Open Trackback Alliance

I’m now an official member of the Open Trackback Alliance (keep reading- it’s even geekier than it sounds). What that means is every Friday I will publish a post that anybody can trackback to with their own post and have a link and excerpt for it displayed on the front page of my blog almost instantly. The purpose is two-fold: 1) To showcase people’s best recent posts and 2) To exchange links, which increases both sites’ search engine visibility and traffic. What I’ve found is that the sort of people who participate in this exchange tend to have very well-written blogs (even if some of their political views make my skin crawl. But that’s beside the point). It’s actually a great way to discover interesting new blogs.

I won’t go into all the details about how the OTA works as you can find all that in the FAQ (while you’re there, check out the rest of OTA founder Samantha Burns’ blog- she’s a smart, funny chick). All you really need to know is that to participate, you just have to include a link to this site (preferably to my homepage) and send me a trackback from your post to the weekly post designated for open trackbacks. If you’re not familiar with trackbacks or how to send them with your blogging software, again, I direct you to the FAQ. I will post the specifics, such as the address for sending trackbacks in Friday’s post. I particularly hope some of the regulars here will choose to participate.

Technorati’s Top 100 Favorite Blogs

One reason this is a good time for people to participate in the OTA is that “People are Idiots” is number two on Technorati’s favorite’s list so it’s sending a bit of extra traffic my way. It’s not the kind of traffic I pulled in for my Blogjacking efforts but it’s decent and I’m happy to share the traffic if I can. To explain: Technorati is the number one search engine for blogs and they recently implemented the capability for members to add various sites to their Technorati favorites (thus the link that’s been prominently displayed over on the sidebar). I’ve been hovering at number two on the list for awhile. I’m also at #10. I think when I transferred my blog over a few weeks ago, it doubled up my domain’s favorites. I either look really cool or really stupid for having two listings on there. I think it’s the latter. If you haven’t already added my site, it would be kind of nifty if you did. And “nifty” is one of those special words I don’t just throw around haphazardly. I’d kind of like to be at number one because it’s looking like it could be my last chance to make any sort of mark in life. When I die, someone can say about me, “She spent one week at #1 on Technorati’s favorite list.” Then everybody will whisper, “What the hell is Technorati?”

What do you get for adding me to your favorites? Nothing! What do I get in return? Absosmurfly nothing! There’s won’t be any coverage of the ascension in People Magazine, there won’t be a fancy awards ceremony and ball. It’s just one of those things where if I’m gonna be #2, I might as well be #1. Yaknowwadaimean? And I only need 12 additions at this point. If you do add me, please use this here link because the url is slightly different than my homepage url (which, unfortunately, is the one at #10). If I make it to #1, I promise to stay away from religion (for a little while, anyway) and write some funny stuff. Sound good?