automatically a signal to Joe´s post and Joe´s post shows that there is a "Trackback", another interesting article somewhere.
Now, I don't know about you but I can't believe that JOE looked at my blog called 'Toilet College and Exploding Chocolate' and thought "That is so similar to my Jeep website. I must trackback to it" Which leads me to this conclusion.
Someone has decided to advertise their stuff on our blogs using Trackbacks!
Which leads me to my next conclusion... Some people have way to much time on their hands if they can spend time going to each blog and advertise their Jeeps!