Every now and then I encounter a knitblogger who has such excellent site design and fabulous patterns that I stop in my tracks and must. post. now. Today, that knitblogger is Neoknits!

The font used on her website has a ball of yarn in the "o"s. It must be custom designed. Even better than that, she has a new knitting pattern available: The Idylwylde Cardigan, which is made with madeline tosh sock yarn and quite lovely.

Click. Added to Google Reader.

It's once again time for some KnitLuck blogging tips. This series is meant to help you connect with other knitbloggers and get more traffic to your site. There are some simple things you can do which I've talked about before, such as commenting on other blogs,  and following these tips to writing a good knitting blog. Today I'm talking about trackbacks.

You may have heard about trackback. It's a way to tell another website that you have linked to it (or tracking back). You may have seen some blogs with trackback. They'll have a link that says "click here for the trackback link". Clicking on this link is rather confusing b/c it takes you to the same page that you were just on. As such, it's not inherently obvious how to make it work or what it can do for you. So let me tell you.

Say you found something really cool that you wanted to link to your blog. Check to see if that blog has a trackback link. Instead of clicking on the link, mouse over it, right click and choose "copy this link". The link will then be copied to your clipboard, ready for you to paste into your blog.

Some blocks allow you to "create a trackback link". This is a little easier to understand. Simply click on that link and a new window will open and will give you a trackback link for you to copy.

Anyhoo, so when you're ready to link to this cool stuff on your blog, paste the trackback link into your blog editor link instead of a regular link. When you publish your blog, your trackback link will tell the website you've linked to that you've linked to them.

The cool thing about this is that Google picks up these connections as additional traffic to your site, which in turn raises your rankings and makes your site easier to find.

Here are some great links to help you understand Trackbacks.
Wikipedia.
Cruftbox
Optiniche

Hello Friends!

After the success of the Tips for Knitbloggers post, I thought I would share with you my knowledge about blog commenting and how it can help drive traffic to your site.

Now please, do not think of this as a plea for comments on my own site. I'm getting comments and I'm happy. I'm hoping that my content is strong enough to encourage my readers to contribute to the conversation, however I think that many knitbloggers are missing the opportunity to promote their own blogs by not commenting. Commenting on other blogs, especially those blogs that you enjoy is one of the easiest ways to draw attention to your own blog. Chances are that if you like the content you're reading, you probably create similar content that other bloggers will want to see, especially if you've read my five tips for creating an excellent knitting blog.

Why is commenting so important anyway? What you may not realize is that commenting creates links between blogs, which the google search robots read as increased popularity of a website. Increased popularity means that you will have higher rankings in google search, which means it will be easier for people to find you and your content, which means more traffic to your blog!

I know that there's some confusion out there about commenting etiquette because Rebecca Danger posted some questions about it and got some great answers in her own comments.

So here are my 5 tips for getting more comments on your blog and for commenting in general:

Create engaging content.

Provide value to your reader. What have you done with your knitting that has helped other people? What have you learned that you can share with others? Are there any interesting controversies that deserve further discussion?

Comment on other people's blogs.

The more you interact with other bloggers, either through their blogs, their ravelry accounts or through twitter, the more attention to bring to yourself, but only if you offer genuine value to the internet conversation. Simply saying "look at me, look at me" doesn't offer as much value as saying "check out this new cool thing I learned, or found, or came up with" or even better "wow, what you wrote about was really cool, can you tell me more?". Being genuine is key.

When people comment on your blog, return the favor.

Either respond on your own blog, or make the effort to check out your commenter's blog. You just might find something super cool.

Avoid a flame war.

As much as controversy can bring traffic and stir up debate, avoid name calling, and taking things too personally on the web. The Internet is a public forum, one that is recorded for posterity and people can revisit. Don't say anything you wouldn't say face to face.

Carry on the conversation.

If you like someone else's blog post so much, feature it on your blog, along with a link to the blog post. Your readers will be thankful you turned them on to something cool.

There's another way to share your blog content, and that's to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Have you done something cool on your blog? Do you have an etsy shop you'd like to share. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ! Also follow me on twitter! Stay tuned. Later I will list for you some great online resources about commenting.

In my internet travels I discovered another blogger who had content that made my day.

Before sharing her identity I wanted to mention the 5 things that makes a knitting blog rock. I'm talking about this mainly because I myself have a lot to learn in that department, but thought that I would share my education with you.

1) Simple Lists. Lists are interesting. They say a lot about the writer and their priorities. Write a list, a list about anything. Your favorite music for knitting, your favorite yarns, your favorite knitting books. Tell the world.

2) Excellent photos. Her photos are simple, varied and well composed. They are relevant to each post. Here are some great digital photo tips. Oh and a special tutorial for taking pictures of your knitting.

3) Finished Object goodness. On this occasion the finished objects were frequent and well-photographed.

4) Non-knitting content that knitters would love, like personal recipes.

5) A simple template that doesn't take away from the content. All of her side content is consistently aligned to the left and smaller than I usually see on other blogs.

Can you tell that I'm taking notes?

The blogger from whom I've learned all of this is Carole Knits.

It took a lot of will power for me not to name this post "Ravelry Wanna-bes". The fact is that Ravely does an excellent job at providing social outlets for knitters. It was one of the first in the marketplace and its wild popularity makes it difficult for anybody to create a similar venture without being subject to comparison. The fact is that there are two new operations that strive to be the "facebooks of knitting", a term that has already been used to describe Ravelry.

Click here to read more.