Reciprocal linking

Living as Trinity gave me a shout-out, providing the first intentional inbound referral to this site. I get dozens a day through the Blogger nav bar atop the page.

This brings up what should be standard practice: When someone intentionally links to your site -- either in their blogroll or in a post -- courtesy demands a reciprocal link. A mention in a post works when someone mentions you. Most of the time, when I am added to a blogroll, I will add them to line, unless the blog has questionable content to which I do not want to be associated, or I am limiting blogroll links to a specific category. This site's blogroll only links other Peoria blogs.

"But, Bill," you might ask, "how do we know when someone is linking to my site?"

Simple. Get a decent hit counter and add it to your blog. Site Meter is the one I use because set up is simple. You just paste the code in a spot on your siderail or at the very bottom of your template, before the [/html] tag.

If using Site Meter, be sure to select the cops that allows for you -- and even readers, if you prefer -- to see a list of sites that are responsible for inbound links.

Also, Blogrolling has a feature that allows you to see what sites are linking to you.

And here is another tip: When signing up for these free or even pay-for-use third-party services, be sure to save your user name and password. I can't tell you the number of times, I've had to create an entirely new account for a hit counter because I lost the password that let me make necessary changes.