DISQUS

gail konop baker · 1 year ago

Love this idea, Jim! Also finding a lot of great marketing info on you site. Thank you! Gail

Karalyn Eckerle · 1 year ago

Jim: I think it's a remarkable idea and a good one. Our willingness to help each other directly relates to the success we ourselves experience. I firmly believe that. Your ideas are exceptional and I'm glad I found your blog. I've already learned a lot from your posts and look forward to learning more.

eric tan · 1 year ago

Thank you for the "DO-FOLLOW" Link! Got your tweet @FeedingTheCrave

nicolaquinn · 1 year ago

Jim,

I think that is very generous of you.

What goes around, comes around, so good luck to you my new friend!

Nicola

rthornton · 1 year ago

I'm already following you on Twitter (which I highly recommend to others), and have been monitoring your no-follow decision/discussion. Will be curious to see what comes of it in the coming days & weeks.

Thanks for your willingness to give before you receive. If there's anything I can do to help you out, please let me know. I'm @rthornton on Twitter.

Cheers!

Andy Calloway · 1 year ago

Let me be the first to congratulate you on your brave move! if nothing else, this will be an interesting experiment, keep us informed on how your rankings are affected, if at all.

Toma Bonciu · 1 year ago

Hi,

I also removed the nofollow of links a while ago tot ry and get more people to comment but after 5 posts. Seeing what you do I start to think to also lower that number to 1 comment. I have received e-mails and comments in which people that did not read that I offer dofollow after 5 comments said bad things to me. :)

Thank you for what you do !

Amy · 1 year ago

Great site, Jim! I've enjoyed your plethora of marketing knowledge. Nice work!

Andy Brudtkuhl · 1 year ago

Great idea Jim! If it works I'll definitely be adopting this on my sites...

Donald Kelly · 1 year ago

50p that this post will recieve 200 times the normal amount of comments. :P

Anyway, I think this is a cool idea, I usually leave the links on my blog as "Do-Follow" anyway (partially because I'm too lazy to change it.)

-DAK (@DonaldKelly_)

Zipporah Sandler · 1 year ago

Very good karma (to say the least). I'm just an online-infant and am learning a lot from your site. Thank you.

TekGems · 1 year ago

I'm honored to be the first one to comment. :) nofollow meta tag definitely has its place, but I do appreciate the PR benefit. I haven't kept up with SEO, but last time I checked, there is no dilution of PageRank by linking out. If your method of getting traffic to your site does not involve search engines then it may not matter that much. One of these days, I've love to build traffic from alternative sources other than Google. Currently Google is at 66% and I find that to be very scary.

Gail Sideman · 1 year ago

I think this is a win-win for everybody. Incidentally, I think so much of Jim's insight that I'm offering some to my website's readers (complete site update to come next week).

Thanks for the opportunity to share!

Jonathan Thomas · 1 year ago

Excellent idea!

Great way to build a community.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

So, that's 14 comments (in just over a minute) all agreeing that's it's at least worth a try.

I also like that some of you are going to watch what happens here, and if it works use it on your own blog - That's fantastic!

Let's see how long before the spam arrives!

Thanks :)

Ross "The Pit Boss" · 1 year ago

Hi Jim,
Well I'm about to "follow your lead" here (sorry for the pun!) and set up my blog/site as a do-follow as well. I'm not worried about getting spammed, as I'm using Wordpress and have Akismet set up to block any spammers. I see it as you do. Yet another way to drive some traffic. ;-)

Kathy Broniecki · 1 year ago

Jim - I follow you on twitter and find you to be a valuable resource. Thanks!

Heather (How to be a Woman..?) · 1 year ago

Thanks so much for the tip!

I use a theme on my Wordpress blog. I don't know html so I have no idea whether or not the links are nofollow. If they are, I assure you it's due to ignorance.

Michael Buccilli · 1 year ago

Thank you for your insightful Blog; and for your efforts to help as many of us writers as you can - it is sincerely appreciated.

Linda Ld Jacobson, APR · 1 year ago

Genius!

greenfee · 1 year ago

Obviously, being from Leeds I know Yorkshire folk aren't tight Jim but you're spreading the word globally! Many thanks :-)
I'm delighted that marketing on the internet is finally waking up to the fact that rather than offline businesses adopting online practices it should be the other way round.
Internet marketing (IM) must merge with the professional marketing approach of more traditional business.
It's all about long term relationships and communication.

Justin King · 1 year ago

Great idea, Jim. And thank you for the option. I enjoy reading you posts.

PhD in Parenting · 1 year ago

That's awesome Jim! Do you know if there is any way to change that on Wordpress.com? I don't think I have the option to give that sort of "love" to my commentors now. I do try to pay them back in other ways though!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

I've just read the last batch of comments here and cannot believe the amount of support you are giving me.

Let's hope this works!

THANK YOU!

alamodestuff · 1 year ago

I recently began following you on Twitter and have already found your information very useful. Thanks for your posts!

Esteban Kolsky · 1 year ago

here is the thing. i see what you do as very successful experiments in marketing. i see no harm of trying just about everything you can come up with.

if it works, more of us will do it and the marketing world will change - for the better!

thanks for taking the risks, so we can all learn what works best.

esteban

Pat Montgomery · 1 year ago

Good information. Thanks for all of your advice.

Bette Creek · 1 year ago

I think that is a great idea Jim! Thanks!! I think when you do good things for others, it will somehow or someway be recipricated.

MariAnne · 1 year ago

Thanks for the help!

Cynthia Powell, Chicks & C · 1 year ago

I admire your "COURAGE" to do what you think is RIGHT even if it might cost you something. We need more people to live their LIVES like this. DO WHAT IS RIGHT!!! NOT WHAT IS EASY.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

I just saw someone on Twitter asking THEIR followers to come here and get involved.

That's fantastic!

Thanks for all the comments thus far. (had around 30 in the last 20 minutes)

Jorge Cunha · 1 year ago

Very nice to find your blog your ideas are most welcome.
Thank for sharing

Gerry Corbett · 1 year ago

What a great idea. It is open, honest, reflects good governance and transparency and a great marketing tactic. Congratulations!

Cliff Chambers · 1 year ago

This is an excellent idea.

Mark Carlson · 1 year ago

Ya know what? This is exactly what I have come to expect from Jim Connoly!

Real marketing - treating people like people and not just traffic or clicks.

I sooo hope this catches on man.

Mark

@reetaluthra · 1 year ago

Jim, you are an inspiration - I'm planning a site re-do and will certainly see how to set my blog to do follow.

Iris Carter · 1 year ago

The concept and generosity sound great but I'm not sure I "follow" the technical aspects. If I go to someone's blog, read it, like it and leave a comment with my url how is that different than what I am doing here? I am so technically challenged ... but thanks for the info!

juliewalraven · 1 year ago

Jim, in the little time I have been following you, I have found you to be generous, creative, and honest. Those are the kinds of people I prefer to associate with and do business with. Thanks for setting an excellent example. Your Twitter comments about your 3 year old were what made me pay attention. A dad who cares enough to share about his kids always gets my vote!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Iris,

Good question. If you leave a comment here - Google and all the other search engines will follow the link to your site and that helps improve YOUR search engine optimization.

If you leave a comment on a no-follow blog, the link is NOT followed, so you get far less benefit (In seo terms).

