NoFollow DoFollow YouFollow BlueFollow
One of the things that I promised myself when I started this blog was to openly share any success with the readers that make an effort to be a part of this community.
Since that day over one year ago, I have given away some really cool squeeze toys, quite a few different free t-shirts, and even the old favorite of cold hard cash.
Another way that I like to try and give a little something back is by freely sharing the link love with the readers. One of my regular features are the Speedlinking posts where I highlight a handful of posts and give special recognition to the top commentators, as well as the blogs that send the most visitors this way.
Nearly one year ago, I joined the DoFollow movement to send a little extra link love to those that took the time to comment here.
Unfortunately, I also witnessed an increase to the number of spam comments that required moderation as a result. After getting your feedback, I had decided to stick with the DoFollow movement even though it required more effort to moderate comments and allow more “link by” comments from people only after the link juice.
After upgrading to WP 2.5 the other day, I have decided to take a slightly different approach with regard to the DoFollow vs. NoFollow debate.
While I no longer have the DoFollow plugin active on this blog, I have replaced that with the LinkLove plugin. This plugin removes the NoFollow reference after a person has commented 10 times.
In addition to the use of the LinkLove plugin, I have decided to install the CommentLuv plugin. This plugin rewards commentators by adding a link to their most recent post under their comment. I’ve seen CommentLuv on more and more blogs recently and I really think it helps promote the content of the commentators.
One thing that has not changed is the additional link in the right sidebar for the Top Commentators each month. These links have the NoFollow reference removed and will remain that way.
Hopefully all of you enjoy these changes and welcome the additional link love provided within your comments. As always, I welcome your feedback on the use of the LinkLove and CommentLuv plugins in place of the DoFollow plugin.
Just to set any questions aside, this is not an April Fool’s post of any kind. Rather than participate in the April Fool’s trickery, I preferred to look for a way to turn off the Interweb.
Although, I did take a queue from a commentator here (good one April) and left Michael Kwan a comment that I was removing his RSS feed after his joke. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like Michael cares. 
Not so sure about Linklove, but I can feel the love from Commentluv.
A slightly off-topic question, but its still related. How on earth do you get real people (as opposed to spammers) to comment on your blog? I mean, you seem to have tons of people visiting here everyday, while I consider it time to party if I can approve a single comment on my blog in a week.
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Every day I am thankful that there are a great group of people here participating in the comments. I’d like to think that the reasons behind that are quality content, sharing of link love with commentators, and trying to be active on their sites as well.
A lot of has to do with the nature of the content as well, as some posts here don’t get many comments at all.
Bah! Who needs you anyways? (I kid, I kid.)
Michael Kwan’s last blog post..April Fool’s Day Gag on Digg is Lame
I started using DoFollow back last October. I thought I would get a lot more spam than I get, but then again I am still just a little guy without a ton of traffic yet.
I like the idea of LinkLove. I am going to the site now to take a closer look at it. Thanks
James Mann’s last blog post..By: Anonymous
Eliminating some spam would be nice, and you can still keep your regular readers/commenter’s. Very nice.
Wow, I really like this “last blog post” feature!
Dave’s last blog post..Thanks Post Office!
Fair enough. Good post.
Hi Derek,
Michael from Germany here.
Of course LuV is always welcome …*-)
My favorite for giving and getting is CommentLuv.
Keep the good work up.
Regards,
Michael
Michael’s last blog post..New Tool Will Put Your Listbuilding On Steroids
I am still doing the complete dofollow movement by having removed the nofollow attribute from the Wordpress templates.
I do like the CommentLuv plugin idea and should maybe look at trying it out, however, people would need to comment for it to do any good
Nick’s last blog post..Convenience Versus Making A Statement
@Michael :: Apparently nobody.
@James :: My one complaint with LinkLove is that if you want to change the number of comments required to remove the “nofollow” reference, you have to edit the PHP code as there are no settings/options available from the admin interface.
