What was the use of writing a whole article to tell us naive bloggers about this cool program, if it doesn't even tell us how to get/do it?

I always thought trackbacks were automatic.......................... ?

Also, trackbacks lead to direct reciprocal links.

A blog post with a lot of trackbacks looks like a link exchange page as all the outgoing links return one to the same page.

maybe reciprocal linking is coming back into fashion?

I found this link http://www.hitormiss.org/projects/trackback/.

atwhatcost -- take a look at these...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trackback

http://cruftbox.com/cruft/docs/trackback.html

Wow, so many replies so quickly -- and yet, more education! Thanks.

Northie, I know receps aren't cool for SEO, but they get me more then half of my traffic. (I doubt 6500 visitor's per month will ever stop the presses, but considering the narrowness of the topic, I'm shocked! LOL) I don't join link exchanges/farms, etc., but am constantly on the look out for similar blogs, since, well, anyone else crazy enough to blog in our genre is usually interested in knowing that we are not alone in our oddity.

Doing so has gradually developed into a small niche community online, so we all truly enjoy reading one another's "creative blogging." (I actually get bummed, when some of the others don't blog for months at a time, although I understand why.) It also tends towards slow growth, since anyone googling our topic (and I know so few will), we can almost guarantee they will find a group (because of recep links) to their liking. I'm not sure if recep is in or out, but given that our blogs are only "in" for the smallest niche available online (probably), we know our oddity will never make any glam list. LOL

Then again, you've given me an idea on how to avoid it from constantly going back to the exact same link -- from now on, I'll link my responses to a particular entry in my archieves. At least the address won't be exact each time?!

nybc and TA,
Thanks for the links. Given the nature of my blog (MUST be kid-friendly) and my distrust for spam filters, I think I'll stick to the old-fashion way of tracking back -- just writing comments back and forth to the other bloggers with links. I will never get over the number of morons who think they will make money spamming a childlike blog to advertise drugs, supplements, and porn sites, once more understand why crazier folks think rambling about who-knows-what in comment sections really gets their (lack of) message across. I'd have to find another new home for my blog, if my present provider didn't include the option to approve any comment, and the option to delete inappropriate tags on the tag board.

At least, I understand the concept better now, and some day, when filters work better, I might get the utility. Who knows, maybe my question sent to my provider today, might get them thinking of adding such a utility to their list of add-ons?!