Judy Jackson · 1 year ago

Thanks, Jim. Very interesting. I can't imagine the traffic you are going to get.

@richtucker · 1 year ago

Now I just ahve to figure out how to make the links on my blog 'do follow' Links. Great Post!

Iris Carter · 1 year ago

Thanks Jim! Makes sense now - Is there anything we can do from our own blogs to create following for others? I suppose not unless it's our own website? Good info, as always!

Sales Training - Skip Anderson · 1 year ago

Great! I'm a big fan of dofollow. I like to comment on blogs relating to business, marketing, and sales, but because of limited time, I have to often limit my participation to dofollow comments.

martin canchola · 1 year ago

well...i must say kudos!!! to follow or not to follow that is the question? i say have a follow link but dont let spammers take over your site! give relevant and useful content so that people will be compelled to click on you name and check out your site...cuz if they luv your comment you site must be marvelous....not all the time..but it's worth a lookie loi!!!!!!

Sandy Aichner · 1 year ago

I am learning so much from your posts. They are very enjoyable to read. met you on Twitter. Thanks for the great advice and good luck with the SEO!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

To Rich and ALL the others who have said you are going to make the links on YOUR blog 'do-follow' - PLEASE remember this could be really risky.

Watch what happens here and if it works, give it a go. Let me make the mistake for you!

Virginia · 1 year ago

Just stopping by to send some love your way! Thanks for the shout out yesterday, we added 53 new Twitter followers from your endorsement. This is going to make our rollout of our "next big thing" even Bigger! Cheers for following through on your promise and for the personal approach you bring. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Tia · 1 year ago

Hey Jim! Thanks for the link on twitter. I had no idea one could have unfollow settings.. lol. It sounds like a fantastic premise, I would love to see how it works out for you and everyone else (incl me :) Tweet ya later, Tia

Robert Gebbie · 1 year ago

Jim;
thank you for both the information and the opportunity. Yours is one blog I follow and read regularly, always find good advise and ideas.

Thanks again

Graham Castle · 1 year ago

So, you might not call us your Rock Stars, but at least you think enough of us to link to our sites. You deserve this to work for all the right reasons.

Lorraine · 1 year ago

Thanks! Let's give it a try :)

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

The comments here are amazing, thanks for all your feedback and support.

I promise to keep you all up-to-date on how it's developing.

Byron Van Arsdale · 1 year ago

Jim:
New to your blog and got your post via twitter @headset.

Love the idea and focus on attraction!

Perhaps your next blog post ought to be titled:
Lead, no follow, or get out of the way!

Dani · 1 year ago

*facepalm* Oh yeah - that must be why my personal blog has been attracting scads of spammers lately! It's been dofollow for a while, and I assumed that they had just noticed it was neglected or something... didn't even think about the possibility that they had noticed it was dofollow! Doh. Well, I'll just keep deleting them!

Rob · 1 year ago

I feel the same way, but I have limited the love. What I have done is made it so the first three comments get the love (I value immediate feedback), and then the rest are nofollow to keep my posts PR.

Char (Online Tutor/Academic Me · 1 year ago

so what was your final conclusion about Link-Luv~ as I don't see it here I am wondering if I should be swapping plugins

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Char,
My final conclusion?

Give it a while and lets see what happens. It's only been 'do-follow' for about an hour and 30 minutes!

Tim Jahn · 1 year ago

Great idea Jim...and I wouldn't worry about Google. People will flock to great things with or without Google.

Bilal Jaffery · 1 year ago

Wow, you have my respect for your decision. Props!

MegFullenkamp · 1 year ago

I just began following you on twitter (I am @MegFullenkamp) and I had no idea that blogs weren't followed. This really was valuable information.

Thanks so much!

beth · 1 year ago

fabulous idea, Jim - hope you have NO spammers. I've learned from your blog every time I read it! :) b

Nerissa Marbury · 1 year ago

I look forward to learning from your experiment. Thank you for explaining the 'do follow' and 'not follow' to Iris as it also helped me. The other question is how can you tell if a site is 'do follow or not'?

Ross "The Pit Boss" · 1 year ago

Ok! Thanks to your post here Jim, I went and found this great plug-in for my Wordpress stand-a-lone blog: http://www.michelem.org/wordpress-plugin-nofoll... It's a very good plug-in with lots of features. I'll be making a post about it on my blog as well. Thanks again for getting this started. I figure the more do-follow blogs we can get going and possibly linked up together, the better all of our rankings should be. ;-)

Ross

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

So many great comments from so many great people.

Thank you!

SeanDB · 1 year ago

Hi Jim,

Great Idea! I follow you on twitter @seandb1

I'm sure your decision will be a sucessful one! As for spam, it will be intersting to hear how much you get from the Do- Follow. My Blog is also Do- follow and I did receive 4 spam comments that made no sense at all and immeadiately blocked them. Since then, none at all. My Blog is only about a month old, so still creeping up the rankings though and not as popular as yours ;-)

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

There's a LOT of Twitter users here - Fantastic!

Troy Rutter · 1 year ago

Jim,

New to your blog after your twitter follow. Will definitely keep it in my favorites and view the feed regularly. Thanks!

Troy Rutter

Jennifer N. Weil · 1 year ago

I learned something by reading your blog today. I had no idea about the no-follow links. I'd never heard of it before. Thank you for enlightening me, and for making what I think is a good choice!

Corey Freeman · 1 year ago

I see you went with the dofollow idea. Very nice :) Hopefully you won't attract too much spam but I know a lot of regulars appreciate it.

Shonika Proctor, Teen Biz Coac · 1 year ago

I follow you on Twitter and feel that you consistently provide relevant content and information of value.

I think it is a genius idea. If you have that level of understanding about how it all works...it just affirms why you are considered the expert.

@teenbizcoach
http://www.teenentrepreneurblog.com

amyz5 · 1 year ago

nice jim. kind of like pay it forward of the blogosphere. who will play you in the movie?

Jessica (from It's my life...) · 1 year ago

Very classy of you! Thanks for doing is and teaching everyone about the difference!

websinthe · 1 year ago

I'm using blogger, does it automatically create no-follow links or otherwise?

Either way I applaud your methods and thankfully I've got IntenseDebate installed on my blog to stop spam.

Deliriousgirl · 1 year ago

Brilliant concept.

I just wanna say that I read your ideas every day.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Well, as you can see from the 60+ posts in the past 2 hours; 100% of people WANT this to work.

It would be great to have more blogs rewarding the people who comment.

The people who comment here add MASSIVELY to the value of this blog. I sincerely hope I can make this work and help all of you attract more targeted visitors to YOUR blogs and sites.

Russ from Spill · 1 year ago

This is an awesome idea. One of the main purposes of social media marketing is to help those who help you, although most are in the game for themselves. Keep up the innovative ideas!

Dominick · 1 year ago

Hey Jim - Great Idea. My question is, how do you make links in your comments follow as opposed to no follow?

olivier Blanchard · 1 year ago

Every passing day, I grow increasingly convinced that you are an evil genius. (Except you aren't truly evil since you somehow manage to do cool stuff for other people.)

You're still way too smart not to be at least a little bit evil though. I'm keeping my eye on you.

Brilliant on so many levels, I don't even know what to say.

