The results are in and I can now let you know what’s happened since I started this exciting marketing experiment!
As many of you already know, jimsmarketingblog.com offers everyone who comments here a special reward; something called a do-follow link. This is great for my readers, as it means when you comment here, your link actually tells Google to visit your website or blog; which can help boost your Search Engine Optimization.
Sadly, over 99% of blogs and almost every well-read blog, offers the exact opposite – they offer ‘no-follow links’; which tell Google NOT to follow the link to your website or blog.
The 2 main reasons people give for not offering do-follow links are as follows:
1. Google ‘penalise’ sites like mine, which offer them, by lowering our page rank.
2. Blogs offering do-follow links are more likely to be targeted by spammers, because links from do-follow blogs are so much more valuable to them.
So, what REALLY happens when you offer do-follow links?
I have seen no drop in traffic from Google. This blog’s only a few months old and it gets around 50 – 60 unique visitors each day via Google. When I started the experiment, I was getting around 40 a day. There are lots of reasons why this number has gone up – but for a very new blog that only posts a few times a week, that’s an ‘ok’ response from Google. I can’t see that I am being punished for offering the links; not yet anyway!
Spam? Well, 99.9% of the spam here is the kind of automated spam that every blog gets and it goes straight into the blog’s spam filter. There has been no increase in this kind of spam at all.
Spam from people using my comments section to pimp their website/blog has increased very slightly – but mainly because spammers know how well read this blog is. They see posts with over 200 comments and that’s like a magnet for comment spammers.
Thus, I can say with a high degree of certainty that the blog has suffered no ill effects from Google or from spammers, because of my use of do-follow links!
So, I am going to keep offering them to you – every time you comment here!
Benefits of offering do-follow links?
There are a lot of very compelling reasons to offer do-follow links. If you look at the kind of comments I got here when I announced what I was doing, you will see how warmly it was welcomed by the online community.
This blog is all about developing a community, based around our mutual interest in marketing and social media. So, what better way to show my commitment to our community, than to reach out and help promote everyone who comments here?
I have also seen a massive surge in visitor numbers, RSS subscribers and in the number of people who contact me via jimsmarketingblog.com. I believe a big reason for this, is that people really embrace the concept of a blog that actually gives them something tangible every time they comment.
We live in an age where marketing and social media guru’s keep on talking about how important it is to connect and share – yet they do so behind blogs that deliberately tell Google NOT to visit YOUR website or blog!
I really like the phrase that’s used to describe do-follow links. They call it Link Love. As we approach what is sure to be a very challenging year for small businesses in 2009, I hope more people reach-out to THEIR readers with links that are actually worth having.
Over to you!
So, what do you think about ‘Link Love?’ Do you find yourself more likely to comment on blogs that show they value your comments? Do you offer link love to your readers already – if so, what has your experience been? Whatever your thoughts are, share them here (and get some Link Love too!!)
Jim,
Thank you for explaining about the “do-follow” and no-follow” terms as I have had a hard time understanding the primarily purpose of them.
I admit that I do need to comment more on blogs as I now have more time to carry out this with my recent graduation from college.
I like that my comments are valued and taken seriously at the same time. It helps me to feel more of a part of the community and I’m contributing to it at the same time.
Unfortunately the only link love I provide is through my Twitter account however thank you for the idea and I look forward to applying this to my blogs.
I confess that I did not know the functionality of the “do-follow” and “non-follow” link. And we have the power to leverage every eyeball to blog / website. Congratulations on the initiative.
wow! your article has compelled be to comment
i agree with you, i would always enable do-follow
Hi Jim,
thats a great idea!
I love testing instead of pondering.
lots of success
Frank
http://StatsRobot.com
Jim,
This is great! I have recently instituted the “do-follow” option on my site also. I do believe that people will mostly likely appreciate the follow back after commenting.
Thanks!
Some great comments, thanks.
Whilst it’s relatively early days since I started the do-follow links – I feel extremely confident as to its value.
Thanks for the explanation of do-follow links and for enabling them on your blog.
