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