As you may or may not know, I’ve been “blogging” for several years now. And I’m one of the first that will tell you that not only do you need to have great content on your blog that people will want to read on a regular basis, you need an accurate ping list.

If you’re new to blogging, then you might not be aware of ping lists. A ping list is essentially a list of URLs that your blog software will “ping” (send information to), telling that site that you just updated your blog. Obviously if you tell a lot of sites then they can then use that information to their advantage–to list your latest blog post in their site or search engine (or use that data however they want to use it).

Typically, with a blog search engine, when a user searches for a phrase the search engine’s results are displayed by date (most recent blog posts show up first). Google’s blog search actually applies their ranking algorithm to the blog posts (from people who ping them) and also allows users to sort by date.

Here’s a great blogging tip: if you mention a company’s name in the title of your blog post and ping Google’s blog search through your ping list, then there’s a good chance that your blog post will show up in the Google Finance section.

In WordPress, if you log into your control panel and select Options and then Writing and scroll down to the bottom you’ll see a section called “Update Services”. Copy this ping list of URLs into that section and save it. The next time you make a blog post WordPress will automatically send a ping to all of those places. Check the end of this post for the best list of places to “ping”.

To see exactly the status of the pings that you’re sending out, then take a look at the smart update pinger plugin which isn’t necessarily maintained anymore but still works well. I’ve personally tested it in the latest version of WordPress (currently 2.1). You’ll need to download and install the plugin and then chmod the log file so that the plugin can write properly to the log file. Then, when you go to the Options/Smart Update Pinger tab and you’ll see the ping log.

Go ahead and copy this ping list (I’ve just updated it as of today when I’m posting this), and add it to your blog–and enjoy the increased link popularity and traffic. If you have any additional URLs to add to this list feel free to post a comment here.

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://1470.net/api/ping

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://bulkfeeds.net

http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://ping.bitacoras.com

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/

http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/

http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.myblog.jp

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://thingamablog.sourceforge.net/ping.php

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogoon.net/ping/

http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates

http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://www.blogsnow.com/ping

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2

http://www.bitacoles.net/ping.php

http://bitacoras.net/ping

http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc

http://blogmatcher.com/u.php

http://www.blogoole.com/ping/

http://www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC

http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/

http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt

http://www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php

http://www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php

http://ping.amagle.com/

http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc

http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php

http://ping.weblogs.se/

http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/

http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2

http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php

http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/

http://zing.zingfast.com

http://bblog.com/ping.php

http://blogbot.dk/io/xml-rpc.php

http://www.catapings.com/ping.php

http://effbot.org/rpc/ping.cgi

http://ping.bitacoras.com

http://bitacoras.net/ping

http://www.catapings.com/ping.php

http://rpc.wpkeys.com

http://rpc.britblog.com

http://services.newsgator.com/ngws/xmlrpcping.aspx

http://ping.fakapster.com/rpc

http://rpc.tailrank.com/feedburner/RPC2

http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080

http://rpc.pingomatic.com

http://api.feedster.com/ping.php

http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/

http://rpc.newsgator.com/

http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud

http://xmlrpc.blogg.de

http://pinger.blogflux.com/rpc/

http://www.holycowdude.com/rpc/ping/

http://blogupdate.org/ping/

http://ping.blogg.de/

http://pingqueue.com/rpc/

http://rpc.britblog.com/

http://rpc.wpkeys.com/

http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz

http://www.feedsky.com/api/RPC2

http://www.imblogs.net/ping/

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZFinance.woa/wa/pingPodcast

http://bitacoras.net/ping/

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2 euro.weblogs.com

http://www.bitacoles.net/notificacio.php

http://ping.blogoon.net/

http://www.weblogues.com/ping/

http://blo.gs/ping.php

http://www.weblogalot.com/Ping/

http://www.packetmonster.net/xmlrpc.php

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping

http://www.blogupdate.org/ping/

http://blogupdate.org/sverige/ping/

http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2

http://ping.feeds.yahoo.com/RPC2/

http://www.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://pingoat.com/

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://www.mod-pubsub.org/ping.php

http://www.weblogues.com/RPC

http://api.feedster.com/ping