I’m off to see if I can enable them on my blog.
It is interesting how most people don’t also use this feature to help their readers out. I wonder if most bloggers are unaware of the feature or if it is intentional.
Tim,
I think most bloggers are probably just unaware; but the social media / marketing experts really ought to know.
Is disabling this possible on Blogger? After reading this, I checked out all of the settings, and I did not immediately see a way to disable this.
Given that Google now owns Blogger, it seems that perhaps they do not allow the option.
Thanks for this good post.
I’ve been thinking about do-follow for my comments, but it’s never gotten beyond just thinking. Now I think I will go ahead and give do-follow a try and see what happens.
Thanks, Jim!
Interesting that people think offering do-follow links will cause Google to penalise you. Surely it’s the other way around, if anything? Google likes to see you linking to sites relevant to your own.
I use the do-follow plugin for WordPress on my blog. It works well, as you can set it to switch comment links from no-follow to do-follow after a set amount of time (e.g. a day).
This puts comment spammers off, as they think they’ll be getting a no-follow.
Any SEO guys out there know the answer to Sam’s question?
Can a ‘Blogger’ blog offer do-follow links?
Thanks!
What I have found most annoying about the no-follow is that my Blogger blog — which is owned by Google, no less! — automatically has a no-follow link on all my posts. To make this worse:
1) Google/Blogger will not allow me to change this to a do-follow, which means. . .
2) I have crawl errors on my blog stats. 412 to be precise.
So if Google calls them errors, why are they limiting them, and why would they penalize someone for having them?
Great information. Wonder what will happen when the google slaps happen in February. Interesting experiment. Thanks for sharing!
I’m gonna make sure my comments are do-follow. Thanks for the info!
Which is more important, traffic numbers or page rank? And can you tell me why please, I am having a hard time understanding all of this. Also I have many sites that I really don’t focus on that are not blogs and not updated regularly but have a pr 3 or above, but my blog site has 0 and is just as old, why would that be? Thanks so much, blessings,
Penny Raine
http://pennyraine.com/blog
Penny,
In my experience, Page Rank is not massively relevant. Your blog should be judged by you, as a success of otherwise.
The number of quality people that connect with you on your blog is what matters most.
If the Page Rank / visitor numbers bother you – there’s some GREAT SEO people out there who can help.
Great info Jim, will be checking into “Do Follow” on my blog on Typepad.
Yes, I enjoy commenting on blogs that are more conversational. When I write my blog posts, I often link to other writers that I think would be helpful as well. Its all about sharing.
Another reason why link love isn’t so great from comments is that well. If there are 200 comments with prolly 5-10 outbound links on sidebar that is 200+ outbound links from 1 solitary page. Not much love at all to go around. Spammers want that one post that is bookmarked to heck has a high PR and few comments.
That being said traffic is the name of the game
THANK YOU so much for this feedback! I always thought ‘do-follow’ seems more fun. Now I’ve just gotta go and see if that’s how mine is set and if not, how to change it!
YIKES!
–Mary K
EXPECT MIRACLES!
Dear Jim
I have started a blog exploring Web 2.0 world in order to share my experience with teachers I work with.
As always, your post enlightens me on WEb 2.0 rules of games. Again Thank you for That:)
Regards Link-love, it reminds me of a Buddha Quote “Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened”
Thank you for sharing and for empowering others.
Hi Jim, love the idea of DoFollow and think I will go with it on my blog.
I’m slightly confused because some of the comments above seem to be attracting a DoFollow and some are NoFollow. How do you decide which is which?
That’s a great idea! I have to admit I didn’t know about this. I’m check the settings on my blog and figure out how to do this now, thanks!
Redoing my website and just last week the company called me up and said “Be sure to have a link back to your site at the bottom of our blog”. Amazing I hadn’t figured that out -easy to do – yet, when you don’t know, you don’t know. Thanks…easy to correct.
Stevieboy,
Good question.
