Over the last couple of years, I’ve been a big supporter of the DoFollow movement, but the time has come to say goodbye to DoFollow comments on this blog.

I’m not alone in this move. Several bloggers that I follow have also turned off their DoFollow plugins in recent months. First K-IntheHouse turned off DoFollow as part of a redesign of Shankrila, then RT turned off DoFollow as well. Sometime previously, Terence Chang also turned off DoFollow.

So why are people abandoning DoFollow? The answer is comment spam.

I still believe in the DoFollow concept, but there comes a point when the amount of spam comments outweighs the number of good comments. For me, I’ve reached this point. I need to spend 20 to 30 minutes each and every day, just moderating comments. If I miss a single day, it’s a major job to catch up. I just don’t have to time to do this anymore.

Note, I’m not talking about automated comment spam – my anti-spam plugins prevent that. I’m talking about real live people who have targeted my blog just so they can get a link.

Many of the comments I receive are worthwhile and I don’t mind giving a link to these people. However, for every two or three people who take the time to make a genuine comment, there’s someone who does one of the following:

• Leaves a trivial "nice post" comment
• Obviously hasn’t bothered to actually read the post
• Just copies the text of another comment
• Leaves a flat out spam comment (read about topic x here)
• Leaves spam comments on dozens of pages in one session
• Links to a dodgy website (ie adult or pharmaceutical)
• Doesn’t use the KeywordLuv functionality as required

I have to spend a lot of time cleaning all of these up. As a result, I have very limited time to actually respond to anyone who leaves a comment. As K-IntheHouse points out:

I often see that I had missed replying to a genuine question or concern from a reader whom I could have helped in a timely manner

My thoughts exactly!

I’m also going to be turning off KeywordLuv on this blog, except on the KeywordLuv home page. This will remain nofollow so commentators won’t get any link love (thereby inviting spammers), but it will allow prospective users of the plugin to try it out.

I remain convinced that KeywordLuv and a DoFollow plugin are worthwhile, especially when you are starting out, but there is no doubt that it makes you a target of the spammers. I get hit pretty badly because I rank no 1 for KeywordLuv, which is what a lot of spammers search for.

The KeywordLuv / DoFollow combination is great for newer blogs that want to get some traffic. Also, some commentators will stick around and become valuable members of your community. The question is whether the number of spam comments is manageable.

They no longer are for me. Bye bye DoFollow.

One side-effect of making your blog DoFollow is an increase in traffic. Unfortunately, it also leads to an increase in comment spam – and I’ve recently been spammed by Make Money Online Master.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, if you use WordPress, most comment spam can be stopped using plugins (I use a combination of Simple Trackback Validation, Math Comment Spam Protection and Askimet).

However there are always borderline spam cases: such as those that leave a good comment, but use keywords in the name field, or those that leave their name but link to commercial (non blog) sites.

There are many differing views on what’s acceptable. Each blogger must make their own decision, on what’s spam and what’s not, for their blog.

Personally, I don’t mind helping my commentators by letting them use their keywords in the name field, but I want to know their real name, so I feel like a real person is leaving the comment.

That’s why I created the KeywordLuv plugin for WordPress, which lets commentators enter both their name and their keywords. This rewards your commentators and should help increase traffic to your website as a result. However, I’ve noticed a sharp increase in borderline spam as well.

Spammed By A Make Money Master

Even though I no longer have time to answer all comments, I still read every comment and look for spam.

I recently noticed someone who was using one email address, but several different websites (no problem) and different names (problem). He left 20 comments, using 10 different names and linking to 6 different domains.

Crucially, he made multiple comments on the same post, using different names. His comments were fine and contributed to the conversation – it’s just he was having the conversation with himself!

I recognized one of the domains he linked to as belonging to a prominent Make Money Online blogger: a sometimes controversial, former blackhat, who tells it like it is and who has a very loyal fan-base. I won’t say who he is. There are a few bloggers who could fit that description.

