Bright Beginning! Is Now DoFollow Compliant - Freedom To Follow Comments

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 • Category

I’m sure you know about nofollow attribute that was invented by Google in the early 2005. This (rel=”nofollow”) attribute is supposedly used by Google to prevent comment spam. When Google sees this attribute on hyperlinks, those links won’t get any credit when Google ranks websites in their search results. Google believes that it’s a way to make sure that spammers don’t get benefits from abusing public areas like blog comments, trackbacks, and referrer lists.

However in nofollow attribute doesn’t prevent comment spam. Ever since I started my Bright Beginning! blog in the early 2007, my Askimet Spam has caught nearly 2,000 spams! And that’s with having nofollow attribute embedded in my blog by Wordpress.

Will I have more spams if I don’t have nofollow tag embedded? No, I don’t believe it. So today I finally installed DoFollow plugin to get rid of the nofollow attribute Let’s give freedom to follow comments!

Bright Beginning! is finally now DoFollow Compliant

Like Wordpress, which by default automatically embeds nofollow attribute to all links from user generated content such as comments and trackbacks, many other blog platforms and sites also adopt nofollow attribute. Here are some of them:

Fortunately there’s way to get rid of nofollow attribute from your blog for good!

How To Remove NoFollow From Wordpress
Simply install any one of these plugins:

DoFollow. I personally use DoFollow
Link Love
Good Links

How To Remove NoFollow From TypePad
Follow this step-by-step guide.

How To Remove NoFollow From Blogger
Follow this guide.

After all, removing nofollow attribute is one way to appreciate your readers

Update:
I also install Peter’s Custom Anti Spam to prevent comment spams by bots.

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There Are 21 Comments. »

Pingback by The Article Writer - Press Releases | Web Content Writing | Targeted Articles | SEO Consulting on 30 November 1999:

Matt on Developing a WP-Friendly NewsletterEric on PayPerPost Secures $7 Million In Fundingashina on Quick Links To What Some Avid Bloggers Are SayingAldian Prakoso on Developing a WP-Friendly NewsletterBright Beginning! Is Now DoFollow Compliant - Freedom To Follow Comments on Developing a WP-Friendly NewsletterDeaf Musician on Package of 3 Sites For Sale
Comment by Chaerul on 19 June 2007:

Great information! Thanks!
Comment by Matt Keegan on 20 June 2007:

Welcome to the “Do Follow” world, the best way to build traffic to your website. My traffic increased at least 3x since I installed the plug-in and I have gotten to know a lot of nice people along the way. Best to you!
Comment by Sam Freedom on 20 June 2007:

Hey Aldian, that’s mighty bold of you to go this route. Actually, it just makes perfect sense but most people, I believe, are still too frightened to stand up and do what makes sense.

Stop by sometime and check out my blog. It’s titled…

Sam Freedom’s Internet Marketing Controversy Blog

And feel free to leave a link though I do not have DOFOLLOW there (yet!).

Thanks again! Keep the great info coming..
Sam
Comment by Aldian on 20 June 2007:

Hi Matt and Sam,

Thanks for your encouragement!

Sam, I also installed Peter’s Custom Anti Spam to prevent spam comments by bots.

DoFollow is the way to go!
Comment by Peter on 20 June 2007:

Thanks for the mention!
Comment by Aldian on 20 June 2007:

You’re welcome Peter! You create a great plugin!
Comment by Cynthia Blue on 21 June 2007:

Yay for Do Follow. All three of my blogs have do follow, and I found your site through the Do Follow Bumpzee community.
Comment by Paul Easton on 21 June 2007:

Hiya,
Dropped in from SMCC -Paul from New Zealand- another one of stephens students.

A great post - Have you heard of the timed follow? which coverts posts based on time, change from No folow to follow after a certain period of time?