Brad C · 1 year ago

I think it's a great idea. like a lot of the folks mentioned above the main concern is with spam comments. If you have time to stay on top of it then I think it's a great idea.

Jeff Cole · 1 year ago

Thanks for doing this. For those who are just starting out, your help is invaluable. I learn a lot by reading your blog.

By the way, this is truly a nice thing to do.

Thanks againl

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

A few people have asked how to make the links on YOUR blog 'do-follow'.

It's done using plugins. Now, depending on which type of blog you have; blogger, wordpress, typepad etc - you will need to the appropriate plugin.

The plugin I'm using here, is called NoFollowFree for WordPress.

Thanks to Mark White (@blogcoach on Twitter) for installing it for me!

Sophie @ Century Finds · 1 year ago

Great idea Jim. I have been reading your blog only a few weeks... previous to that I had checked out other marketing blogs but always clicked away.
Your freely given advice and ideas like this one keep me coming back. I wish you every success!

Heidi · 1 year ago

Cool idea, Jim. I think I've seen about three or four people in the last week giving away free link love. I wonder if it's going to become a new trend. It'll be interesting to see how it progresses. Thanks for the opportunity to develop my page ranking, I do appreciate it!

Steve Woodruff · 1 year ago

I hope it doesn't backfire on the SPAM front, but just leads to better readership. Keep us posted!

The Computer Lady · 1 year ago

Jim,

I didn't realize that DoFollow sites were hurt in Google search engine rankings. Could you explain more about that?

kevinmhuff · 1 year ago

Jim, I've always been a believer in:

1) Do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, and

2) FUNCTION over FORM.

Congrats for absolutely NAILING it.

@kevinmhuff (Twitter)

Rob Taylor · 1 year ago

I bet you find that the publicity that you get from this public offering will outweigh any negative impact that your decision will have. I, for one, just found your blog through twitter because of this post. I have now added the rss to my very selective feed list. Keep it up!!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Rob,
I don't know about publicity, but the post has attracted a lot of comments.

It will be interesting to see if the increased number of comments continues - let's see.

Jacob Cass · 1 year ago

Nice one :) @justcreative

Robert · 1 year ago

By adding nofollow as a web "standard" Google effectively started stunting the web. Wikipedia is now a black hole of PR because of it. Spammer will find another way I have no doubt. But wasn't comment moderation supposed to stop that?

I added the "Dofollow" (really just the removal of the nofollow on blogger) bit to my blog a little while back. If someone has the decency to leave a comment it should be acknowledged.

iPhone Sync - Fatgadget · 1 year ago

Hi Jim

Thats a great idea, it would certainly encourage me and I am sure a lot more people to take the time to comment.

Alan Brookland · 1 year ago

Hi Jim,

Marketing info and web design tips in the same blog - it's not something which I'd ever thought that much about when commenting, but it's certainly a consideration.

It would be nice however if we could go back to the halcyon days before people worked out how to manipulate the Google rankings - finding the gold in the rough these days depends more on luck sadly.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Alan,
Web design tips? Where?

Milos · 1 year ago

Jim,

this move is very admirable. Thank you for sharing the info about "NoFollowFree" as I will enable it on my blog as well. It is all about sharing and helping others when you can and what better place to do it then online where your impact can be much greater and easily attainable in a blink of an eye.

I'm a new visitor to your blog, but after reading this and a few other posts I am sure to be coming back regularly.

Brandon · 1 year ago

Jim, I am new to this whole blogging world. So I don't completely follow everything that you wrote about. It sounds very interesting however, and just the fact that you seem to be offering something that is a good thing but could potentially be bad for you personally tells me that you have some integrity and really want to help people. I applaud that and look forward to following you now.

www.AuctionIntelliGence.com · 1 year ago

Thank you Jim for your generosity. Obviously, it will be rewarded by having a incredibly loyal readership.

Looking forward to learning more from you.

Regards, Tony

www.AuctionIntelliGence.com · 1 year ago

By the way Jim, how is this experiment going for you? Has the 'unthinkable' happened yet?

Regards, Tony

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Brandon,
Sometimes you have to take a measured risk, which is what I am doing with this experiment. Thanks.

Tony,
No, the spam has not started yet. It will take a while for the news to get out there. I will probably get a better idea over the next few weeks.

Kelli · 1 year ago

Jim, I always learn something new whenever I read your newsletter. Being relatively new to blogging, I did not know about the "no follow" rule.
Thanks for the learning. I will share with my Twitter friends the value of this blog.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Kelli,

Thanks for helping me help more people - that's what it's all about :)

Mark Harai · 1 year ago

You rock Jim!

You're an innovator, not a follower with lot's of battle scars only a seasoned professional can earn! Thanks for your valuable insight and contributions to my business and my life; I can clearly see why you are successful - and commend you for leading by example.

Kudos,

Mark Harai

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Mark,
That's extremely kind of you.

CJ Romberger · 1 year ago

Thanx for taking the time to share this information with all of us, and thanx for being such a great connector. I've only been following you for a little while, and I'm already thrilled I found you.

iGoByDoc · 1 year ago

Jim,

Very interesting what you are doing here.

I really do like all the information you put out there as well as your passion for helping others. It is a very wonderful thing to see someone do as most would take the information and just use it as bait to get you to buy a product or service.

Thanks for being you,

Doc

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Doc,
This blog actually generates a lot more business for me than you might think!

People hire me because they learn about the quality of my work, through the 'value' I give away for fee. They can see that this blog is getting a crazy amount of traffic. For example, this post has already got well over 100 comments and its not 24 hours old!

I have never spent a penny advertising the blog and there's no link exchanges - This blog is succeeding because I understand how marketing works - NOT 'internet marketing' - But actual, real world Marketing!

When business owners see the amazing results I have managed for free, with this 3 month old blog, they hire me to help them do the same for them and their business.

Simple - and no need to hard sell anything to anyone!

Great comment Doc!

Bonnie · 1 year ago

Thank you Jim! Finally someone has explained no-follow links in a simple straight forward way.

uggamugga.com · 1 year ago

A surefire way to boost your comment activity and loyalty all at once. What's not to like?

Mark White - BBB · 1 year ago

Good to see that so many people appreciate the steps that you have taken here, Jim. Something that we can all learn from!

Keli Whidden · 1 year ago

Wow, and thank you. I appreciate learning everything I can about SEO etc., and getting a link in return for that learning...well, Bonus!
It seems like following your gut has worked...re no spammers.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Bonnie,

Glad you found the explanation useful. Keep in touch!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Mark,

High praise indeed, coming from the man behind one of MY fave blogs; www.betterbusinessblogging.com

Much appreciated!

Melissa Blair - Cultivating Sa · 1 year ago

This is exactly why I continue to read your blog and follow you on Twitter. Keep up the good work. You set yourself apart from the rest with your willingness to help.

Magda Byrne · 1 year ago

OMG, I had no idea that there was such a thing as a "no follow" rule. I am still pretty new at this. I have two blogs hosted by Wordpress and always thought that the comments made it easy to get to other websites. Thank you for the great information as always and for being so generous with your knowledge!

jennifer dlugozima · 1 year ago

Jim,
Thanks for the link, and thinking of others.

