Just found your blog today and its quite nice. Interesting discussions and glad your blog like mine is a do follow. I agree it does increase the amount of discussions.

Ramit
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Nevertheless, having links that are follow vs. links that are nofollow may still have some impact. How much is up for debate, but I still believe it is worth giving my most frequent commenters a link that is free of the nofollow attribute, whether its impact can be measured definitively or not.
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I like the solution you came up with to reward “real” participants with removing the NOFOLLOW for their link after a certain number of posts. Very clever!

Thanks!

y Stuart | Design Meme on

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Carolyn Shelby, Rebecca Kelley, Jane Copland, Rae Hoffman, Lara Kulpa, Lisa Barone and Lora Lufark…just to name a few.

Glad you like the post and that you’re trying out having FOLLOW links. Please come back and let us know how it turns out for you!

p.s. what’s with all the honies getting into SEO, I thought it’s supposed to be a geek field :p

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But, if you check out the links within the comments you’ll see that most are still indeed NOFOLLOW (as a result of how I’ve configured the plugin). So, I’ve actually accomplished 2 things: 1) generated a lot of comments on this post; and 2) maintained low number of external links that flow PR.

Either way you look at it, there are those that think it’s a dumb idea and those of us who think it’s a fine idea.

Good luck to you. um… should I now add in the “Great post” remark?

It especially rewards return visits to keep up on replies and leave new comments, as one of the SPAM control measures I have in place is that a single author has to have left a certain number of comments before the NOFOLLOW is removed from the link. That helps to control SPAM and the outgoing flow of link juice a bit for those who stop by and leave a single comment and never return. You can see (if you’ve got SEO for Firefox installed) that only Rae, Dave N and myself have left an adequate number of comments to have the NOFOLLOW removed.

Not only does WordPress’s Akismet does a pretty good job of recognizing and eliminating SPAM virtually automatically, the “NoFollow Free” plugin gives you the opportunity to control the removal of NOFOLLOW even further by configuring a number of options. Like how many comments an author must have left before the NOFOLLOW is removed from their link, whether or not the NOFOLLOW is removed just from the author name or from within the comments section, as well…I like it and I’d encourage anyone with a WordPress blog to check it out.

You’re absolutely right…as a moderator the responsibility ultimately falls to me to know who my post comments are passing link juice to. That’s why I like the aforementioned “NoFollow Free” plugin so much.

I think this is all a good experiment in how to remove the NOFOLLOW from a newer blog properly, giving some more experienced in the field a little incentive to participate in the conversation…without worrying so much about SPAM. Keep in mind, this experiment I’m conducting isn’t JUST about SEOAly and directed toward the search marketing industry insiders. This is about how I can help my future clients build blogs with a strong following and regular return visitors…blogs that encourage the best and brightest in their respective industries to participate in the conversations there – in much the same way all of you have here!

So far, all is well. I’ve gotten some great comments from a variety of people…like Rae Hoffman and Dave Naylor. I’d say thus far the test is a success. If it ever crosses the line to “FAILURE”, I’ll be sure to write a post letting all of you know.

Only joking. I have found that blogs which give links in comments a little bit of value receive A LOT more comments from readers, it’s bound to happen, right? And if you stay on top of things as a moderator of those comments they could really boost the value of your blog. So it’s a win win, right?

But – I wonder – if you let spammers get out of control when commenting, does that devalue your blog?

In most industries the people commenting and discussing on the blog don’t even know that FOLLOW and NOFOLLOW exist, so I concede that point completely. But for people within “the middle class”, up & comers in the search marketing industry…the ones with SEO for Firefox enabled right now that can see which links are NOFOLLOW and which links are not, it can make a difference to whether they get a link in return. I’m at the stage where building link popularity from well-respected sources is still very important to me.

As busy as I am, if I have something to say and I know I will get a link as a result of taking the time to say it, I’m more likely to comment. And it’s never a “great post” or “totally disagree” BS post just to get a link…it’s a real comment that contributes real value to the discussion. That’s the kind of culture I’m attempting to build here. So far, it seems to be working…

While others have a lot less. This one only has 4 comments + TB: http://www.designmeme.com/professor-x-for-firefox-3/

Would the 4 comment post have had a lot more discussion because of removing the nofollow? I’m not sure.

I definitely hear what you’re saying, but I’m just not sure that people’s motivation for leaving comments is whether they will or won’t get those links back to their site that Google will spider. For some topics definitely. For others, not as much.

For me personally, I’m more interested in the actual discussion, and maybe hoping the other people taking part in the discussion will want to check out what I’m working on as well. I usually assume a nofollow unless someone specifically says otherwise, and that usually doesn’t affect whether I post or not.

At any rate, it’ll be interesting to see if this works for you — and if you see an increase in your comments as a result of removing the nofollow.

Stuart | Design Memes last blog post..Professor X for Firefox 3

Props to you for trying this out.

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If you’ve written a post about a Firefox extension you’ve created and your goal is to generate a discussion about it, reward those willing to participate in the discussion by providing a link back to their site. When I say “police it…”, I mean by configuring the plugin such that one-time “great extension” comments do not have the NOFOLLOW function removed, but ongoing discussions by the same comment authors do. It’s a way of passing a little link love to those who deserve it most – and those are the individuals that are most active in the discussions on your blog.

The vast majority of people don’t know what FOLLOW vs. NOFOLLOW means and visually they’ll have no indication of such. It is, however, a way to reward your most active comment authors with some link juice…in return for their providing you with additional content that is relevant to your blog post.

I read Sugarrae long before I registered…it was when I had something I couldn’t resist commenting on that I registered. Had I known she removed the NOFOLLOW from her comments, I’d have registered and talked my ass off a whole lot sooner! HAHA!

It’s as if the world has forgotten that I have complete control over what links are NOFOLLOW and which aren’t. Furthermore, I have complete control over what comments show up on my blog and what don’t at all.

Having TOO MANY comments to weed through to determine which are legit and which aren’t…that’s the least of my worries at this point.