This is someone I used to read a lot (before we moved and I ran out of time). He really knows what he’s doing and I’ve learnt a lot from him. He’s even left the occasional comment here, as himself.

The Take Aways

I got several take aways from this:

1. DoFollow comment links are worth pursuing (if you use your keywords): If this guy took the time to leave comments, you know that it works.

2. Borderline comment spam is indeed a confusing issue: I’ve learnt a lot from him and I don’t mind giving him the links, but I still feel spammed.

3. This ones just for me: I’ve been able to build a portfolio of his sites, so I can see some real life examples to go with the theory I’ve learnt from him!

New DoFollow Plugin Coming

As a direct result of being targeted by borderline comment spammers (not the Make Money Online Master in particular), I’m creating a new Dofollow plugin that will discourage borderline spammers and reward those who contribute quality comments.

It goes a step beyond what we’ve previously seen with plugins like Lucia’s Linky Love, which only makes comments dofollow after the user has left a certain number of comments on the site. That was a great innovation, but I’ve had some borderline spammers who leave 10 comments in a session.

As with any spam prevention mechanism, a small number of serious spammers will find away around it, but it should discourage most of them.

I’ve got a full load on right now, so it may take a couple of weeks to finish.

Final Thoughts

Borderline comment spam is inevitable on a DoFollow blog. However, annoying as it is, you’ll also get an increase in traffic: more people reading and commenting on your blog. For me, it’s worth it, on this blog.

Hopefully, I’ll soon have a DoFollow plugin that will keep the spammers honest and make them worth for their link.

This is just a quick post to warn the borderline spammers that leave comments here: If you just leave keywords in the name field, I’ll remove the link! You must use the KeywordLuv syntax: yourname@your keywords.

In the past, I’ve been pretty easy on people leaving keywords in the name field, but that ends now that I’ve provided the KeywordLuv functionality.

I have no problem with people leaving keywords in the name field, in fact you’re welcome to, but you must leave your name too. Don’t worry, you’ll get your link juice, as KeywordLuv will strip your name out of the anchor text.

If you don’t use the KeywordLuv syntax, I’ll remove the link and you’ll see something like this:

Note the link has been removed and a message added to the comment.

Oh, and of course, you have to leave a decent comment that adds value, or I’ll just remove the comment. The full comment policy is as follows:

Rules: Leave your name! Enter YourName@YourKeywords and KeywordLuv will use YourKeywords as the anchor text. No inappropriate or offensive comments. No links to inappropriate or offensive sites. Comments must contribute to the discussion.

I don’t think this is asking too much, do you?

Many WordPress blogs are adopting the CommentLuv plugin, because it gives readers extra incentive to make a comment – it automatically adds a link to the commentator’s latest post at the end of their comment.

This is great for the commentator, for several reasons outlined below. However, some people are not taking full advantage of the benefits.

Benefits For The Commentator

Commenting on a blog using CommentLuv gives you two potential benefits:

1. Increased Traffic / Readership

As people read through the comments, they can see the titles of each person’s latest post. If the title of your latest post appeals to the reader, there’s a good chance they will follow the link to your site, to read the post.

If you have great post titles, you will get traffic from this source. Some of this traffic will convert to regular readers.

2. Benefits To PageRank / SERPs

If the blog running CommentLuv is a DoFollow blog, not only will it send visitors your way, it will also pass you a little bit of PageRank.

Of course, Dofollow blogs already give you one link. While this link helps a little with PageRank, it’s less useful for the SERPs because the Name field is used as the anchor text. This will really only help you on searches for your name. That’s why some people put keywords in the name field – to help on searches for those keywords – at the risk of being marked as spammers.

CommentLuv gives you a second link, which has a couple of advantages over the first:

1. It uses the post title as anchor text. If your keywords are in the post title, it will help you in the SERPs for those keywords.
2. It’s a deep link, pointing to a page on your blog rather than the home page.

These advantages really are extra incentive to make a comment.