Take care,
Jennifer

Adriel Michaud · 1 year ago

You've found a way to tap the lurkers. Caught us with honey!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Keli,
It's still to early to see what's going to happen with spam. Should have a better idea over the coming days / weeks.

Melissa,
That's very kind of you.

Magda,
Thanks.

Jennifer,
You are most welcome!

Adriel,
Got catch more with honey, than with vinegar :)

Thanks for all the comments

Rob McGuire · 1 year ago

I'll be following your future posts to see the outcome of this.

Mark South · 1 year ago

Hi Jim,

I like what you are doing, I will continue following you on twitter to hear the results of your test.

If it would be helpful to you, IF you would add a category for Non-profit or fundraising I would be delighted to add some very high quality content on there for you

Keep on keeping on

Mark

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Rob,
Thanks! So far, I have only had a few people abuse it; linking to either spam or reposting over and over. These are easy to spot and people commenting here have been alerting me too, which really helps.

Mark,
Thanks for the comment. I appreciate the offer, but I am not a fan of 'guest posts'.

I think it's because so many marketing blogs and social media blogs use it just to GAME Google. The idea is if you post something every day, you get a better search ranking.

Todd Smith · 1 year ago

I just started using No Follow Free a couple of weeks ago. I like it a lot too. Glad to see it's working for you too.

Just found you on Twitter today @ToddSmith1

Todd

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Todd,
The Twitter thing has been amazing.

Just 4 weeks ago I had 170 followers, today I have 5000!

This blog has really helped me reach out to people on Twitter and they have been EXTREMELY generous in following me.

I might do a lot of giving, but I get a great deal back too!

Vickie Sceifers · 1 year ago

Food for thought! How can I tell if a blog does no-follow so I don't waste too much of my time?

I like this philosophy. I'm sure at some time, there will be software that can determine a "true" commenter versus a spam-commenter.

I'm just starting at commenting on others' blogs to help market my own, so I don't want to end up counting on certain efforts and getting nothing for it (for instance, if I blog on 8 sites and all of them are no-follow). I don't do it for that, but I don't want to count on its help and there is none.

Bridget Cavanaugh · 1 year ago

Jim,
I'm going to submit a definition of Websters. "Followship" The art of building collaborators. Twitter connects and you're taking it to a new level of collaboration. I will follow and try to emulate

bcavanaugh (Feel free to follow me Jim Followers)on Twitter!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Bridget,
Thanks for your feedback!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Vickie,
Thanks for the comment. Regarding how to know if a blog is no-follow or do-follow, I use a firefox plug-in called 'search status.

However, blogs with no-follow links still have value to you. If the blog is well read, like this one, and gets lots of comments, people will see your comments and they might decide to visit your blog.

So, although do-follow links are better because they help your blogs SEO, don't let that guide you too much.

Patricia Kaehler (DomainBELL) · 1 year ago

I think it's a terrific idea...

I'll do the same on some of my blogs sometime soon...

I also would love to know how to
install the reCatptcha on a WP Blog... If anyone here knows...
I followed all the steps and got the API codes -- it said to paste them into the FORM... but no link to the FORM -- no hint on where to look for it either...

anyone have a clue ??

Thanks for your generousity Jim.. (you and I a co-twitterers.. LOL)

~Patricia K.

Jeff Cole · 1 year ago

As I said before, this is a great thing you are doing.

From reading the comments, there does seem to be some people who are wary. I guess it's because we have all become cynical over "free" offers.

I am also curious how this will play out, but I suspect it will go well.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Jeff,
This isn't free or an offer. I see it more as a 'thank you', for the value I get from these great comments.

It will be interesting to see how far I can take it.

Susan/Together We Flourish · 1 year ago

I'm new to blogging. How would I remove no follow links from my blog or find out if they are there. It seems to me that having no follow links on a blog is a little like inviting friends to stop by and then not answering the door.

mummypreneur · 1 year ago

hi Jim just found you on twittergrader - looking forward to some homegrown marketing tips off your site. Thanks for the opportunity.

Wealth Abundance Joy [Amy Fl · 1 year ago

Hi Jim! This is wonderful of you! I had no idea there was such a thing as follow/no-follow with blog comment links.

How can I tell the difference between follow and no-follow upon arriving at a blog? I too will re-tweet your tweet (which I just saw) about the value of visiting your blog and commenting here!

I so appreciate your doing this AND the education!

Appreciatively,

Amy

Darryl · 1 year ago

Great experiment Jim, will be following you on Twitter to see ongoing feedback

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Susan,
Love your idea, that having a blog with no-follow is; "Like inviting friends around - and then not answering the door!" Excellent!

Amy,
I use a Fire Fox plug-in called "Search Status" - which shows highlights links that are no-follow.

Darry,
Keep watching!

Vic Morley · 1 year ago

You know the big difference between here and other marketing and social media blogs?

Its that connelly builds contacts and not fans.

I finally worked it out.

Look...

Brogan, rowse, cardell and goddin all CLAIM to have followers, yet they dont connect like connelly. Read the comments here and see how people (feel) about connelly. hes one of us.

They have fans who admire them, connelly has contacts.

Wealth Abundance Joy [Amy Fl · 1 year ago

Jim - Guess what? LOL! I have Search Status already and never knew what that feature was! Thank you for enlightening me! Too funny!

And now ... I just added another plug in called NoDoFollow so I am definitely "in the know" now!

Thank you!

In Appreciation,

Amy

PS.. I can't believe I had it here all along! LOL!

Aaron Lee · 1 year ago

Great experiment :) This is something I can't give it a try since the blog hosting service that I use has rel="nofollow" implemented site-wide for all their customers. I can see that this is a way of building up a community a lot quicker. After all, people like being offered something in return.

Andy Handmade Galleries LA · 1 year ago

Jim,
Your approach is wonderful. You should clone yourself.
Andy

Kate · 1 year ago

It's a great idea! I've 'do-followed' most of my blogs simply because it's nice to be able to give something back to the people who take the time to comment.

You probably will see an upturn in the amount of spam you get though - my personal blog is on a list of do-follow blogs that generates a lot - but you will be able to spot it pretty easily, there is a world of difference between a real comment and spam.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Kate,

It's already started.

I have had a few obvious spam comments, that added nothing to the comments section and were clearly just posted for a link.

They have obviously been deleted and their ip address blocked.

joduba · 1 year ago

Hi Jim,

I also think we are all obfuscated of what Google thinks or does about our pageRank.

Most of us, don't get their traffic from Google, but from Newsletter and RSS feeds, so why do we care...

Also why Google will penalize me to have paid links, is because this goes directly in competition with their main business ?

If they able to identify that is a paid link, is not more easy to simply not count it, instead of penalizing the website.

I hope courageous people like you will help Google change their mind in their PR policies.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Joduba,

I agree with your first point.

I honestly don't give a crap what Google thinks. Their stupid games are only of interest to people who are still playing 'the Google game.'

I prefer to write stuff and design my blog for humans - not Google. This post has had over 140 comments, and the blog gets insane traffic for such a new blog - 1% of this came from Google.

It's about people.
It's about community.
It's about connecting.
It's not about Google.

Michael VanDervort · 1 year ago

Hello Jim

Great blog. Great idea!

I blog about human resources related topics for business rather than marketing. A niche where I am guaranteed never to make a living as a blogger!