One of the basic steps taken to reduce comment spam, is to allocate a do-follow link to everyone after they have posted 2 comments or more.
So, if you (or anyone else) posts more than 1 comment, everything after that initial comment is do-follow.
Good stuff here, as always….
I added “do follow” to my site too and I haven’t regretted it at all. I guess if I saw a huge drop in my page rank next update I’d take a look at it … but I doubt it. Thanks for the thought provoking post. *SmiLes* Suzanne
Jim – You truly live the motto “Do well by doing good!”
– Matt
Thanks, there are a million sites with SEO help, which do you recommend?
blessings, Penny Raine
I don’t worry too much about page rank either. I’ve seen blogs with lots of visitors have a very small page rank — and I care much more about actually getting people to the blog than just having a high page rank.
Hi Jim,
You’re one of my Twitter followers and I’m one of yours! Thanks for explaining the ‘do-follow’ world to us. I will do as some of the others and check my blog to see if it has the do-follow capability. One of the points of a blog is to build a community. Right?
Appreciate your sharing!
Hi Jim,
Great post.
I appreciate “link love” on occasion, but participating in it too often seems a little forced and deliberate. I feel good knowing the 50-100 people visiting my blog each day are there because they’re interested, rather than being drawn in by a ploy.
That being said, I think the communities developed with “link love” are good. They proliferate good ideas and likeminded blogs. It’s a fine line and when done with taste and tact, I think link love is an effective tool and community builder.
All the best,
JR Moreau
Thank you for explaining that – very helpful! And thanks for doing this experiment.
Love being able to leave my Twitter username. Thanks!
Do or don’t doesn’t dictate which blogs I post on, if I have something to add to the conversation.
JR,
Offering do-follow links should be seen as the default; not a ploy. Otherwise you’re totally missing the point.
Jim,
Your no ad policy has merit! I went the other way and monetized eight out of my nine blogs(!).
The purpose here was to reveal the blog with the most traffic. A work-intensive approach for sure, but it helped to define what I am passionate about, and subsequently motivated to post consistently.
Now I have started with the domains and marketing sites after selecting the niche with the most comments and interest.
My humble attempts at market research through blog empirical evidence has proved beneficial.
I respect your choice to keep your blog free from ads. We get enough of that from my blogs!
Respectfully,
Nicholas Chase
Twitter/nachase
Thank for sharing this great bit of info. I am re-doing blogs/website, as I learned quite a bit about what I have been doing wrong. What an overwhelming process, but expect greater results for 2009, new year, new beginning!
Nicholas,
You seem to have commented on the wrong post
Interesting approach, Jim, and the one surprise is that the increase in both human and automated spam hasn’t materialized. Somehow, I imagine the Spammers Association publishing lists of do-follow comment link blogs which then get hammered mercilessly. Good luck, and keep us posted.
Roger
Neuromarketing,
You make an excellent point. I have been told that in many cases, blogs actually ASK to be put on those lists – just to get ‘hits’ at any cost.
Crazy approach.
Thanks for the help.
More reason to look at the wordpress.org software on my own site.
And more evidence that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Google was a lot “cooler” when they weren’t quite the Wal-Mart of the Web.
Sam,
Google seem like they are in the process of moving in people’s perception; from the nice guy offering all the free software, to the giant who needs to be tamed or monitored.
Interesting to watch it develop.
So interesting! I learn something new every day! Thanks
People are gripped, paralyzed and annoyed by spam. They form these huge hate fests over noobs and over zealous marketers. That energy would be better served elsewhere.
It’s awesome to share link love because it is a part of human understanding. Being a comment marketer myself I’d still come by because you have great posts and information.
It’s important to have a good mix of dofollow and nofollow if your into link building.
Since one of my sites is only PR2 I started a separate forum for readers on SEO news to specifically build links on. All I do is build links to it and bring it up occasionally.
@eric deckers do a search for “how to remove nofollow blogger” it’s very easy to implement.
Jordan,
Thanks for the info!
Thanks for that Jim. Sounds like some good fine tuning to keep the spammers at bay.
