Apr

The No More No Follow Movement

By Char

Who would have thought that two little words could start such a trend – or as Chris Cree remarked at Gayla’s MomGadget – a movement! That’s right, the removal of “no follow” code from comments is down right contagious.

The “no follow” link code was originally intended to deter spam comments in the sense that if the link was not followed by the search engines then there wouldn’t be any benefit to the spammers, but spam filters, moderation and plugins are doing that job these days.

The trend is now switching to “do follow” or rewarding users for commenting on your blog by giving them a link each time they do. Now that is what I call nice. If only the rest of the world would play so nicely together.

I am using the Semilogic Wordpress plugin to remove “no follow” and I know there are others.

Gayla posted a list of blogs she knows that are promoting “do follow” and sharing the link love:

Are you generous with your links? Have you joined the “do follow” movement? If so, let us know so we can add you to the list!

Categories : Blogging, Web Marketing, WordPress

34 Comments

Doris
April 10th, 2007 at 4:41 pm

Hey Char.. how do we know if we are having the ‘do follow’ or no follow’ codes? I obviously like to be part of the ‘do follow’ community!

Gayla McCord
April 10th, 2007 at 4:56 pm

Doris ~
I wanted to play the “safe side” and just assumed that since I was using Wordpress and Blogger for my blogs that the nofollow was just there.

I’m not sure about Wordpress, but it was there on blogger. I was able to find a link through David’s link that lead me to the blogger fix.

As far as Wordpress – the plugin is so easy it only took 5 minutes to complete from start to finish. So it’s 5 minutes that were well spent to insure that my readers get what they deserve

Char, I got the list from David and Dawud and added to it too — it’s fun to watch it grow

Webomatica
April 10th, 2007 at 5:22 pm

*raises hand*

Nice to be in good company!

Chris Cree
April 10th, 2007 at 5:26 pm

The villagers are getting louder with torches and pitchforks in hand. Man the barricades! Down with NoFollow!

Ponn Sabra
April 10th, 2007 at 6:33 pm

Hi Char!
First time to yours and Gayla’s blogs (sorry it took so long)…but, as I shared I ‘do follow’. Don’t know how, my VA did it…techie-I-am-not.
Please add me to your list, and I will carry the convo. over at EmpowerWomenNow.com too! Sweet movement
Hugz, Ponn

Robert Hruzek
April 10th, 2007 at 7:47 pm

Hi, Char! I’m with you! Um… how do I do it? :-/

Char
April 10th, 2007 at 9:15 pm

Wow! I take the crew to the movies and things are hopping here!

If you have a Wordpress blog – use the Semilogic dofollow plugin. It is easy – download the file, upload the php file to your plugins directory and activate.

Jason & Ponn – I will add you now.

Robert – I’m confused – have you already removed no follow?

Marios Alexandrou
April 10th, 2007 at 11:30 pm

I joined not to long ago too. I use the LinkLove plugin which lets me determine how many comments are needed before a person’s like has the nofollow removed. In my case I set it to 2.

Char
April 10th, 2007 at 11:35 pm

I just added you Marios! Thanks for letting me know.

David Airey :: Creative Design ::
April 11th, 2007 at 10:19 am

Great you’ve joined the movement!

I hope all’s well with you, Char.

Doris
April 11th, 2007 at 2:42 pm

Sorry Char.. I’m so *duh* with these techie stuff.. where can I get the plugin to make sure I’m on the ‘to follow’ list? for blogger and WP.

Char
April 11th, 2007 at 2:46 pm

Thanks David – it is a worthy cause!

Doris – go to: http://www.semiologic.com/software/dofollow/ for the WP plugin. And here for the Blogger instructions:
http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/2007/03/remove-nofollow-attribute-on-comments.html

Randa
April 11th, 2007 at 3:16 pm

Want to tell everyone that youâ€™ve turned off the nofollow in your comments? Check out my new â€œifollowâ€ logos- grab one for your sidebar!
http://randaclay.com/archives/the-i-follow-movement

Doris
April 12th, 2007 at 3:14 pm

OK – all my blogs are in the movement now – Please add them – thanks!!

http://www.homeofficewomen.com
http://www.dorischua.com
http://www.dorisgoshopping.com
http://www.dorischua.blogspot.com

Dawud Miracle
April 12th, 2007 at 4:24 pm

Now we’re getting a little traction. Thanks. Let’s keep thing ball moving.

Lillie Ammann
April 15th, 2007 at 7:30 am

I’ve joined the No More No Follow movement and added the plugin to my blog as well.

Cass
April 15th, 2007 at 8:55 pm

I follow on all my blogs I also added your Casual Keystrokes to the D List, which is a traveling list of do follow bloggers.

Homemom3
April 18th, 2007 at 9:58 am

I’ll be adding to this list today. BTW- I added this site to a technorati train going around the net. You can read more about it on my site.

Bob
April 18th, 2007 at 4:42 pm

I Follow!

http://bobmeetsworld.com/you-comment-we-follow/

Zigire
April 19th, 2007 at 11:27 am

I follow too

http://www.zigire.net/2007/01/09/wordpress-and-relexternal-nofollow/

Char
April 19th, 2007 at 3:16 pm

Cass, Bob and Zigire – I have added you!

HomeMom3 – I’m not sure what you need to do in your template as I don’t use that platform.

Gayla McCord
April 19th, 2007 at 3:21 pm

To remove from blogger:

http://betabloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/2007/03/remove-nofollow-attribute-on-comments.html

Feel free to let me know if you have problems locating it.

Lucy
April 24th, 2007 at 2:11 pm

I’m a follower too … at least I hope so. WP plug-in installed at:

http://www.free-from.com/blog

But how do I know if it’s working?

Char
April 24th, 2007 at 2:38 pm

Lucy – I left you a comment – I’ll tell you later if it is working. If I see an inbound link then it is.

Manila Mom
April 26th, 2007 at 12:02 pm

Great to hook up here. I have a DoFollow List, too, at http://manila-mom.blogspot.com/2007/04/reward-your-readers-and-do-follow.html . You might want to check out the blogs listed there, too.

Rob O.
May 11th, 2007 at 12:01 pm

I’m a little late to the party, but I finally figured out how to strip the “NoFollow” code from our Blogger templates a bit more than a week ago.

Char
May 11th, 2007 at 12:09 pm

Rob – You are fashionably late! Thanks for stopping in.

Cade @ Write To Right
June 11th, 2007 at 11:03 pm

I have to say that this movement is amazing and will help out so many bloggers. I love how blogging is becoming more possible for the normal Joe and it will allow for many to gain the knowledge they need to so they can become amazing bloggers.

Cafe_Cafe
June 25th, 2007 at 12:01 am

Thanks for the tip.
Now I do follow comments on my blog.

Entretenimiento Online

Laura Lohr : My Beautiful Life
August 30th, 2007 at 7:09 am

I do follow! Add me to the list!

mlankton
September 23rd, 2007 at 9:07 am

I keep asking people with dofollow blogs this question, and so far I’m not getting any responses. I know that with akismet and moderation spam is a non-issue. Since going dofollow, would you say that the increase in traffic and comments you gained is significant? Comment spam, minor nuisance or overwhelming flood of junk comments?
Thanks

Marios Alexandrou
September 23rd, 2007 at 9:30 am

mlankton,

I’m not seeing much of a change in comment numbers. My blog is fairly new though. I think nofollow is just one factor. If you’re not writing anything of interest to readers it isn’t going to matter what you do with your links. I, for one, will keep trying!