Google is important as a supporter of many of these types of initiatives and for providing a superb research tool. They cn't help it that they also want to rule the world!

Michael VanDervort

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Please - don't post comments here with links to all your websites.

They are automatically caught as spam.

Thanks

Jackie Walker · 1 year ago

It's people not hits resonated deeply, I don't know if my site takes do follow or not, but I'm going to check now!

Judy Bachrach · 1 year ago

Jim, you write well -- and you certainly make people want to comment on your site. Glad I met you through Twitter.
best
Judy Bachrach

Marigo Raftopoulos · 1 year ago

Hi Jim, I always enjoy your tweets and blogs. There are always those who try to game the system, however they rarely have a real impact. However those like yourself who believe in creating real value and providing a genuine service will always endure.

Dan Harris · 1 year ago

Jim, I'm a new blogger. Seriously in my infancy. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you following me on Twitter, so that I could in return follow you and learn lessons from a fellow marketer. I learned more in one setting reading the Top 10 tips and linking strategies. You've made it my top spot for blog reading. I have a lot of questions and look forward to learning and applying your tips. I've twittered your site, posted it to my facebook, and will add your site to my reading list on Linkedin as well as broadcast your post on my Linkedin Group.

Thank You!

Jennifer Locke · 1 year ago

Being a newbie blogger, I have been searching for good marketing tips for my site. I will definitely subscribe to your newsletter. Thanks for being willing to help those of us starting out in this blogging business.

Paul To · 1 year ago

Jim:

This is @paulto from Twitter. This is an interesting idea. Who cares about Pagerank. I think you are right on!

Paul

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Some amazing comments here - thank you!

Jackie,
Thanks for the post about me at http://www.thedivorcecoach.co.uk/

Judy,
I'm glad I met you too!

Marigo,
I agree - gaming the system has a limited shelf-life.

Dan,
It's always extra special to get recognition from a fellow marketing professional - thanks for that!

Jennifer,
That's what this blog is all about.

Paul,
The spam is starting to arrive - from people sending posts with multiple links. They are being deleted thankfully.

Layla · 1 year ago

Thanks Jim, my comment matches most of the above comments. I agree that the idea makes a lot of sense. Helping others get traffic helps attract traffic to your site as well; so its a win-win.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Layla,
The idea has certainly worked thus far - with over 150 comments to this post and about a 50% increase in the number of people coming to the blog.

Let's see how it goes :)

recovengineer · 1 year ago

Jim,

I like your style. I've only read this one post and your comments on twitter over the last day or so, and I already like you.

I'm looking forward to learning from your blog (already subscribed).

Guy Harris

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Guy,

Thanks for subscribing to the RSS feed.

Kelly · 1 year ago

Just found your blog, I am following you on Twitter and hope to learn a lot from you about marketing. I think the dofollow could be a win/win situation unless you have spam out the wazoo. Can't wait to read how it is going for you.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Kelly,

Thanks for the comment.

It's amazing how people NOW find the blog via Twitter - when it was the blog that got me noticed on Twitter in the first place.

That's social networking, working!

Jennifer Locke · 1 year ago

Thanks for telling us about how to change to do-follow. I found a plug-in and have installed it on my blog. Thanks again!!!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Jennifer,

You are very welcome. However, I would recommend you see how my experiment works out before providing 'do-follow' links, if your blog is important to your business.

BlabWeb · 1 year ago

Intense explanation, well done.

Persona · 1 year ago

I like what you said here "I prefer to use advanced marketing strategies to promote jimsmarketingblog.com; and this means putting people, community and ideas first!".
I have concentrated too much on Google ranking and PR that I haven't paid much attention to this idea. You're absolutely right, if you create a community of regulary returning visitors who gives a stuff about your PageRank! Keep up the good work Jim.

Lizz Harmon · 1 year ago

Jim,

Not only is it good of you to do this, you've also taught a lot of people why the should consider doing as well as the serious risks involved if it's not done carefully. That's very valuable information.

The other thing that's significant is that what you're doing is what social networking is all about -- people helping other people -- giving without regard for what you may or may not get in return.

Splendid job, my Twitter Friend. Always a pleasure to read your work.

Robert · 1 year ago

@ Lizz: I have to argue that there are "serious risks involved" (mostly because I'm argumentative by nature). I honestly don't see how there are risks, provided you monitor the comments.

The only real risk you run is having spam posted in the comments and it being deemed that you are linking to shady websites. By having the nofollow in place it kind of protected the ignorant. But who doesn't monitor their comments? Isn't that the whole point of web 2.0 - Interactivity? Unless I missed it.

Ah, link juice... well, as it seems certain the PR monster is going to fade (latest Google Toolbars are doing away with those pixels) I don't see that being too much of an issue. I am willing to bet that Google (and the other search engines for that matter) have different rules for internal and external links so I'm sure it's not going to hurt your site.

Anyhow, I've rambled on enough. Great topic for discussion and I believe that it's a great idea that we open up the web again. :)

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Robert,

Thanks for the comment, however, I think you are underplaying the very real risks attached to do-follow links.

This USED to be a 100% post-moderated blog. I let anyone comment here and then removed comments only if they were offensive. In total, I had to remove about 6 comments in the 3 months this blog has been here.

Yesterday alone, I had to delete over a dozen comments form this blog - from people deliberately spamming the comments with links to their sites.

I have also had to moderate everyone on their first comment here. This takes a lot of time because I get so many great people comment here.

So, I am already paying a price for offering do-follow - and that's BEFORE the spam directories pick me up!

Let's see!

Robert · 1 year ago

Jim, I appreciate your concerns. However I have noticed that you don't sandbox comments (a royal pain in the butt I know) as well as not requiring the standard Captcha or other form of human verification. All forms of rooting out the bad apples.

That is a price that all pay, time. And all of our time is valuable. However that said, I'm pretty sure that your comments have increased dramatically after the revelation of the dofollow on offer.

What you lose on the swings you make up on the roundabouts?

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Robert,

You make two very good points.

The comments have certainly increased. This post has had over 160 comments already. The use of captcha has been suggested to me - but at the moment, the spam here has been from real people, who would have been able to bypass it.

At the moment everything is still manageable. However, I can already see why none of the top marketing bloggers I know of offer do-follow.

Robert · 1 year ago

Jim,

I guess the difficult part will be when you find the tipping point, what will you do. Leave it no follow and hope that the spam won't have a negative effect or simply nofollow it once again... decisions... decisions... However, once you reach that stage I'm sure that you'll have worked out a plan.

Michael VanDervort · 1 year ago

It's agreat idea, Jim. I wish I could get this kind of commentary running on my blog!

Thanks for showing some useful information!

Peggy Dolane · 1 year ago

You got my attention -- and that's saying a lot. Will watch what you do with interest. Thanks for the invite to participate.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Robert,
There will be a tipping point and I think I will know more about it in a week or two.

Michael,
Thanks - It's 'just people' doing what comes natural.

Peggy,
You are very welcome - thanks for stopping by!

Lisa Nardi · 1 year ago

Your comments are so right on the mark that I am surprised that I didn't have you as one of my follows originally, as I subscribe to many of the marketers. I learned a bit of marketing at father's knee, he ran a magazine in New York and once had a Madison Ave address. This is a great idea and I too will get the add-on at wordpress and add it to my blog. Saw this on Twitter - I'm @lisanardionline.