The interesting thing about “Link Love” is that yes while you may get spammers, a lot of the time you’ll get real quality comments as well. Then there’s the other group who read the blog anyway, like myself, that enjoy something given back by the author.
Honestly, while I have a “do follow” on mine as well, I don’t comment just for the reciprocal link. I believe offering a “do follow” also brings new readers who will enjoy your content.
link love … that’s a great way of putting it!
As someone who is on the verge of unveiling her new blog, I appreciate this bit of information that you provided on do-follow vs no-follow.
I am definitely listing your blog on my blogroll as an excellent resource for blogging and marketing.
Thank you!
Holli B
Thank you, Sir. The waters are beginning to clear!
It’s an innovative way to both build community AND get comments for the blog. One of the hurdles that many blogs face is that “0 comments” on most posts. You’ve got a method of converting lurkers to contributors.
I’ve never thought about no follow in this way before.
I’m looking into the wordpress settings. I’m not familiar with where everything is in WP 2.7 yet.
I think it is a great idea. It’s in the spirit of sharing value and a move away from zero sum concepts.
Great job.
Good article! Why wouldn’t we give link love? Only seems fair!
I love this I have never really understood the follow/no follow mentality.
I am on ehow trying to write articles for a few extra dollars and every thing is nofollow.
The RSS feeds even disappeared with the new changes. They have other great things going like ability to raise in search rank easily.
WIth this blog post now thought I undersand the possibly WHY of that reasoning. AND I had no clue that my blogger blogpost was likely a no-follow. I thin I am ready to move to my own domain… and your blog post would be the final reason of why I should.
I have commented on your blogs sincd I found you on twitter and really appreciate this opportunity to particpate in teh experiment.
ONE QUESTION: could you write blog on which url link to use? Example on Ehow I have the profile page and an article list. Which is more effective or should I use my twitwall instead ?
ALRADY
http://twitwall.com/view/?who=alrady40
Hey Jim, I think you should read my blog posts on dofollows & commentluv. It gets kinda technical about the effects of these. I’m a very small blog and I had been offering it but it seems it doesn’t do any good for anyone.
It seems I’m just leaking out what little link juice I got, to the point where the google bots ignore me, ergo all those lovely REAL dofollow links I have are not getting indexed. And of course humans can follow the links anyway.
So maybe a better strategy would be to turn them off for a while and get a little more google action for my blog. Dofollows is a nice idea but when it ends up hurting you and helping no one, NO BRAINER!
Thanks,
I will also offer a Do Follow from now on!
Harro
I completely agree Jim. You have to practice what you preach and using do-follow is the way to go.
Do you know what the default is on most blogging software systems?
Ryan
techcook.com
Jim, I can’t thank you enough for this information and sharing your research on it. It makes what was confusing so much clearer.
[...] 2.0 sites also often appear very high in the search engine results pages, enhancing even further Link love, Google and spammers – jimsmarketingblog.com 12/19/2008 The results are in and I can now let you know what’s happened [...]
Thanks, Jim…as I’m learning how to do this correctly, I’d like to thank you for your timely advice!!
I was totally unaware of this option!
My blog software do use nofollow for generating links, and I’ll change it anytime soon.
doing the do-follow Jim
Interesting stuff, Jim – cleared up a few things about ‘no-follow” and “do-follow” I was curious about.
Props to “Link Love”.
Have a great weekend!
Fantastic results! I am going to implement the do-follow also.
great stuff Jim. Had absolutely no idea. Happy Holidays.
You go Jim – be the “do-follow” evangelist!
If people want to focus on commenting on blogs that do allow follows, try Comment Kahuna by Jason Potash.
Some great comments here.
It’s also brilliant that I recognise so many of the names too.
Thank you all!!!!
Jim,
Thanks again for another enlightening post.
My blog was set up for me as part of a mentoring program without any real f/u support.
I am delighted to be learning these strategies now so that I can optimize my blog as needed in ’09.