Let me know
Best Regards
Paul Easton
http://www.DigitalAwol.com/

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Comment by Aldian on 21 June 2007:

Hiya Cynthia, it’s nice to join the growing DoFollow community

Hi Paul, it’s the first time I’ve heard of Timed Follow. What’s the advantage of using it?
Comment by Jonathan-C. Phillips on 21 June 2007:

Hey Aldian! Welcome to the DoFollow familly!
Timed Follow, if you look at the options page in your wordpress admin under the dofollow tab (or whatever the name is) there’s this option where you can put a set number of days before the pplugin will remove nofollow from the comments, it’s actually pretty useful if you recieve quite a lot of comments and don’t moderate them, so it give you some time to check the new comments and delete the spam ones, at least those won’t recieve any dofollow love from your site, if you don’t moderate the comments on your blog, a good spam filter like akismet or spam karma and setting the dofollow thing for say 1 or 2 days if pretty effective
Comment by Aldian on 21 June 2007:

Thanks for the explanation Jonathan.

So TimeFollow is additional plugin for DoFollow?
It’s quite good one to have
Comment by Jonathan-C. Phillips on 21 June 2007:

well the time thing is part of the dofollow plugin, look under the option->dofollow tab for “Nofollow timeout” if you set this at 0, it’ll remove the nofollow attribute right when a comment is posted and appproved, but you can set it to 1 or 2 days if you want. I have it set to 0 on smartwealthyrich.
Comment by Aldian on 21 June 2007:

Strangely DoFollow is not listed the Option (I don’t have DoFollow tab in the Option). So that means I have to hard code it in its php?
Comment by Jonathan-C. Phillips on 21 June 2007:

humm, weird, what version of the plugin do you use?

http://kimmo.suominen.com/sw/dofollow/

This is the one I use, it adds a “dofollow” tab in the wordpress admin. Maybe there are other versions of the plugin though.
Comment by Aldian on 21 June 2007:

Mine is http://www.semiologic.com/software/wp-fixes/dofollow/

Different variant but same purpose.
Comment by Sam Freedom on 21 June 2007:

Hi Aldian,

Thanks for being so responsive. It’s much appreciated to make good connections with good people even if they are just for a few moments.

Since I am going to make the leap to DOFOLLOW, your anti-spam suggestions are going to be of interest and importance. Are you suggesting PETER’S CUSTOM in ADDITION to akismet?

I’m starting to get the impression that you, or I, or SOMEONE could write up a small little pdf report on the X steps for optimal anti-spam for the DOFOLLOW crowd. It would state things like…

1) which plugins were absolutely essential;
2) which plugins were helpful but not essential;
3) which options to tick (timed follow sounds great!)
4) whether or not to moderate based on X, Y and Z

I know it must seem obvious to you and, perhaps, a certain number of the “in the loop” crowd by now but for those new to the scene, or just a little slower to grasp these things, a pdf report would be of great value.

As of now, all the info is kind of piece-mealed out throughout all kinds of blogs.

Of course there’s value to having people bookmark and revisit our blogs but a pdf report on the desktop (that one could give away, too) would be invaluable (and, ultimately, viral).

What do you think?
Sam
the coolest guy on the planet
Comment by Sam Freedom on 21 June 2007:

ps. Sorry to post again, but here’s another quick question. When you go DoFollow, what happens to all the links in comments that existed prior to DoFollow? Do they start to convey PR immediately after the site is spidered again? Or what? Thanks.
Comment by Aldian on 21 June 2007:

Hi Sam,

One of the good thing about blogging is to socialize… like what we do now

Definitely. I notice that Peter’s Custom Anti Spam helps cutting the number of spam bots comments. I usually receive those notification from Askimet 3-4 times daily. However since I installed Peter’s Custom Anti Spam, I haven’t received any Askimet notifications.

You absolutely hit the sweet spot here Sam. DoFollow report is great idea! Especially discussing how to optimize it and prevent spams at the same time. Just like Paul and Jonatahan stated, TimeFollow and its usage should be explained.

I can start this little project Anyone wants the report that Sam suggested?

About links in the prior comments before DoFollow, I checked by viewing the Page Source and I didn’t find NoFollow attribute in the comments’ links
Comment by Aldian on 21 June 2007:

By the way, here’s a quick and easy way to find out if your comment link is spidered by Google: simply use Google Alerts.

Ever since I joined D-list community and start participating at D-list blogs, my comment links are caught by Google Alerts.
Comment by morbid man on 20 August 2007:

yeah, you will have many visitors when you turn on do follow plugin. this comments is the example. Maybe for some people turn on do follow plugin will bring many spam comments to their website, but anyone that send comments will see and browse their website to know their content. And if they like your website, they will recommend it to their friends and finally the spammers become visitors.