Thanks for all the great info, I'll be subscribing to the blog as well. Don't understand RSS yet, but not knowing what you do not know is occasionally helpful.
Lisa

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Lisa,
I'm glad you like my approach to community building.

RSS is a wonderful tool - I use it myself because I read so many blogs and it helps make sure I don't miss anything.

Thanks.

Dee Huasker · 1 year ago

Thanks Jim you're the BEST!

soultravelers3 · 1 year ago

Thanks for the invitation to participate! You caught my eye with this!

Ron Callahan · 1 year ago

Great site with good information. It's always nice to learn something new.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Dee,
I have no idea how to respond to that. Thanks.

Soultravelers,
As a marketing man, I like that I managed to catch your eye! Thanks for stopping by the blog!

Ron,
You can pick up a lot from this blog, the comments section alone are worth reading if you want to know how people 'think' about marketing and blogging.

Alyssa · 1 year ago

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out - as I set up my blog, I'll be using the 'do-follow' links. Thanks for the information!

Tom Volkar / Delightful Work · 1 year ago

I did the same thing about four months ago and made sure my links were do follow just because I think it's the right thing to do. I didn't write about it though, I just did it. But looking at the comments you've gotten makes me think there are not as many do follow blogs out there as I thought.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Alyssa,
Be sure to let me know when your blog goes live - so I can take a look!

Tom,
One of the benefits to you of NOT writing about it is that it makes your blog less of a spam target.

Michael Bristol · 1 year ago

Jim, thanks for your contribution and honesty. You are a super stud with a heart and a man who enjoys the journey. I am looking forward to more and did I say nice Twits.

michaelbristol

CheetahPixie · 1 year ago

Great infomation here! Following you today on twitter by the way!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Michael,

I have never been called a 'super stud' before and according to my wife, it's unlikely to happen again either ;)

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

CheetahPixie,

Another contact from Twitter - thanks for stopping by the blog!

David Bennett · 1 year ago

How does one set up a do-follow or no-follow link?

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

David,

The way most people do it, is via a plug-in. This will vary; depending on what kind of blogging platform you use.

Holiday Photo Cards · 1 year ago

Great info. Great site. I'll give you a follow...

Chris Johnson · 1 year ago

Just wanted to say that this effort does only good. It really will increase the connections that make the web valuable. Cheers for recognizing this, and keep up the great work.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Chris,

Thanks for the support!

Gavin · 1 year ago

Great stuff Jim keep it coming

Regards Gavin

Persona · 1 year ago

Just a few Q's about DO-FOLLOW. Don't you leak PageRank as a result? Also, if the site you are linking to has a bad rep with Google doesn't that effect you too?

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Persona,

No one seems to know for sure. I guess I will only know when I see how Google decide to 'punish' me.

Tia Singh ie @tiasparkles · 1 year ago

So .. how is the experiment going Jim? Just read your comment dated Nov 10th about having to delete people spamming you here. Intrigued to see what the result will be a month into this experiment (only been 11 days right?) I'm enjoying following all the comments and learnings! Thanks again :)

Chuck Hester · 1 year ago

Thanks for the tip, Jim.

Glad to follow and be followed!

Keep up the good work and strong advice!

Chuck

Zack · 1 year ago

Yeah, I'm currently in the process of re-doing my website to include a blog. I'm pretty sure I'm going to dofollow, but spam is always a concern. I'll monitor you're testing (ha guinea pig) and see how it goes.
-Z

Karen - @kmkleinwort · 1 year ago

Hi Jim,
I am glad I have fivce minutes to click on the link in your most recent twitter update to catch this piece of knowledge and opportunity of course!
Now to find another five minutes to read your other blog postings. Thanks again and have an amazing day!
Karen

Kelli · 1 year ago

Jim's great at sharing link love with all of us. Thanks again for being a "Giver" Jim.

Lisa Van Allen · 1 year ago

Great post and very informative blog Jim! I'll be back. Following you on Twitter and now on this site!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Thanks for all the support.

So far, the spammers seem to have not only stayed away, but spam has slightly DROPPED.

Only issue thus far, are people deliberately posting their URL's into posts over and over.

These are automatically deleted by the anti-spam software.

So far, so good. Let's see if Google decide to punish me!

Ben McKay · 1 year ago

Jim,

I'm here making a comment as requested, but I have to say it's a brave decision your making here. You're blog is likely to be added to a list of dofollow blogs, so make sure your'e blogging software is protected.

Essentially, this is how the web should work but expect to spend some time chopping out comments. I only have a new blog (so little to worry about) but I certainly wouldn't open myself up to it. Instead I expect I will be following the procedure of manually adding in links to people who I think have contributed. That way it's much more positive and reward-based as opposed to policing my blog space.

Just some food for thought...and thanks for the dollow.

Ben

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Ben,

Thanks for the comment
- "As requested" ??

SEOAly · 1 year ago

We are like minded in many respects, Jim...and your removal of the nofollow attribute from your blog's comments appears to be no different. :)

Back in early September I decided to try out the NoFollow Free WordPress plugin. I was even naive enough to write a post announcing it: http://www.seoaly.com/why-nofollow-my-comments/ ! :)

I'm happy to report that, unlike many people claimed and warned about, SPAM has not become an issue. The Akismet plugin has done a great job of battling would be spammers with very little hands on work from me.

I do not think you're crazy and commend you on ignoring the naysayers who tried to talk you out of it, as they did when I first installed NoFollow Free. Well done!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

SEOAly,

Thanks. Because I have no desire for or need for Search Engine traffic, I had a lot less to lose than most people - so the decision was easy.

I do get the odd idiot try to spam the comments, but these tend to be from people offering a sales-pitch or stacks of links.

The filter, as you says, deletes them very effectively.

Thanks for the support!

Good Vibe Coach · 1 year ago

Like Kelli, I didn't know about the no follow rule, either!

Learning lots from you here, Jim - thanks for the education and congratulations on the direction you're taking this!

Jeannette

David · 1 year ago

I learned something new today! Thanks Jim!

suzi · 1 year ago

Hi, Twitterbuddy! Great stuff!

suzi · 1 year ago

This really applies that Go Giver attitude that Bob Burg talks about. Nice work!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Jeanette,
You are very welcome - glad you find the blog useful.

David,
You are welcome!

Suzi,
Hey buddy!

Ben McKay · 1 year ago

...Hi Jim, in response to this:


"Your feedback please!

I would really appreciate your comments and feedback regarding what I am trying to do here. Am I crazy to even try? Please let me know, as I read and value every comment."

Cheers,

Ben

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Ben,

I get it now. The way you opened with "I'm here making a comment as requested" made me think someone had just asked you - as the post is a week and a half old.

Thanks Ben - you make some good points!

Judy Rey Wasserman · 1 year ago

This is a good idea.
I allow follow back to my blogs, which may be why I have spammers! But each comment is only posted after I approve of it so all the spammers do not get approved.
Maybe there is a way you could push a movement over Twitter and your site that will inspire Google to change their policy. Google seems fairly good at change and being fast on their web feet.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents -- or is it quid?
Thanks,
Judy Rey

Eva · 1 year ago

Hi Jim, I'm about to start blogging as you know, and I even feel better knowing that you're out there thinking up the good stuff for the rest of us. Thank you, sincerely.
It's been about 2 weeks so can you tell us your conclusion on the experiment? Can you continue with dofollow?
Regards,
Eva

Teresa · 1 year ago

Linked to this post from twitter, and found it interesting. I noticed some other bloggers doing the same things with their comments, but very few. Thanks for this and your other valuable ideas.

