Trackbacks and links..a nice way to say "thanks"

When you first start blogging, it's a little tough to get a sense of whether you are connecting with your readers...and who they are exactly. Sometimes it feels like you are talking to yourself...at least until you feel like you have really found your blog voice and truly get a feel for your audience.

I think the “finding your voice” piece gets better over time, but Michael Gartenberg says I've done a good job of finding mine so far and I guess I kind of feel that myself (thanks for the compliment Michael!). It was the understanding the audience piece that didn't really click for me until the last few weeks. A couple things happened. First, some great input on some blog topics that made me think really hard about what I am doing here like this (see Lilia, I took your advice). And of course I have appreciated every single piece of positive feedback I've gotten (honestly, if someone ever needs to build some self esteem, I'd say blogging is either the best or worst thing to do about it...it's been great for me). At first I was concerned that blogging was going to just be a tech phenomenon, but I really see some critical mass (ew, buzz word alert) building on the business side.

One thing I've noticed specifically recently is/are the trackbacks and links back here. There's nothing more gratifying than finding that someone has either added you to their blogroll or that they have created a post with a trackback. The trackback says “this person has posted something that I find interesting and I'm pretty sure that you will too” and the blogroll link says “this person posts some pretty consistently interesting stuff...check it out”.

I've definitely noticed these links and I need to spend some time linking and blogrolling myself. There are some really interesting people that come here and I definitely want to reciprocate.

Sure would be nice if there was some way to find these links and trackbacks without have to look through lists of google links. If you could get an e-mail in your inbox that says “John thinks you are interesting and has linked to you” To a blog-addicted recruiter/marketer like me it would be like the best thank you note ever!

PS: I am whale watching with my team tomorrow and won't be blogging. Back on Wednesday and hopefully won't be blogging on anything related to sea-sickness ; )