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The Linkback System - get a Free Linkback Display
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natetrue
After developing the "Who Links Here?" feature on cre.ations.net, I kept hearing from friends and webmasters what a cool feature it was, and whether they could have it on their site. I figure, why not? Here I've created a
simple API that lets any website use what I dub the Linkback system.
The whole idea behind the Linkback system is to get a nice, high-level view of what sites are linking to you, and to display them to the website visitors with little blurbs, just like Trackbacks.
But the Trackback system was clunky and useless to me for a few reasons:
- It requires effort on the part of the linkmaker,
- It needs the linker's CMS to support trackbacks,
- Having written cre.ations.net myself, I didn't want to implement trackbacks, and most of all
- The trackback system has been leveraged by spammers to the point of near uselessness.
The system I envisioned would take care of all of these things. The Linkback system automatically tracks referrers from incoming visitors, and scans the referring website for links. It automatically skims the site and comes up with a 'blurb' consisting of text around the link.
Not only that, the Linkback system will automatically find permalinks for blog entries when they exist, using a very clever algorithm that I designed and tested.
Additionally, the system uses a hashing-bin counter to compensate for referrer fraud - this makes it very difficult for spammers to use the Linkback system for their own nefarious purposes.
Features
- It's free
- Simple to add to your site - just copy and paste code
- Asynchronous loading means
ZERO impact on loading time for your site
- Difficult for spammers to leverage
- "Digg This" button automatically detects Digg links
- Zero effort on linker's side - they just link to you
- It's hosted, so you don't bother with the databases and PHP
- Easy web interface to change options and add new sites
- Easy to style with CSS
I'm very proud of the Linkback system and I hope you like it too!
How to get your own Linkback display
By now I know you're all itching to have one on your website. Let's walk through the steps.
Step 1: The Linkback Manager
Firstly, the Linkback system uses your cre.ations.net account to keep track of your Linkback site keys. So start by
signing up to cre.ations.net. No spam, guaranteed, I swear.
Next, head over to the
Linkback manager and add your website. For simplicity, a site key covers a second-level domain (i.e.
example.com). Each of these domains must have a separate site key (this is for database separation and for future for-pay possibilities, though the free service will always remain).
Step 2: Get logger code
Once you have your domain added in the Linkback manager, click
Get Code for that domain. You will be presented with three text boxes with code in them - one for logging, one for displaying, and one for a Digg This button.
Start with the logging code. Paste it into any web page you want to receive linkbacks for. This usually means modifying a template in your content management system, or changing each page individually if you don't have a CMS. Make sure the code is within the page's <body> tags, preferably at the end just before the </body> tag.
Step 3: Display code
Next, put the display code wherever you want a Linkback display. Usually you'd lump this in with Comments and Trackbacks in your CMS. But use your judgement where in your design you'd like it.
That's really all you need! Read on below for some more advanced features.
Digg button code
If you want an automatic Digg Button for a page, use the Digg button code. It will either display nothing or a static "submit to digg" button depending on your preferences. Once a Digg link has been followed to your site, the code will put out a Digg button using the Digg API to show how many diggs your page has, and give visitors the option to Digg it as well. Nifty, isn't it?
Customization
For each domain, you can set various options that change how your Linkback system works.
Blacklist
The Blacklist is useful for suppressing Linkbacks from sources you don't want - for example, some webmasters won't want search engine results in their linkbacks. You might also want to block social bookmarking sites and forums (though they're a great source of linkbacks). The interface is simple - fill in the box and submit to add a new one, and click the X next to one to delete it. It supports asterisk wildcards (*) too.
Display options
These are generally self-explanatory. Number of linkbacks to show, time limits on linkbacks, visitor thresholds, etc.
What might need some explanation are the Recency bias and fraud compensation values. Recency bias is a complicated little calculation but it generally describes the shape of the traffic curve in a single number.
- Low values (-3 and less) mean the traffic spiked early on when the linkback was discovered and have tapered off.
- Mid-range values (-3 to +3) mean the traffic has been more or less level. The linkback is a constant source of traffic.
- High values (+3 and up) mean the traffic is still growing.
Fraud compensation is simple. It tells you what percent of the total hit value was discarded from the fraud compensation algorithm.
Digg button
For the Digg button there is only one option. When there has been no Digg link detected, you can choose to have nothing display, or to have an image that prompts your visitors to submit it to Digg. It's your choice.
So that's the Linkback system! Let me know what you think in the Comments section here or via e-mail. I hope you like it!
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Posted by kleucht 5 years ago ( 19-Apr-2007 19:55:25 )