Advice on Commenting on “Dofollow” Blogs

First things first, admit it: You are a no-good spamming shitbag. Yeah, you know you have come here because: You. Are. A. No. Good. Spamming. Shitbag. You want to go on other people's websites and post up drivel just so you can get some link back to your finance or forex MFA site.

Okay, that's fine – at least you admit it.

But seriously. Sites which are linked to from here consciously leave off the nofollow microformat. This doesn't mean that they will tolerate spam anymore than any other type of site.

I'll run through some points with you so that you can engage with these sites in a upfront, ethical manner, and so that you do not waste your time. Because if you are clueless when it comes commenting then the webmaster or author will simply delete your comment before it is even published.

Incoming links count for a lot, perhaps in the region of 70% of an SEO campaign. There's no doubt that Google has tightened up the SERP game in recent years. They only want websites to connect to each other with organic links, which is one of the reasons why they instituted nofollow in 2005.

But before you worry about links take a long hard look at the your website.

Content is king. Most of the websites posted up on a forum like Digital Point are complete crap. Aim to be original and offer something unique to the niche that you are a part of. If you can't write, pay somebody else to do it; if you're not familiar with your subject but only interested in the potential cash rewards, then move on - only work on a subject that you are interested in; if you don't have enough experience in life, come back to the game in five years time.

Secondly, design. Quality design does matter – first impressions count. No matter how well qualified you are on your subject, or how great a writer your are, a badly designed website will not perform as well as an accomplished and visually pleasing site. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, but that's generally how things work on the internet.

Linking from relevant content is important. The days when any and every link mattered are gone.

So find your niche, and stick to it.

But you need to learn the etiquette of the task at hand and for this it is worth reading the guidelines laid down by webmasters of “dofollow” sites.

Computer Chit Chat:

All comments are welcome, but you must use a real name. No keywords or company names will be accepted. Only comments of value will be accepted, all others will not be approved. One link per comment max will be considered. Comments linking to commercial sites, porn sites or not family friendly sites will be deleted. If you have a commercial link and want a link to your site from mine then review my advertising page and contact me to discuss and negotiate a price.

Sebastien Page explains how he deals with comments to his blog:

I get a lot of spam every day and if it is too flagrant that it is spam (like “I love your blog, thank you so much”), I simply delete the comment and mark it as spam. If the comment is somewhat genuine and the URL is the one of a personal blog, I approve it. If the comment is somewhat genuine and shows the URL of a foreign currency exchange type-of-website, I just edit the comment and remove the link. Doing this, I don’t give the SEO juice to the spammer but I keep the community feel of my blog alive. Because that’s what blogging is all about: telling what you think and also being able to hear what others are thinking.

Sometimes the comment policy is found on the submission form, on other sites it is on a separate page.

Clement Nyirenda lays down his guidelines:

I truly appreciate everyone who takes the time to leave a legitimate comment here on my site. That's why I installed the “NoFollow Free” plugin on this blog. I am of the view that if I do good to others, they will also do the same to me in one way or the other. However, as you all know, there is a growing number of people on the Internet who try to leave spammy or empty comments on “NoFollow Free” blogs purely for the link value and not to contribute to the discussion. I would like to inform all commenters that I reserve the right to delete a link from a comment or to delete a comment all together if I feel it’s necessary. Also, if you leave keywords instead of your name in the name field, your comment will be deleted automatically. If I end up deleting the link from a comment that was well-intended, I apologize in advance, but I’m sure you’ll understand and you’ll be back to contribute again!

David Leonhardt writes why he rejects or accepts comments. It's worth reading the whole post but this last paragraph is of particular value as it offers some sound advice:

If you do come here to comment because you know the link is good for SEO, please do me the courtesy of either linking back to my site or at least social bookmarking the post. When you social bookmark the post, you are also helping yourself, because it increases the authority of the page that is linking back to your site. And it is sooooo easy to social bookmark each post. See the icons across the bottom of this post? Just click those icons at the bottom of any post and you can bookmark at dozens of popular sites.

To finish off, if you are serious about link building then read the recent interview with Eric Ward. You'll find valuable information here whatever level of experience you are on:

http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/eric-ward-link-building-masterclass

Also worth a read are 131 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies, 13 Ways To Link Building That Also Increase Web Traffic, 11 Experts on Link Development Speak Out, 30 Ways to Get Links Naturally & Stop Link Building, Link Building : A Complete Walkthrough, 101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website and Advanced Link Building Strategies.

Gaining incoming links using comments is merely a small percentage of a complete campaign. Don't get too bogged down in it and be nice