I am loving your experiments and the amazing atmosphere for community building and learning that you facilitate here in your blog.
Happy Holidays!
This is pretty awesome to see such a response from one brief post. It looks like you have influenced allot of people today. Keep up the good work. I will be following you on twitter.
I am a new blog too in London i get > of 60/day without do follow after only one month of blogging not sure how do follow works really
I have the option to NoFollow or Do Follow on a per comment basis.
I have ran Do Follow for the 2 years that my blog has been up. Due to a recent upgrade some of the links went to No Follow but, I think I have them fixed now.
I do not have great page rank but, that is only due to the fact that I am an SEO Idiot. LOL!I am getting better so, my searches coming in are going up!
I do not think that having Do Follow links has hurt me in any way.
I get almost no spam, like you it is picked up & deleted by my spam filter. I do however run moderated comments just for the people that try to post adverts.
I have no problem giving a Do Follow link if someone is willing to post comments that add value.
I also know several other bloggers that we all give Do Follow & post at each others blog if an article interest us.
Thanks for the post.
I would like to allow the ‘do-follow’ also but am unsure of how to set that up. Can you provide that info or give us a link on how we can do that ourselves?
I did not know what the do-follow meant. Great post. How do I add it to my blog?
As everyone else said, thanks for the explanation, and as a subject it certainly got us all commenting – 76 precede me!
But do we seriously have to go round thinking about where we do or do not comment just for follows?
I think NO! I only comment where I am keen to say something about the topic – I read a growing selection of blogs about marketing & social media & networking – my “niche” is the intersection of all three where they can be of benefit to businesses who are keen to adjust their approach to commerce to suit the New World Order! But I’ll be blowed if I am going to pay heed to whether it has a no-follow policy (imposed or otherwise) – I comment because I want to.
That does NOT mean I don’t appreciate what you are doing for us Jim – thanks again!
As always, “keep em coming!”
Howard,
Thanks for the comment.
I don’t think anyone should offer do-follow links just to get more comments. It’s not about that.
It’s about showing the people who DO comment, that you appreciate their comment.
When someone comments on my blog, they add to the conversation. I believe this deserves to be rewarded.
Jim,
I do comment on posts when invited. If I can gift a thought,different perspective, acknowledgment or praise for someone’s work or passion that is a pay it forward gift in my mind.
Now to figure out the ‘do-follow’ for my blog.
Thanks for the eye’s open Jim!
Hi, I can only agree with the rest of the comments. Do follow is a great feature.
Personally i take just a little more time to comment when I know it is a dofollow blog. Othervise I offend just think about commenting.
As I see it, you get a lot of value from people taking the time to comment, and a little hassle from people seeking out dofollow blogs
Hi Jim,
Great read! While I knew the very basics of “do follow” and “no follow” who would have thought that over 99% of blogs do not offer “Link Love.”
Am I understanding this correctly, if a blog offers you the ability to comment and insert your url they’re offering “do follow”? Or can they you comment with a url and it be a “no follow”?
Thanks for the insight and for continuing to show your “link love” and BTW love the “follow me on twitter” feature.
Always Grateful,
Andrea
Andrea,
No – almost every blog is automatically set to no-follow.
Even when you can leave a link, the blog tells Google & Co NOT to follow the link to your site.
I find it selfish and totally against what MOST blogs advocate; a sense of community!
ok now you have me researching more on “do follow” . . .
I’m reading that WP auto sets “no follow” and you can’t change that w/o a plugin. Is that true? If so what would you recommend. If not, how would I check and change it to “do follow” if not already set as such.
Always Grateful,
Andrea
Andrea,
With a WordPress blog you can quickly change to do-follow; using a plug-in.
The plugin used on THIS blog is Called; “NoFollow Free.”
You can get it (and learn more about do-follow links) from http://www.michelem.org/wordpress-plugin-nofollow-free/
Hope this helps.
Jim,
Very informative post. One of my big issues is dealing with link development. Your post was very helpful, particularly with paying more attention to my own blogs policy with respect to no-follow vs. do-follow. Thanks again.
