This Blog is Now DoFollow
Four Reasons I Made The Change
First off, you might ask what does DoFollow mean?
Normally, when someone comments on a blog, the link the person receives back to their site is marked a “NoFollow,” which Google does not count. This was done to help limit the amount of spam people leave on websites. The problem with this is it takes away a lot of incentive for readers to leave feedback since they feel they do not get anything out of it.
Why I Made The Change to Dofollow:
1. It Helps Your Readers
Blogging is all about building friendships with fellow bloggers and helping one another. It’s like a big community and we try to share our success with others who have just started. One important way to help those who are just getting started, is by giving them a backlink to their site. I think it is really important to reward those who come to your blog and leave a meaningful comment about your post. It’s a way of saying “Thanks, I really appreciate the fact you read my post.”
2. It Gives An Incentive
A lot of times, readers will read my entire post and then move on to another blog. I think having a DoFollow blog gives readers an incentive for taking the time to leave a comment. It makes them feel like there is a reason to stop and think about it for a few minutes. I know I personally stop and read more posts when I see that a blog is DoFollow.
3. NoFollow Isn’t Fair
I understand that the NoFollow attribute was originally designed to stop spammers from commenting on everything blog. Which, still happens regardless of the tag. However, I feel that it isn’t fair to those who are not spamming your site. The people that actually read it and having some meaningful to leave behind. Therefore, I think readers should be rewarded with the DoFollow link, and spammers will not be tolerated. Which is why I am not manually approving my comments (unless you have left them before).
4. I Love To Receive Feedback
When I first start blogging, it was really hard to keep the motivation. Once in a great while I would receive a comment which gave me a little drive to keep going. I think it is very important to receive comments because it reminds you that people really do read your posts and find them interesting. I feel that moving over to a DoFollow blog will help me receive more feedback over time, which never hurts.
Do You Follow?
I would love to hear some feedback from other bloggers about your experience with the DoFollow comments. Did you get a lot more spam? Lower Pagerank? Or did it help with traffic and comments?
Feel free to share my site with others looking to get a few backlinks here and there, I would really appreciate it!
Update!
I have since decided to install the Lucia’s Link Love Plugin. You can read about it here.
Published on August 27th, 2008. And don't forget to check out my book, Life After the Cubicle.
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Definitely the right move. I have do follow on most of my sites. A few exceptions are for sites where I am posting information and not really looking to start a conversation or gaining feedback.
Steve
I’m going to put the badge on my site too. I already follow links but I might as well advertise it too.
I think do follow is a great option to have on your site. Readers are given an incentive to leave meaningful and relevant posts and are rewarded with a valuable link back to their site for their time and input given. Kudos to you for using this great feature.
As i am using a blogger’s blog the only way i could find is to manually remove the nofollow tag. Lot of resources are available for WP but not unfortuntaely for blogger. still trying to find out solution like yourname@keyword kind of plug in for my blog.
HI all,
Well i like this and i hate nofollow its really not a good impression for any blog if we use nofollow to stop spammers we also try to stop our commenter anyway you have done a good job. I appreciate it.
Good move. I just made the change myself. Nofollow takes the web out of the web.
However as you mention the dofollow attracted a great deal of SPAM and that is seriously a waste of time needing to clean out the trash on a number of occasions.
How has the spam been since making the decision?
By the way, Justin, drop me an email so I can invite you to add your Blog to one of my directories, its an invite only (new) directory
Thanks
@ A4D: After making the switch, I did start to receive more human spam. Therefore, I have decided to install the Lucia’s Link Love Plugin. It allows you to set it so people have to comment a few times before the dofollow takes effect. It has helped a lot.
Keep up the great work
Just be sure that your blog is not spammed with filthy links and users. Normally dofollow blogs are spammed with lot of spammy comments.
It is really nice to hear that you have made this a do-follow blog. I am sure that you will get a nice amount of visitors per day and also lots of comments.
keep up the good work
Yea……good move congratulations! for dofollow i’ m big fan of dofollow i want just change upon my blog.
I Follow button simply means that the link in your comment is a DoFollow link instead of the traditional NoFollow, thanks…
Thanks for valuable info
I have setup three blog recently and allowed follow on the comments. Just helping out the common man. Akismat blocks so much stuff that the nofollow tag isn’t needed.
Am I missing something, or are all the comments on this post nofollow?
Hey Adam, The majority of them are NoFollow. If you check out this post, you will see I ended up installing a link love plugin. I was getting way too much spam so instead I decided to reserve DoFollow links to readers that comment a few times.
Thanks for pointing this out, I am going to put a link to that post at the bottom of this post.
I’ve dofollowed my own personal blog as well and I’m going to suggest removing the nofollow on Travel Grove’s blog when we get it up. Nowadays, when everyone has a blog or a home page they’d like to get out there, I feel like giving back your readers a measly comment link isn’t all that bad.
Besides, the way PageRank works, you can’t hurt your page’s PR by linking out to someone else, although you do spread slightly less PageRank to your other internal pages.
Cheers!
Where is the best place to learn about this? This is a good article, thanks
I like how you get so many comments because of this DoFollow blog post. Becareful with spams though becasuse it can be a serious headache to monitor them all. You appreciate your readers for reading your post just as much as we appreciate you for being a DoFollower.
I do believe dofollow can let more people comments, but now a lot of bloggers join this dofollow system but their comments section just nofollow. Unethical bloggers just wanna make traffics from people commenting only, this make visitors to go away after they know about it.
Sorry bro, I don’t think you blog is do follow type. I used seo quake plugin and I notice it’s a no follow blog
If you read the post you would see I have since installed a plugin that only makes dofollow links have you leave a comment a few times. It’s help with the spammers.
Things can only get better
bloody heck, have to wait for more than 40 posts for things to brighten up
Dofollow is gr8 idea, I have 3 dofollow blogs i luv dofollow so i always comment on dofollow blogs…
I guess it makes it easier for people to find your blog anyway when people are just searching dofollow blog. So why not make yourself a dofollow blog.
Have to agree with you on this one. I don’t have a problem when people write on my Utah real estate blog to build links so long as they actually write meaningful things. I mean, everyone has bills to pay, right? And often, the comments are insightful and help me to become a better blogger – so it’s almost like I am paying people to give constructive feedback.