DoFollow CommentLuv Stolen Away

Some people are not taking full advantage of the benefit provided by CommentLuv on DoFollow blogs. They could be improving their PageRank and their position in the SERPs, but instead this is being stolen away.

How? The link for their latest post points to a FeedBurner redirect URL, not to the original post on their site.

This doesn’t stop people getting to the post, as FeedBurner will redirect them to the site. However, it means that the PageRank / SERPs benefits are going to FeedBurner, instead of the commentator’s site. Some of this may be passed on by FeedBurner, or it may not be. It’s not worth the risk.

Next time you leave a comment on a CommentLuv blog, check the link to see whether it goes to a FeedBurner URL or to the original post on your site.

The Solution

CommentLuv uses your feed to create the link for your latest post. If you have the Item Link Clicks parameter turned on in your FeedBurner settings, your feed will use the FeedBurner URL and so will CommentLuv.

If you want to change this, see the Turn off FeedBurner Redirect in RSS Feeds post by K-IntheHouse at ShanKri-la.

There are other reasons to turn the Item Link Clicks parameters off, as outlined by K: it makes it harder for people to access the post’s original URL. Why make it harder for people to blog about you?

Add the loss of potential PageRank / SERPs benefits and this becomes a real issue. Unless you really need the extra stats, turn this off!

Final Thoughts

Commentators: CommentLuv gives you extra incentive to make a comment,  particularly if the blog is DoFollow. Make sure you take full advantage!

Blog Owners: CommentLuv can encourage comments and reward those who make the effort, but are you worried about being targeted by spammers?

I haven’t activated it on my blogs yet, but I probably will in the near future.

Yesterday I wrote about joining the Do Follow List. Today, it’s the D-List. I’ve been part of the Bumpzee No Nofollow community for some time now. So, do I have the full set of dofollow lists now?

I found out about the D-List and the Do Follow List from Zen Zoomie’s DoFollow vs NoFollow – We’re on the D-List and promptly signed up to both. I was added to the Do Follow List within two days. The D-List took almost a week.

I won’t go over my initial reaction to the Do Follow List, but I was a bit taken aback that I had to write the list up before getting a dofollow link (on a dofollow list). It was more the way this was presented than the situation itself – I understand this can help promote DoFollow.

The D-List seems work on the same principle. At least most of the links on the list are nofollow. I couldn’t find how to get it changed to a dofollow link, but I assume you need to write the list up. The initial contact was nicer, although it could have outlined how to get your link changed to dofollow.

At the end of the day, I’m not really worried about getting dofollow links on these lists. They are just two links in a sea of links. However, I do want to support DoFollow, so if you haven’t already, go and sign up to these lists!

If you know of any other lists, please let me know.

Nofollow has been disabled on my blog for more than a month now. I joined the Bumpzee No Nofollow community immediately, but I only recently learned of the Do Follow List. I signed up a few days ago, but I have mixed feelings about this list.

While I want to support anything that promotes DoFollow, something put me off the Do Follow List. What put me off specifically? The comment Nicusor left on my site saying a link back would get a do-follow link on the list.

My first reaction was “hang on isn’t this all about DoFollow – shouldn’t the list be DoFollow by default?” His comment on my site gets him a dofollow link to both his main site and to the list itself – but I have to write him up to get a dofollow link on the list?

After I settled down a bit, I realised that I overreacted.

The logic discussed in the comments of my last post about plugins promoting themselves can be applied here. If Nicusor is asking for the link back to help promote the list, so as to help promote DoFollow, then that is acceptable, perhaps even admirable.

Having checked out his site, I’m pretty sure he’s genuinely trying to promote DoFollow. I should also point out that I did get a dofollow link on the page where you comment to be added to the list.

So I do recommend you join this list, if you are not already on it. However, be ready for link back request and try not to react as I did.

Nicusor, if you’re reading this, maybe you should explain that you’re doing this to help promote DoFollow when you leave the comment. It was easy to misunderstand this as being a cynical attempt to get a link – In hindsight, I know that’s not what you meant.

