Recently, there's been a movement amongst bloggers to remove the NoFollow tags from comments posted on their blogs (What is NoFollow?). Removing NoFollow tags allows link juice from the URL included in your comment to be passed on to your site, helping it move up in rankings.
This post will help explain how to locate these DoFollow blogs and how to contribute a meaningful and successful comment. Doing this properly can land you high quality backlinks, while contributing to quality of the conversations across the web.How To Find DoFollow Blogs
Search Google – While there are a number of resources available to help you find DoFollow Blogs, we've found that conducting our own specific keyword searches usually render most accurate results. Searching allows you to seek out blogs directly relevant to your interests or targeted keywords. The following query examples assume you are searching Google for blogs related to the keyword design.Text Search
design "Remember my personal information" "Notify me of follow-up comments"The blogs that contain the above text in quotes typically have DoFollow enabled by default.
design "commentluv"This returns blogs that have the commentluv wordpress extension installed. This extension removes the NoFollow attribute from the comments to encourage visitors to comment.
Image Search
“U Comment I Follow”This searches blogs with the U Comment I Follow image. Many blogs that have joined the DoFollow movement show this image to show their support.
ifollowblue.gif, ifollowgreen.gif, ifollowltgreen.gif, ifollowpink.gif, ifollowpurple.gif, ifolloworange.gif, ifollowwhite.gif, ifollowmagenta.gifAs a variation, try keyword + any one of the above filenames.
How to Tell if a Blog is DoFollow
Inspect the HTML – You can either view the source of the blog page, or use a tool like firebug to view inspect the url within the comments.Install a FireFox Extension
Search Status – This extension shows you a Google PageRank in the status bar. I also allows highlights links that have the rel=”nofollow” attribute.
NoDoFollow – A simple extension that highlights the links on a page that contain the NoFollow attribute.
How to Make an Impact
- Find DoFollow Blogs that Interest YouIt is very important that you read and understand the post in order to contribute a meaningful comment. If you are interested in the post you are more likely to have something relevant to add to the conversation.
- READ THE POST!For the love of GOD at least have the decency to read and comprehend what you are commenting about. All to often SEO’ers think they can get away with “Nice Post” or “Good Job” and leech the link juice from the page. Bloggers are not stupid and can spot this activity a million miles away.
- Use Your Real Name or an AliasDoesn’t it just feel wrong when you are writing a meaningful comment, and then leave your name as “Canadian Medical Supplies”? I don’t know anyone named Canadian Medical Supplies, but if you do, let me know and I will repeal my rant. Blogging is about conversations between people, not a black hat tool to dump your targeted keywords into. If you comment with a name or alias, you will still get natural link juice to your targeted url.
- Be the First to CommentSubscribe to RSS feeds of the blogs that you would like to contribute to. Once you receive notification that a new post has been added, try to be the first to leave a comment. You will not only receive your link juice, but you will get natural click throughs from the visitors reading your insightful comment. (Unless your comment is “Wow that was great. I disagree with some points, but others I agree with.”)
- Build a RelationshipMost bloggers that allow external links are very picky about the comments they accept. If you are serious about getting a link from a particular blog, then spend some time reading and commenting on other posts within the blog. Authors appreciate your feedback, and you just might form a longer lasting relationship out of it as well.
Conclusion
While these tactics don't work all the time, they are at least a step in the right direction. I hope you use this post to enhance the quality of commenting and conversations across the web - the last thing the blogosphere needs is an army of black hat cronies spamming every blog they can find. Hopefully these tips will add a little life to the drudgery of link building by allowing you to actually learn about the posts you comment on. Below are a few additional DoFollow resources, so happy DoFollow hunting!List of 100 DoFollow Forums
DoFollow Blog Directory
DoFollow Search Engine
List of DoFollow Sites
250+ DoFollow Blogs
The Ultimate DoFollow Blog List
