Get Your Link Love Here – We LOVE Visitors Who Drop RELATED Links in Our Posts

There is so much concern about commenting in blogs that we want to declare our position:

WE LOVE COMMENTS and ENCOURAGE Relevant Link Dropping

• If you have something to say – pro or con – please say it.
• We hope you WILL leave related links. If you know of several great related articles feel free to include links to all of them. If you have written posts related to any existing posts here please DO add your related links to those posts.
• Be sure to enter the main URL of your blog or the URL of a particular blog post so it will automatically be linked.
• If you want to add a SHORT slogan that lets readers of your comments know what your site offers go ahead. Most people DO know the difference between discreetly reminding readers what they do and posting an advertisement. We trust that most of our visitors will know the difference.
• All comments are DoFollow. We write for real readers and they follow links.
• We often move the best links left in comments up into the Additional Resources sections found under most posts here.
• What is relevant? Comments pertaining to that particular post or questions related to that subject. They CAN be about your site as long as they’re also relevant to the post.

Yes, we know that some may take advantage – but most won’t. (We know how to use the delete comment function in WordPress.)  Search Engine World said it best,

“If a blogger moderates comments, there is no need for a NoFollow attribute. “Everyone who passes a human inspection should get the link love.”

Won’t SPAM increase? Apparently not – at least in the short term. Jim’s Marketing Blog saw no increase when they started their DoFollow Internet Marketing Experiment. Even if we do, deleting it is a small price to pay for increasing comments.

Many Blogs seem to be confused about whether they want comments or not. Some ban signatures, others insist on “real names” (as though they could prove whether they were actually real or not!), and many are paranoid about link dropping.

They may not realize they’re confused, but any time you put an obstacle in the path of someone who wants to leave a comment you ARE discouraging comments. You may wish to reconsider that. Here are some of the ways bloggers run off visitors who might otherwise comment:

• Forcing them to register or log-in – to anything – before they can leave a comment with a link.
• Insisting they use their real name – there are good reasons some avoid doing so.
• Not allowing them to use their online personas or pseudonyms (ours are Internet Strategist and GrowMap)

Many blogs comment policies confuse me. For example:

“Please use your real name or a handle that’s not driven by trying to gain SEO / Google Juice from my blog. If you put in a “name” designed for SEO purposes, I will edit it. I support the DoFollow movement, but this is also a community, and comments are meant to inspire discussion, not gain link love. Thank you!”

How do I know if my “handle” (GrowMap or Internet Strategist) will be viewed as “designed for SEO purposes”? Isn’t the purpose of DoFollow Link Love?

A more recent issue has been caused because “someone” decided that everyone who blogs should stop using Avatars and handles and start using their real picture and their real name.  We disagree with that idea because of privacy concerns and safety issues and refrain from commenting in blogs that require it.

We agree with the position stated by Blog Herald on Who Are You When You Comment in a Blog:

“When the blogger becomes synonymous with their blog, they don’t always speak for themselves, the private person, but often they speak with the reputation of their blog. Their name becomes closely knit with their blog and its content. It becomes who they are.”

Our position is that great Avatars are more eye-catching than another head shot and given the privacy issues, whether or not to use your real name is a decision that each person must make.

We have no such confusion. We want your real comments and will promptly delete SPAM comments so you won’t waste your time reading them.

We highly recommend reading 7 Ways To Shoot Your Feet Commenting in Other Blogs for some good tips on how not to upset blog owners when commenting. When visiting other blogs watch for comment policies so you won’t be asking Why Do So Many People Have a Problem with Self-Promotion?

SHOULD YOU GO DOFOLLOW?

• Link Generously: You WILL Reap What You Sow
• Robert Scoble: I was Wrong About NoFollow
• Hey Google Follow Me: Giving More Link Love
• Andy Beard’s Ultimate List of Do Follow Plugins
• The NoFollow Versus DoFollow Debate
• SearchEngineJournal: 13 Reasons NoFollow Tags Suck
• Randa Clay The I Follow Movement
• DoFollow or NoFollow That is the Question – see all the other posts linked here
• GrayWolf: Google’s Policies on No Follow and Reviews is Hypocritical and Wrong
• Really Smart Guy: Blogging Tip: Turn Off NoFollow in Your Comments
• More People Spread Link Love with Do Follow
• Women Don’t Like NoFollow Tags
• Join the DoFollow Revolution
• My Tech Blog is a DoFollow Blog From Now Onward; Increase Your Backlinks and Popularity
• Direct Sales Web Marketing Blog: We Will Stay DoFollow, But Lucias Linky Love is Installed

DOFOLLOW BLOG DIRECTORIES:

• Do Follow List of Lists by niche including the Do Follow SEO Internet Marketing List
• Do Follow Blog Directory – Register your DoFollow blog free (The process presents a sales page.)
• Do Follow Forums List – 149 verified Do Follow Forums broken up into 11 categories.

BLOG SPAMMERS TO WATCH FOR:

Whether you’re using Do Follow or not, there is no shortage of creative Blog Spammers. Here are some we’ve marked as SPAM. We record them here so that any blogger searching on part of their message will find our they ARE SPAM.  We recommend you ALWAYS check the links and search for the text as a way to determine when something that looks fine is actually SPAM.

1. Nice try but we didn’t start blogging yesterday and we know what a parked domain is. And you mean every day, not everyday. (Included this just in case they have another version.)

Andy @ Do Follow 001 Says:

It’s great that you are a part of the DoFollow community

This is divided between two camps, those that don’t broadcast their dofollow status and just keep it a secret for the their regular commentators, and those, like yourselves, who do let the world know about it.

It takes a little longer to review the submitted comments, but as long as you have the right anti-spam software it shouldn’t take too much time everyday.

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Gail Gardner

Small Business Marketing Strategist at GrowMap

Gail Gardner is the founder of GrowMap.com. She is a Small Business Marketing Strategist who mentors small businesses, bloggers, and freelancers. After 23 years in the field with IBM and 5.5 years managing AdWords accounts, her focus shifted to small business marketing strategy. GrowMap.com is listed by Cision as a Top 100 Site for Marketers and has received three Small Business Influencer Awards from Small Business Trends. Named by D&B a Top 50 SMB Influencer on Twitter, you can follow Gail @GrowMap and on LinkedIn.

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