Danielle Grossi · 1 year ago

Wow - very cool concept, Jim. I'm retweeting. Great way to give!! :)

deakaz · 1 year ago

Very generous of you, great for community building. Interesting idea think I may give it a go.

@deakaz on twitter.

Joede Brown · 1 year ago

I want to try this out. How did you set this up?

Luminiffic · 1 year ago

Very generous, cool and useful. I want more of it.

Luminific

Norman Birnbach · 1 year ago

So how is the experiment going? And how do you set up do-follow links?

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Norman,

Just posted an update:
http://jimsmarketingblog.com/2008/11/19/interne...

Interesting stuff!

maureen birdsall · 1 year ago

Jim -

This was a great SEO article!

John Cannata · 1 year ago

Jim, I have not heard of the 'do-follow' link. Is this something that must be 'activated' or 'deactivated'? For example, my blog is hosted by wordpress. Is there a setting I need to look for?
Thanks in advance!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Maureen,
Thanks - I'm glad you found it useful.

John,
As far as I am aware, you cannot make a blog hosted on wordpress.com do-follow.

John Cannata · 1 year ago

Thanks Jim. I assumed as much, but thought I would ask. Wordpress is new to me and have only been blogging since about June.

Sue Edwards · 1 year ago

Jim:

I'm very new to the internet, blogging and social networking world, but do know quality when I see it. I've enjoyed reading your posts, have subscribed to your blog and followed you on Twitter. Thank you for the "do follow" link, even though I'm not completely clear about how that will affect things overall. I hope the experiment doesn't lead you to any problems!

Sheryl Loch · 1 year ago

Hello Jim,
I found you not through twitter but from Mark at Better Business Blogging.

I had always ran Do Follow comment links until I did a script upgrade about 2 weeks ago and now I have the choice to have do or no follow on a per comment basis.
I have not decided as to how I will chose who gets a do or no follow. I had considered only giving do follow to those that have really put forth effort in their comment OR only if they offer Do Follow comment links. (Sure that could make some people mad.LOL)

I will say that I post on no follow blogs also if I feel I have something to say.

I have never really had a problem with spam but my rank is not that high.

I do not run WP but, I think they have a Do Follow plug in.
WP does have a plug in so you can set the number of comments a person needs to make before their link becomes a do follow.

I know that some people think that Linky Love is a way of giving LL but I think that program is also No Follow.

Nice to meet you and you have some great post.
Now, I am off to see the blogs of some of the other commenters.

Dawn Baird · 1 year ago

For someone who says he's not an internet marketer, you've sure done a great job of increasing comments on your site.

Genius!

And, of course you've now got to reveal how to do it! We're all waiting!

Yvonne Perry · 1 year ago

How do you set the "do follow" link?

Sandy Aichner · 1 year ago

I follow you on twitter and I love your marketing advice. thanks for following our links and putting up with spam!

Kimberly · 1 year ago

You are very generous with the help you offer others. I'm so glad to be following you on Twitter so I can continue to soak up the knowledge!

Chris Horn · 1 year ago

Wow, for saying your not an internet marketer you sure have found a very simple way to increase your comment traffic.

Kudos!

Richard Becker · 1 year ago

Jim,

I look forward to seeing how this turns out for you. For you, it seems to make sense.

For small businesses, I wonder whether it's worth it because it creates so many more links to unrelated topics.

I'd love to know what type of impact you notice in about a month and again in three months if you have the time.

Best,
Rich

OutsideMyBrain · 1 year ago

Jim,

This comment is to show you and others the value of "Retweeting" your own (as well as others, of course) material. I didn't see the first Tweet referencing this post.

I responded to, "Wow 229 comments, Thanks to everyone who's commented so far"...

So, keep up the great work, here and within your Social Network.

@OutsideMyBrain

Randy San Nicolas · 1 year ago

Amazing and daring move. At the end of the day, a community can be assembled and cultivated without Google PR. I love it!

Alrady · 1 year ago

OKAY I assume you mean the links that we put in that little box that hooks to our name?

I had no idea that most were no follows etc. This sounds like fascinating concept.

I also don't know how most forum owners feel about signatures that have a headline animator. I don't ever try to do that to people that are blogging.

So how does this work? Personally I post usually no matter what because I always like to contribute. One exception would be to editorials on newspaper where there is no chance to have rebuttals.

Thanks for your blog it is interesting so far. ALRADY

Alrady · 1 year ago

OOPS I forgot to mention I am not a blogger (well not a good one) I am an ehow article writer. That is link to my article list in the box. thanks

Matthew Shields · 1 year ago

I must say I wish I would have found this earlier. I only recenly learned about the no follow setting. I'm wondering is there a way to determine if the blog has their no follow settings set to follow? Or is that just a shot in the dark? If there is ever anything I can do for you let me know on twitter @matthewshields1

Thanks again

Bert Decker · 1 year ago

So Jim, with this second comment to your blog, will the follow me link work?
Thanks for your Tweets. Just getting into it.
Bert

Matsonian · 1 year ago

Jim,

Just started following you on twitter and learned of this post today.

It really is of great use. Keep up the good work and the great Tweets!

@matsonian

http://www.quickplannerplus.com

Sara · 1 year ago

We shall see and I will definitely give you props if it ups my traffic.
btw, your site is packed full of info... you are great! Glad you found me on twitter

30abchgrl

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 1 year ago

Sara,

Offering do-follow links alone will not only NOT help you get more traffic, it (in my case) can also damage your page rank.

By offering these links I have seen the small amount of Google traffic I used to get drop like a stone!

I use do-follow because I am building a community, and that community is what's helping me develop the blog - NOT Google.

Patrick OMalley · 1 year ago

Interesting way to encourage people to read and comment.

Note that you spelled URL wrong in the "Leave a comment" section

aries33 · 1 year ago

i will follow you hehe

Spike From Ask Spike Online · 1 year ago

Jim,

My Web guy started following you on Twitter, and he is raving about your insight. I think he will be implementing many of your strategies to help me reach more pet parents.

Thanks!

Penny Raine · 1 year ago

thank you for all you do, reading here is like eating an elephant, there is so much to digest, but one bite at a time I am learning a lot!

blessings, Penny Raine
http://pennyraine.com/blog

Janet · 1 year ago

Found this via Twitter, so checking it out to see how it works.

Kelly · 1 year ago

Just got your e-news and think your link love idea is great. I definitely want to implement this when my new blog kicks off.

Tony Beach · 1 year ago

Hi...and great to meet you! Great tips...always looking to improve networking skills and ...With the dream to help one billion people....I'm learning new things daily....I help many people get traffic/visitors to their site....great tips and marketing strategies I see.....keep me informed always...I subscribed

Stan · 1 year ago

One of the pearls of wisdom from my MOM:
"It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice".
I commend you for taking a stand and I have a hunch that 'do follow' will end up being a self fulfilling prophecy for your business.