@Matt :: The spam messages have been increasing for some time and there are some legit messages getting caught in the filter, which makes it even harder to find those. Hopefully this will help.
@Dave :: Glad you like it, I’ve been using it at Dad Balance and seeing it on other blogs and really like it. I know I tend to click through on the post titles a lot more than I do on the simple name links.
@HRS :: Thanks!
@Nick :: Lol, comments do help for the use of the CommentLuv plugin. I’ll see if I can help with that.
Hi Derek, i used to be a regular here, remember? My comments now seem to be finding their way to your spam folder or something now.
It is unavoidable to have spam messages when you have a dofollow blog. Hope this new changes help to release some of your workload.
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If you would not have told us about your dofollow move we would have never known = you would still have to moderate the same amount of comments
seo blog’s last blog post..April fools day is the day for link baiting
Nofollow, dofollow. It doesn’t really natter to spammers. I have 1 nofollow blog and it still gets the same amount of spam the dofollow blogs get.
Personally I comment on blogs I like, regardless of nofollow. If I have nothing to say, I’ll just read and leave it at that.
The linkylove plugin is a great idea. Most spammers won’t bother to make 10 comments to get some linklove. Like scapers, they’re too lazy to put any real effort into anything at all.
You don’t say just how much time you spend filtering spam but I imagine it is a thankless task.
LinkLove sounds like a nice idea but my concern would be that spammers are forced to leave 10 useless posts to get the no follow removed. That would be ironic to say the least.
My overall view is that this is a two way street. If I can add a valuable contribution by relevant and informative comments, then the trade off is a bit of link juice. Good deal all round!
@Asia’h :: Thanks for the understanding!
@Daisy :: Thanks, and since you have commented here I hope that means you like my blog.
Glad to have you here!
@Steve :: The spam filtering has continued to grow in the time required as there are legit comments that get caught in there - and I am hoping this will change that. I’ll have to monitor how things go with these recent changes to determine if there is a measurable impact.
Thanks for the personal response Derek, much appreciated.
I only discovered the site today (via Marketing pilgrim - if I am allowed to say that) and my first impression is that I like your style sir.
You can absolutely share how you discovered my site, as I really enjoy learning how people find their way to my little spot. In addition, I am a big fan of Marketing Pilgrim - and keep checking the MP job board looking for that perfect job offer - and welcome their mention here anytime.
Thanks for the kind words!
This is a great move. Filtering spam can be a cumbersome task. With LinkLove, your spam problems should come down considerably. I was planning to put up commentluv on my blog but didn’t get around to doing it. Will finally do it today (hopefully).
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It’s been a pleasure to be associated with your site.
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Derek, have you seen additional comments since you installed CommentLuv? I just wonder how many people really take advantage of it.
Jagdu’s last blog post..Fresno Pool Cleaning Service
Hey! I’m back! So happy to be back!
I understand your concern. As the owner of the site you must also safeguard it from spam:) Its better that way.
I like the CommentLuv thing. I’ve seen it more and more recently.
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After seeing you post on comment luv I was thinking about installing it on my new and improved Futon Blog. I finally switched over to wordpress and am looking to improve my setup.
Hi Derek,
I just stopped by to let you know I added your blog to my “do follow” list. Thanks. I’ll be back for sure.
RT Cunningham’s last blog post..We’re Having A Heat Wave, A Tropical Heat Wave…
I think that LinkLove is a great add-on that helps eliminate spam and give credit to the people that really comment helpfully.
I really love the CommentLuv plugin and I agree that you can better use LinkLove than do follow.
I am still using the do follow plugin and I too get more spam, so I decided to use MyCaptcha plugin that require user to enter the captcha image. Buy maybe I can better use LinkLove.
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I keep hearing about this linkylove - how does this work - I mean - do I have to use the same name and keywords for it to know it is me? I sometimes change my keywords, perhaps I shouldn’t be?