Add a "Who Links To Me Widget" in Blogger

Some time ago, I added a feed to my blog that showed what comments had recently been posted. It was a nice addition because: (1) it shows visitors what people are chatting about and (2) it gives me a simple way to check on comments visitors have left.

Turns out, you can do the same thing with external links to your blog. That is, add a feed to your site of articles from people who mention your blog in their post. Here's how you add this feed using Blogger:

Step 1: Search for linking sites. Head over to blogsearch.google.com and search for:

link:<yoursite.blogspot.com>

In my case, I searched for:

link:benjisimon.blogspot.com

Step 2: Grab the RSS feed URL. You'll want to copy and paste the URL marked RSS. Mine happens to be:

http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch_feeds?hl=en&q=link:benjisimon.blogspot.com&ie=utf-8&num=10&output=rss

Step 3: Add a new Feed Gadget to your blog. Log into your blogger account and click on Layout » Add Gadget. Then select the Feed gadget. Paste the URL you've copied from Step 2. Customize the title of the gadget and save it.

That should do it - now, whenever your visitors check out your site they'll see other blogs that are linking to you. Slick, eh?