Thanks! Do follow for comments in blogs is getting more important now that directory listings seem to be less important.
Interesting.
I wasn’t familiar with do follow and no follow links but this was a wealth on info. Thanks!
Hi Jim, I met you on Twitter. My only blog is on AR, I believe they have no follow links, but I get good SERP from my blog. Realizing that I need to get out more and not just read AR blogs – the no follow issue had not occurred to me. Yes I think it is important and thanks for sharing.
Thanks for posting the plugin Jim. I’ll install it on my blog as soon as I’m finished with my latest post.
Interesting, so regular readers get favoured over one hit wanders – making for more of a built community than just ego surfing.
Jim,
Interesting post. I’m a new reader, but this was an interesting introduction into this whole comment thing. I think that your idea of building a community by offering incentive is smart, and I’m excited to stick around and see how this all plays out.
I popped over here from Twitter just for the heck of it. And I actually enjoyed what I read. This is especially good. I will have to read the comments to see if you’ve already answered the question “How do I make sure I am do follow as opposed to don’t?”
Jim,
You are the best example of “It’s better to give than to receive” and “You only keep what you give away!” that I have ever seen. It is such a pleasure to know you and to be one of your associates!
ClaudiaBroome
…interesting experiment, but don’t forget google’s own censorship spiders ;
Thanks for the information regarding the plugin “NoFollow Free.” Will definitely have to download it and test it out.
[...] First, for those blogs that allow the links to be followed by search engines, you get credit for links back to your site. This is actually a complicated topic, and I encourage you to learn more over at Jim’s Marketing Blog. [...]
I couldn’t agree more. The web is based on linking and it is terrible that 99.9% of sites no-follow links. Everyone wants PR but no one is willing to give PR. Except for our paid listing links, all of our links are also do-follow for that reason. Spam is bad enough but we can’t let the spammers kill the heart of the web, which is linking. Way to go!
I’m really surprised about your “experiment”. I always thought that “do-follow” links were something prohibited if you were trying to promote your site. Thanks for the explanation
So glad to hear that you suffered no ill effects. I have work to do on my blog and that includes fixing the link and updating to the newest version. Ah well, life without work? hmmmm, guess not.
Absolutely, I think all blogs should be ‘dofollow’ – unfortunately, I’ve had to turn all comments off right now to deal with a spam issue, but my blog will still be ‘dofollow’ when my spam issue is fixed.
After discovering your blog and subscribing to the feed I received a number of your recent post–this being the last one. Thank you for your most unique and insightful marketing information. I look forward to following your post from here on…
I agree that many blogs should be do follow, I do think that the owner should have the option to exercise his/her discretion. I could understand a bible thumping blog to have certain reservations regarding pro-life links and would prefer for them to have the option to make the links don’t follow rather than suppressing the freedom of expression the comments author.
I appreciate your blog and twitter posts…I have visited and commented a few times and greatly appreciate the link love…though not sure your viewers are the type who read parenting blogs…either way it’s always nice to know that google is recognizing my link somewhere else since I have taken the time to comment. I don’t comment on blogs very often, unless it is something I really feel inclined to discuss…I am using Disqus on my blog, along with bloggers comment script with do-follow on. I would love to see more comments on my posts, rather than on giveaways only…any tips?
I think the link love concept is great! I can’t wait to see what value it adds to my blog. I’m relatively new at blogging and learning new things daily. I’ll be keeping an eye on my stats!
Thanks, I’m very happy about joining this experiment.
Hi Jim,
I agree that do-follow links on the way to go. There are many ways to grow your readership on a blog, but developing a relationship with your readers has to be number one. Spreading the link love is a great way to do that. I use Comment Luv on my blog to provide do follow link love to my readers!
Thanks, Jim for another great post!
I think it should be up to a blog owner to decide whether they want DoFollow links or not. Some sites are trying to be a business and make money. Having DoFollow links that promote everyone and their brother may not be good for such websites/blogs. For a site that is meant to be social or a social commentary then it makes sense to have DoFollow links.
