Managing Trackbacks in Quick Blogcast
Quick Blogcast gives you the option of using trackbacks on your blogcast entries. Trackbacks notify you when somebody links to one of your entries, so you can keep track of who is linking to, or referring to, your Web entries. Other sites can be notified if you link to one of their articles as well. Both sites need to enable trackbacks for proper functioning.
- Trackback Benefits
- Allowing trackbacks benefits you by knowing who is referencing posts on your blog and how the reference is being used. You can also give credit and perhaps track back to other sites related to your discussion posts. In this way, your readers can follow ongoing discussions over multiple blogs.
- Trackback Dangers
- One danger in allowing trackbacks is that you can end up with links to unwanted Spam from companies and individuals that have abused this feature to insert their Spam links on blogs. However, you can easily avoid this occurrence, since you have control over what trackbacks you approve and can also label specific trackbacks as Spam. In other words, you cannot prevent people from linking to your blog posts, but you can manage whether links back to the referencing blogs are displayed on your blog.
The Manage Trackbacks page lists all of the trackbacks for all entries in the selected blog. From that page you can view, approve, edit, or delete trackbacks, ban IP addresses, or mark trackbacks as SPAM.
To Filter the List of Trackbacks
- Log in to your Account Manager.
- In the My Products section, click Quick Blogcast.
- Click Manage Account next to the blog account you want to modify.
- From the Manage Entries menu, click Trackbacks.
- From the View list, select one of the following:
- All
- Select to view all trackbacks.
- Pending Approval
- Select to view all trackbacks that are pending approval.
- Approved
- Select to view all approved trackbacks.
- Spam
- Select to view trackbacks that were marked as spam.
- Deleted
- Select to view deleted trackbacks.
- Click View.
To Search for a Specific Word or Value
- Log in to your Account Manager.
- In the My Products section, click Quick Blogcast.
- Click Manage Account next to the blog account you want to modify.
- From the Manage Entries menu, click Trackbacks.
- From the Search list, select the area or field you want to search in
- Type the word or value you want to search for.
- Click Search.
To View Trackbacks
In the Trackbacks list, you can select how many trackbacks you want to display on each page. You can select to display 10, 20, 50, or 100 comments per page. If there is more than one page, you can change pages by selecting a different page from the page number drop-down.
- Log in to your Account Manager.
- In the My Products section, click Quick Blogcast.
- Click Manage Account next to the blog account you want to modify.
- From the Manage Entries menu, click Trackbacks.
- Click the expand icon next to the title to view the content of the entry that is the subject of the trackback.
- Click the title of the entry it is associated with to open the entry in the Entry Editor.
To Edit a Trackback
- Log in to your Account Manager.
- In the My Products section, click Quick Blogcast.
- Click Manage Account next to the blog account you want to modify.
- From the Manage Entries menu, click Trackbacks.
- In the Trackbacks List, locate the trackback(s) you want to mark as SPAM. There are four search options to sort your Trackbacks list.
- Select to search Excerpt, Blog, URL, or Status, then enter a keyword and click Search.
- Click the Edit this Trackback button to open it in the Trackback Editor.
- Enter the name of the Blog, title of the comment, and URL to which you are creating a trackback.
To Approve Trackbacks
New trackbacks made by others have a status of Pending Approval until you either approve them or mark them as SPAM. Trackbacks that you create have a status of Draft until you approve them.
- Log in to your Account Manager.
- In the My Products section, click Quick Blogcast.
- Click Manage Account next to the blog account you want to modify.
- From the Manage Entries menu, click Trackbacks.
- In the Trackbacks List, locate the trackback(s) you want to approve.
- Select to search the Excerpt, Blog, URL, or Status, then enter a keyword and click Search
- Use the checkboxes to select the trackback(s) you want to approve.
- Select Approve Trackbacks from the Select Action drop-down menu.
- Click Apply.
To Delete a Trackback
- Log in to your Account Manager.
- In the My Products section, click Quick Blogcast.
- Click Manage Account next to the blog account you want to modify.
- From the Manage Entries menu, click Trackbacks.
- In the Trackbacks List, locate the trackback(s) you want to delete. There are four search options to sort your Trackbacks list.
- Select to search Excerpt, Blog, URL, or Status, then enter a keyword and click Search.
- Delete trackbacks by doing one of the following:
- Click the Delete button next to the trackback that you want to delete.
- Use the checkboxes to select the trackback(s) you want to delete, then select Delete Trackbacks from the Select Action drop-down menu and click Apply.
To Mark Trackbacks as SPAM
- Log in to your Account Manager.
- In the My Products section, click Quick Blogcast.
- Click Manage Account next to the blog account you want to modify.
- From the Manage Entries menu, click Trackbacks.
- In the Trackbacks List, locate the trackback(s) you want to mark as SPAM. There are four search options to sort your Trackbacks list.
- Select to search Excerpt, Blog, URL, or Status, then enter a keyword and click Search.
- Perform one of the following to mark a trackback as SPAM:
- Use the checkboxes to select the trackback(s) you want to mark as SPAM, then select Mark Trackbacks as SPAM from the Select Action drop-down menu and click Apply.
- Click the Mark This Trackback as SPAM button next to the trackback you want to mark as SPAM.
To Ban IP Addresses
Banning an IP address prevents anyone connecting to the Internet using that IP address to create a trackback to any entry in your Blog.
- Log in to your Account Manager.
- In the My Products section, click Quick Blogcast.
- Click Manage Account next to the blog account you want to modify.
- From the Manage Entries menu, click Trackbacks.
- In the list, locate the trackback(s) that contains the IP addresses that you want to ban.
- Select to search the Excerpt, Blog, URL, or Status, then enter a keyword and click Search
- Use the checkboxes to select the trackback(s) that contains the IP addresses that you want to ban.
- Select Ban IP Addresses from the Select Action drop-down menu.
- Click Apply. The Ban Reason popup window opens.
- Enter the reason that you want to ban the selected IP addresses.
- Click OK.
Notification that the IP addresses were banned displays above the Trackbacks list.
To Delete All Trackbacks Labeled as Spam
You can delete all trackbacks labeled as spam without selecting them. If your blog receives a lot of trackback spam, this feature helps you get rid of it quickly.
- Log in to your Account Manager.
- In the My Products section, click Quick Blogcast.
- Click Manage Account next to the blog account you want to modify.
- From the Manage Entries menu, click Trackbacks.
- Click Delete Spam.
- Click OK.