DannyStaple · 1 year ago

Hi Jim,
What a cool idea. I may take a look at the OrionRobots code. As long as spam filtering and the captcha is on, then I do not mind links back to other blogs/sites etc.

Cheers,
Danny

Eric Snyder · 12 months ago

I have a tracker set up on the FullCircles.org site so that I can track visits from here.

/e

Tami Vroma · 11 months ago

Jim,
I am still learning a lot. Six years ago I had it going on in West Mi because I had a top ranking web site and I did it myself! I got so busy and didn't pay attention- not because I didn't want to but because I had no time. Now I am on page 7- yuck! So trying to update my SEO brain and it looks like your blog might be an awesome learning tool for me.
God Bless!
p.s. I will be subscribing to your blog!

Tim · 11 months ago

Jim, thanks for the tip. It makes sense and I agree. I rarely use the "no-follow" tag because my link exchange requests mostly come from legitimate sources (e.g. real people). For the reasons you state I rarely use blog comments to try and get link backs. Why hurt my site and yours?
Thanks
Tim

Joy Argow · 11 months ago

Thanks for your comments and for the add on twitter! All the best!

Joe Mizereck · 11 months ago

Jim, I have only recently begun to read your articles and I'm very impressed. I appreciate you sharing so much of your wisdom and as I build my campaign to help save the lives of bicyclists around the world I may need to call upon you for some more direct guidance...

Thank you,
Joe Mizereck
joe@3feetplease.com

LoneWolf · 11 months ago

This "no follow"/"do follow" stuff certainly needs more research.

If your Google traffic has dropped because of this alone and not because of spam incoming then will it really help those of us who do comment? If your page rank drops then where is the value of the follow?

I hope that it doesn't hurt you to provide us with no value.

That being said, there is more to life than Google (I bet they don't believe it though 8=) Perhaps they'll feel it if everyone tried this.

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 11 months ago

LoneWolf,

Your timing is excellent. The blog's PageRank actually went from a 3 to a 4 this week.

It's 4 months old so that's probably about right - Don't think I'm being penalized (yet).

John · 11 months ago

A good way to find sites that have no follow turned off is Followtopia.

http://www.followtopia.com

It can be good for finding websites to provide relevant comments that link back to your site.

ALRADY40 · 11 months ago

So tell me something because keywording and comments is having a HUGE discussion on ehow right now. If people commenting were to leave your blog name or url or other keyword that grabs your blog INTO their comments then does that INCREASE your page ranking... For instance If I were to link to your blog from my twitwall or blog. Of if I were to mentino that this blog JIMS Marketing Blog where you can make more sales and boost your profits with Jim Connolly - woud that then help offset loss by follows? Just curious.

ALRADY40 · 11 months ago

now this link is all messed up because my ehow profile is stinking right now.

BUT ANYWAY if I were to link you there on the profile I have with my other articles and bio would that increase your page rank?

OR If we all gave this blog a digg and a stumble or a tweet etc. Does that offset the follow? This is making me more curious. THANKS

Jerry Roberts · 11 months ago

I think the bottom line is your point on content and creating value. If that's the focus, in the long run you can't go wrong.

SEO algorithms will change and link juice will probably change with them. Quality and value never go out of style.

I don't think you have to ignore basic SEO, such as meta tags, keywords, and the simple things that take very little time to do.

I spend a few minutes a day on that stuff, while 98 percent goes to creating content, researching new blogs, reading their posts and leaving comments; and then interacting with friends in social media.

While I can't spend as much time on Twitter as I would like, I'm getting a steady flow of followers. More important, I've already developed some new relationships that look promising for guest posts, projects, etc.

You can't get that if you have your nose under the hood of your site all day long.

Keep it going, Jim.

Jessie · 11 months ago

Jim,

Thanks for the add on Twitter (which ultimately led me here). Still trying to wrap my head around the social media as marketing tool concept, and I've already learned so much from just two of your posts! I'll definitely stay tuned, and give you lots of mentions on our newly established blog. Thanks again!

Fernando Martins · 11 months ago

Jim, of course your idea has to work - what goes around, comes around! If you do unselfish things like this, the world will smile back to you.

Thank you for the high-value content on this blog and for your ideas AND actions.

tobi · 11 months ago

great info, i am glad i found your site through twitter. awesome place, and love the time you have decided to devote to enlightening us with all the skills you have learnt from your experience in the marketing world.
greatly appreciated.

Web Media · 11 months ago

Jim, you sure got yourself a gold blog for marketing... see ya'll on Twitter!

http://Twitter.com/WebMedia

Stephen · 11 months ago

Jim, what a great site you've got here. Just looking around and have found several articles that will help me.

David Coveney · 10 months ago

Hi Jim,

I installed Greasemonkey the other day. Using it with FireFox and a smart bit of JavaScript I am able to identify a "no-follow" link on any webpage. It shows up with a pink background. Pretty clever I thought. Especially for link building purposes.

The problem arises when I look at all of your blog comments. They all have pink backgrounds. This is saying to me that they are no-follow links. Have you stopped offering do-follow comment links now or have I missed something?

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 10 months ago

David,

Comments are do-follow, from the second onward. So, anything you see that's not do-follow is a first comment. Hope that makes sense.

Andy · 10 months ago

Funny how every link on this page that I clicked 'inspect element' on has a no-follow attribute....

Has something changed?

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 10 months ago

Andy,

I've just checked and you are right - something HAS changed. Getting onto it now.

Thanks for the heads-up!!

David Coveney · 10 months ago

That's what I was getting at but obviously got misunderstood :P

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 10 months ago

Looks like there has been an issue with the Wordpress 2.7 upgrade we just did. I have my blog's 'tech guy' working on it this evening. Hope to get it resolved asap. No-follow links are pointless!

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 10 months ago

UPDATE:

Do-Follow links all working again!

"THANK YOU" to David and Andy for bringing it to my attention!

Simple · 9 months ago

Yah it does do Do follow, Thanks jim for being kind to new owners/bloggers who are looking to increase traffic for their site.. U did a gr8 job by doing Do follow.

Regards,
Simple
officeinfotips

Stephen · 9 months ago

I have been looking around on blogger and do not see where I can set links as Do Follow. What am I missing? Am I set up for Do Follow links at my blog, blog.FlowingDesert.com?

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 9 months ago

Stephen,

This blog runs on WordPress and making it do-folllow is very easy. I am not sure if you can convert a 'blogger' blog to do-follow. I seem to recall you cannot, but would be happy to know if any of the readers can confirm otherwise.

David Coveney · 9 months ago

Stephen looks like your blog is using Blogger. Your links are currently nofollow.

This tutorial will enable do follow on Blogger Comments:

http://blogvietshow.blogspot.com/2009/01/make-d...

Hope this helps

Marketing Specialist - Jim Con · 9 months ago

Thanks for the link David!!

Stephen · 9 months ago

WOW! What a quick and great response! Jim's got the best followers! (can someone confirm that the change I just made is done right and how would I check?)

Thank you David for that link!

Does the same concept apply to backlinks? i.e. should they be follow or nofollow?

David Coveney · 9 months ago

Hi Stephen,

You're welcome.

Yes your comments are set to follow now. Nice work.

Joede · 8 months ago

How do I set up the "do-follow" in Wordpress? I apologize if someone has already asked and answered but I didn't see it.