I believe fully in the “I Follow Movement” now 8 months after the whole thing started, and I want to give commenters the little bit of Google juice I can as a result of their link being followed from the comment area. However… I have to say I’m getting a little tired of the MANY, MANY comments I’m getting from people who put things like “Real Estate Atlanta” or “Best Web Hosting” in the name field. Most of the comments left by these people are clearly just intended to gain what they think is going to be a ton of Google juice from my site since it is now a PR6. They read somewhere on some site about how they can get “free PR6 backlinks” from the list of sites provided. Since the latest Google update this whole thing has gotten out of control, and I’m just getting a little tired of it.
It’s not that I don’t understand your motivation – I really do. You’re trying to grow your site/blog and build backlinks from high PR sites. I get it, but somehow that just doesn’t make me feel any less used and annoyed. I’m not the only one.
The thing is, you’re not really getting a PR6 backlink like you think you are. Yes, randaclay.com is a PR6 site, but each individual page within the site does not carry that same page rank. For example, if you left a comment on the most recent post the URL where your comment resides is has a page rank of 0. Google ranks each page within a site, not just the root domain. (this is how I understand the whole page rank thing based on my reading and research – if I’m wrong here, someone please correct me and point me to a reliable source)
Because of the large number of these kinds of comments I’m getting, I’m afraid I’m going to have to add to my comment policy that if keywords are left in the name field instead of your name, I will just delete the comment.
Also, I can’t emphasize strongly enough that this kind of link whoring practice is really not the best use of anyone’s time. There are much better ways of increasing the exposure of your site.
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I sign my name like I did here for two reasons. My business site is my name and my business is Business SEO. The hyphen between the two helps me rank for both.
I have never had any problems with my signature though I do believe those who use a search phrase with no name attached is silly. I can say this. If you want to see your comments here reduced significantly, start no following everyone.
Blog comment links that follow are a great way to “theme” a website. You still need content and better sources of links to rank really well, but the blog sigs can help a site tremendously.
I think that no follow comments definitely bring in more traffic to a blog. You’ve got 51 comments on this post already.
If you were a blog on SEO and you no followed your comments, what type of spammers will come? The ones who understand a little about SEO. How many of them will stick and continue to read your blog to learn? I bet the conversion rate would be real high.
A do follow blog is the best type of blog to commnet on, you will in fact gain more traffic and readers running yoru site this way. It works for us!
Hi There,
I have had a good read of this page and all comments and wish to add my 2 cents.
As you can see I have used my keywords in my name and it is purely for seo reasons.
So is my comment spam? HELL NO…
we all know all good comment when we see it, the same goes with spam, remarks such as :
Good blog
keep up the good work
blah blah blah
are blatant spam and a waste of time and should be deleted.
I have never left a comment like this, I only leave comments where I think I can contribute.
Im fully aware that this a this a low pr page, but of all of your posting, I reacted most strongly to this one, hence the comment.
The more content you have and the more it changes, the more it benifits you, from a SEO point of view. So dont feel used, you are getting something back.
If im going to add a real comment, I would prefer to do it where I get something back.
I have recently started reading blogs, I used to ignore them really, but now am into them in a big way. I can tell you, ill be far far more likley to have a
good read of posting, read the comments and then comment my self on a DO-FOLLOW blog.
In fact, im in the process of setting my own blog up (www.bloggerstan.com), so can get in on the act, and ill be joining the do-follow movement (ill have a capcha on it).
Ill be banking on the fact that people want links, so will add valuable comments.
If you feel this comment is just to get a link or I have just posted enough to get a link, please email me, and Ill give you a link from one of my PR4 sites to prove the point.
Regards
Ghaz
Ps do you like the name bloggerstan for my blog?
Even having comments moderated is a huge hassle even when they ARE nofollow. Personally I’ve disabled commenting on several of my blogs because of it, which effectively kills it because nobody can leave their mark or even know if anybody else reads the stuff. It is sad really. I wish I had the patience you do.
I just came across the Spam Karma plugin. It supposedly stops all forms of automated spam while remaining unobtrusive to real commentors. It seems to be popular if only judging by the 1919 comments.
I’m hoping it provides some help.
http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/
When you once publicly announce that you DoFollow in comments everybody starts to exploit that. You won’t believe Randa but my theory about dofollowing it’s the same! Sometimes I just don’t see any point in dofollowing, because subpages has PR0.
I know what your feeling
I my self have installed the dofollow plugin and the numbers of comments are increasing…
But i think is fair that people hwo participate on my blog, and have the time to make a comment should have som linkjuice, but i dont accept people hwo write keywords in the name field, if they dont use there real name i will just delete the comment.
By the way… your topbanner is one of the most beatyfull graphics, that i have seen in a long time.
Yes, the spammy comments can be frustrating. I have been DoFollow since last June and have not had any real problems so far. I monitor comments as they come in, paying particular attention to any new URLs. If the comment links to a dubious site (for example, a link farm or “splog”), I will simply strip out the hyperlink but leave the comment text in the interest of free speech.
The same policy can be applied to any other comments that are obviously spammy and do not contain any substantial content. Otherwise, the comments and links will remain, which usually encourages open discussion and exchange of ideas.
Occasionally, the keyword-linked URLs will actually reveal something interesting or useful. I had one for “Free Shipping” a few days ago, and the site actually had some useful information for finding online retailers that offered free shipping options for purchases.