What if the comment pointing to a penalized site by google, what is the impact to your blog ?
Great article. Nice blog. Keep it coming. Mike
Thank you for maintaining your blog as dofollow, Jim. I’m still new to the blogosphere and when I came across this issue I decided early on to make my own blog dofollow too. However I’ve been getting second thoughts lately even though you say that you got no punishment from google. But other blogs claim they did. I guess the fine line is between outbound and inbound links?
DT,
Thanks for the comment.
It’s impossible for me to say if I have or have not been penalised by Google for offering dofollow links. Truth is, I have no idea how much more traffic Google would be giving me without it. All I can say for certain is that the level of traffic I get has continued to increase. It seems the primary issue with dofollow links, is when someone leaves a comment on the blog, which links to a page that Google considers spam or inappropriate. Linking to ‘bad sites’ is considered by many to be bad for SEO.
Wow ! I’m impress by the amount of comment you are getting because of the do-follow links. I took your advise as well and set my blog to do follow, hopping to increase my blog comment as well
You taught me something new about linking on my blogs.
Thank you
Sincerely,
Shawonne
http://4800dollarlink. com
Again, great stuff Jim. Thanks.
hi jim,
thanks for this great articles.ME myself would like to go for ‘dofollow’ in my blog setting but i am afraid (mine just score PR 2) i have to read more and more information 9and absolute more advise) about this matter.
It just ‘something’ that we would to like to ‘give back’ to our communities..and i hope soon i will follow your step.
by the way Jim,
could you give me some advise if i should go for ‘dofollow’ in my blog setting?
Thanks :p
The decision has to be yours. Like many areas of SEO, there is no definitave answer as to how much ‘damage’ offering dofollow does to a blog. This blog has over 13,000 inbound links, yet has a page rank of just 4.
My tech new blog has only a few thousand inbound links, does not offer dofollow and gets around 800% more search traffic as this one.
mean that your tech blog (nofollow) getting better traffic compare to your ‘dofollow’ blog?
its all about content, right?
It ‘should’ be all about content.
The tech news blog is obviously going to get more search traffic, because the topics are in the news.
I do wonder though, how much of the extra traffic is because of the nofollow / dofollow.
to be frankly, i don’t really care how much extra traffic from this do/no follow setting.
Its like Google threaten us to do what we want to do at first place.Most of my readers have blogs PR below than 1 but that not mean their are rubbish.
i would like to give something back but as much as i afraid of being penalize by Google.
I comment like crazy just for the fun of it. However… Getting a link is certainly a bonus. I have my own list that I track in Google reader. If I see a great post in that feed, reading it will usually get priority over reading other blog posts that have nofollow installed.
That’s a pretty good argument for me and others NOT offering link love. We don’t do it to encourage comments (well I don’t) We do it to help people, who value our blogs. Not those, who only use it for their own gain.
Jim,
Great advice, I use do-follow and sometimes get spam… but hardly ever. It’s also a great way to say thank you for readers and commenters.
Cheers,
Mark
Hi, Jim
Thanks for your article. I am searching some dofollow blogs and try to work with my website, as you said, seems like that 99% blogs are doing nofollow. if you can give a list of some dofollow blogs , it will really help us.
The problem with offering dofollow, is that people put you on lists and spammers use those lists.
This means there’s links from your blog, which point to some ‘very bad neighbourhoods.’
Many believe this is penalised by Google. I am in the process of a marketing experiment and will post more in 2 weeks, when the experiment is finished.
I think do follow blogs work better because the user generated content outweighs the link juice you loose and also you can choose which ones to publish or not any way. If they add value in content then it makes sense to reward you commentors with a link
I too notice that by making sure my blog’s comments are set to do follow, I’ll get a lot more conversation. True, there’s still a lot of spam to weed through, but I think in the end I get more than I would have with no follow attribute there.
With a new product and a new website, the newbie marketer is interested in everything you have to say. Thank you for sharing your experience with us.