Ever get a feeling someone is talking about you? My mum likes to use the phrase ‘my ears are burning – someone must be talking about me’.
One of the interesting things about having a blog or two (or twenty) is that people do talk about you from time to time. Sometimes its because they like something you say, other times its because they don’t. But its always nice to know if they are and what they’re saying because it takes your blogging into a new interactive zone. So how do you know when they’re talking about you? Is it just an Ear Burning sensation or can you be a little more sure than that.
Fortunately there are a few tools that you might like to use:
– TrackBack – Probably the best way is to enable trackback on your blog – this will notify you if someone links to your posts.
– Technorati – This tool is pretty cool – set up a watch list or manually check who is linking to your blog (example)
– Bloglines – Set up a search feed on Bloglines with your name, your blog’s name etc. I do this and am amazed at the articles and posts that I come up in. Its actually alerted me a few times to being quoted in papers that I’d never have known about otherwise.
– Referals – Stats – Check your stats to see where people are coming from. I like Sitemeter because it tells you the last 100 referrers.
I’m sure others of you use other methods – share your ‘Vanity Check’ tips in comments below.