The whole dofollow movement is a little stupid. Blogs and other places where comments can be posted by anyone should absolutely not be followed by search engines as they were not earned.
well…I’ll take a chance that this one will make it through…If you delete me, oh well.
I’ve given a good read the page and the comments and it seems to be a dividing issue. Like Mr. Utah and the Manchester Airport Parking guy, I use keywords in my name. When I visit a do follow blog I try to read through and find articles that interest me and leave genuine comments. If all I can think to say is “Thanks for the info” or “I got gum stuck on my show once” then I will move on and not bother even leaving comments.
I know there is value to the blog to be “do follow” by increasing site visitors and interaction by comments. I can totally see where this also increases the administration. I chose not to be a totally “do-follow” blog and use a plug-in called link-love so that bloggers who leave more than 3 comments (an arbitrary number I set) would get some link love, be it Keyword names or not…
…to me it comes down to how useful the content of the comment is to the discussion at hand, because honestly if you don’t care about your readers comments, then your just talking to yourself.
Thanks for letting me share my 2 cents.
Try Lucia’s LinkyLove plugin, gives you a lot of parameters to control what comments get followed and which ones don’t. I won’t post a link but do a search on google and you will find it.
I know exactly how you feel, although I don’t think I get it on the same level as you. I hand moderate all my comments and always have to pause when I approve the comments with keywords in the name field. If people don’t stop abusing this, Google will crack down on it.
nofollow is stupid. but spam is worse. if u feel used, my advice take all comments at another page. this time comments will gain their own pr… your article gain its own pr.. just a tip.
Personally, I think that it ius a bit ripe for the likes of Matt Cutts and his itty bitty company to dictate to the individual what they should or should not do. There are enough tools available to control the comment spam and I, for one, think that giving a little link love to someone who has taken the time to read and post a comment has to be a good thing. Some people leave everything open, some people only permit after a given number of posts, the fact is that theses elements are within the control of the blogger. Power to the people.
I think many people have some problem with this.This thing is directly related with page rank.Thanks.
Hi Randa and hello everyone …
First of all i want to thank you (Randa) for let me coment on your blog.
Second, i want to pardon for my english, because i`m portuguese and don`t write english very well.
Third, I don´t want to abuse you, in fact i want to add some ideas in the discussion, but i lie if i tell you that i coment just to add some ideas to the discussion and not for the link love.
I`m a blogger beginner, my name is Artur Jorge and i`m an MCSA. For that i use my alias (ajTEC)
So the alias ajTEC is not my main keywords (ganhar dinheiro net), is an abreviation of my real name and my TEC skills.
If you think i should`nt use those, i ask you to respond my coment, if you please, and just warn me of that and i`ll put my real name (Artur Jorge) on my next coment.
And for last, i love to help others and like someone who does the same, like you. If you let me i want to participate by coment in the future posts, and not just on High PR posts, but all of then (if the posts are of something i can talk about, just like this one).
My main goal is to learn more about blogging, because i`m a newbie blogger. So i`ll be glad if you let me do so.
I`m a dofollow follower, but i respect who is a nofollow praticer. Everyone as an idea about it and i respect all of them because i like who respect my ideas and thoughs as well.
Congrats for your blog and for your effort to help others. Keep post good content and wonderfull design
Cumps,
ajTEC
PS: your logo is amazing
Hey, nice site you have here.
I totally understand what your saying about link whoring. It should be stopped.
I am now an RSS Reader of yours, this blog is good.
Thanks, will be back soon.
hmmm, this seems to be an interesting subject going around the internet… I only learned about this whole DoFollow movement about a week ago.. strange since it doesn’t seem to be That new
i think that using your personal name and or online tag (like mine is Veedo) is a must these days… with blogs now becoming increasingly commercial and websites like ProBlogger encouraging the practice of comment spamming (not out right saying mind you… but that is one of the many tips they give you for SEO)
i’m pretty torn on the issue of inserting your website brand / name in the anchor text as well… as you can see, I add a general description of mine after a virtical line so that people don’t think that they are just going to a random personal blog, and that the blog has a pupose…
but i’m also against the blogs who want to make money off their sites using the same tactic to increase their Search Engine ranking… since they are doing it for the sole purpose of self-benifit and not for they benifit of the people who might potentially read the comment and click on the link
I left a comment earlier using the name googel cause I was trying to get a link with that anchor text but after reading, I felt guilty. I am very sorry Randa. I changed the anchor text to my real name but I still deep-linked it to my post. Hope this is ok
I find it funny how many replies yourve gotton on the post thats about spamming bloggs. I kinda feel guilty now posting but id like to make my opinion herd as well.
All you really need to do is admin the site so only comments you think are valuable actuly get into your shown comments this would eliminate spam, granted you run this blog for fun on your spare time and doing somthing liek that will enevatably take time away from you but if you seriously want to cut the spam you have to.
I had to on my blog before i decided that turning it into a website would be better lol, i was thinking of adding the ability to comment on my sites articles but no…just no lol
keep up the good work and dont let spammers get you down.
I too am a fan of the I follow or aka do follow. I believe it benefits everyone in the long run. Spam can be stopped by plugins and going to no follow definitely won’t stop all spam posts. Unlike some of the above comments, I am not torn about putting my websites keywords in as my name. That is what I go by not only in blogs, but in forums, or anywhere else I comment. My name is very common, and many have it, but my website tag is unique and different and allows others to know the posts are from me.