Well, I can’t say I wasn’t warned about disabling NoFollow. I have just started to be hit by spam: one comment about every 5 minutes for the last 4 hours. That adds up quickly!

They only seem to be targeting one post: WordPress – Taming The Advanced Editor. Obviously there is a bot which has picked up this post and is hurling comments at it.

I’d originally been hoping to avoid using Askimet as long as possible, because it does catch the odd genuine comment. However, it has now been activated and is working well.

I’ve also activated the Math Comment Spam Protection plugin. Last time I tried it, it didn’t work properly – it was not showing the numbers you were supposed to add, so there was no way to add comments. This now seems to be resolved, although I’m not sure how. Maybe just deactivating it (last week) and reactivating it (today) fixed it.

Hopefully this combination will protect me, but it’s clear I’ve now really got spam. No thoughts of backing out though.

Of course, I may be unfair in blaming disabling nofollow, as it’s been disabled for several days with only a slight increase in spam. I joined MyBlogLog in the last 24 hours, so maybe it’s related to that. I guess there is no way of telling.

Anyway, welcome spam!

In my last post, Should I Follow?, I decided that I would disable the nofollow tag. I’ve now done this and have joined the Bumpzee No Nofollow | I Follow | DoFollow Community.

In the end, I opted for the Dofollow (WP Plugin) as listed on Andy Beard’s review (Note, this is not the original DoFollow plugin).

The main reason I chose this plugin is because you can specify a delay before the nofollow tag is turned off. I’ve set this to 2 days, which gives me a couple of days to prune spam comments before they get any link love.

Speaking of spam, I’ve have been warned by Chris, Terence Chang and Vegan Momma, in the comments of my last post. At the moment, my levels of spam are minimal (one or two a day), but I know this is likely to change.

I am looking at a couple of Math plugins to ensure that commenters are human (and not an automated bot). I am not sure which one I will use yet as the one I originally chose works on my local site, but not on my live site.

I’m not using Askimet, as apparantly it chews up the odd geniune comment (I need all the comments I can get at the moment!). I may look at SpamKarma, but probably not until the level of spam increases significantly.

Yes, if you’ve been reading carefully, you’ll have noticed that I’m completely unprotected right now, except for the built in WordPress spam protection! Not for much longer though.

If you have any tips about spam protection, feel free to throw them my way. I have a feeling I’ll be needing them.

About a month ago, I learnt what the nofollow tag on links in my blog meant. Very quickly, I became aware of the No Nofollow | I Follow | DoFollow Community and the existence of plugins to remove the nofollow tag. The question is: should I follow suite and get a plugin?

I have been mulling this over for several weeks now. At first I was quite enthusiatic, but I’ve started having a few doubts about the concept.

Is NoFollow A Bad Thing?

One of the main reasons I’ve been holding back is that I’m not convinced that the nofollow tag is a bad thing. In fact, I think in an ideal world, it would be a very good thing, as it limits people’s ability to boost their own PageRank. Instead, they have to rely on other people liking their content.

Will Disabling No Follow Increase Spam?

Another reason is that there seem to be a few people who are removing their plugins and reverting to the default nofollow behaviour. Reasons given are largely to do with being targeted for spam.

I am less worried by this. Spam is a fact of life. Also, if I join the community, not only am I opening myself to spam, I am opening myself to other traffic. If someone leaves a comment on my site that’s relative to the post, that’s good – even if their motive is to get a link to their site.

Decision Time

So, I’m not sure I agree that nofollow is bad thing, but disabling it may increase my traffic. Should I stick to my principles or should I sell out?

There’s something else: I have been checking out some of the blogs from the No Nofollow | I Follow | DoFollow Community and leaving comments. Although there is no requirement for me to do so, I feel that if I’m going to benefit from other people disabling nofollow, then I should follow suite.

So, mostly for that reason, I’m going to look at plugins. I’ll start at Andy Beard’s excellent list of dofollow plugins, choose one and give it a try.

Do you use a plugin to disable nofollow? If so, which one?