Recently, I changed my blog into a DoFollow Blog. The change has been very interesting, to say the least! Sometimes pretty comical. Not that I’m complaining, but I’ve learned just about all I could about Online Bingo, Colon Cleansing and WeightLoss. Some of the comments have made it onto my blog, while the links were simply deleted from most others, but a few spammy comments were just deleted all together.

It’s made me think about a few of the subtle differences between NoFollow Blogs & DoFollow Blogs.

Increase in Traffic vs. Increase of ‘Worthwhile’ Traffic

Since making the change from a NoFollow blog, into a DoFollow Blog, my traffic has climbed steadily. Part of of the increased traffic can be blamed on my posts being submitted to social bookmarking sites, such as StumbleUpon and Del.icio.us. A good portion of my traffic has come from photoshop tutorial sites, in which a few of my posts are submitted. But, my analytics are also pointing to a noticable spike in traffic from DoFollow-Related sources.

I’m not complaining about the increased traffic, because traffic is traffic, right?

Maybe, Maybe not… Think about it. What good is traffic from somebody that is merely interested in exploiting their own products. They’re basically pimping out your website, just for their own personal gain. They don’t care about the content whatsoever. The comments are always a generic message. They hardly ever click on any ads. All they are doing is eating up bandwidth on your site.

Seriously, What good is this traffic?!

Rewarding True Comments vs. Rewarding Spammers

If somebody finds one of my posts, either by a search engine or social bookmarking site, then they take the time to read it, and leave a genuine, from-the-heart comment. I think they deserve a link back to their site. They deserve a little kickback from me to them.

But, DoFollow bloggers need to know where to draw the line.

Comment spammers aren’t completely stupid, a small percentage are pretty good at slipping linked keywords into DoFollow blog comments. These comments get past Akismet, and land directly in your moderation que. At this point, it’s completely up to a DoFollow blogger’s full discretion, as to whether that link is approved for their blog. A DoFollow Blogger should ALWAYS read it. Analyze it. Take the time to figure out where the link is going.

And then ask yourself, are you willing to vouche for that linked site?

More Blog Karma vs. More Blog Work

I’ve heard many bloggers complain about DoFollow requiring them to put more work into their blog, and therefore they won’t make the switch from NoFollow to DoFollow.

I understand that people are busy. I’m insanely busy, so I completely understand the amount of time it takes to maintain a blog. Especially, a DoFollow blog that is basically a spam magnet. Any smart DoFollow Blogger will change their comment procedure, that allows them to manually approve or deny every comment. The DoFollow blogger will then see every comment that goes on to their site, and can make a decision as to whether or not to allow this link. This is the only true way of weeding out the spam comments, and not the genuine comments.

Plus, don’t you want to be a blog that gives back to it’s readers? Even if the ratio of readers-to-spammers is pretty low… I would still like to give back to those who genuinely read and took the time to leave their opinion. And yes, even those who disagreed with my post deserve some link-love.

Links are equivalent to currency in the blogosphere. They are gold. So, if you provide a way for commenter’s to link back to their site, you will basically encourage more people to leave comments. Which equates to more people actually reading what you write. This is all good stuff for increasing your blogosphere-karma, as well as widening your network.

My DoFollow Decision

I can see two perspectives concerning DoFollow blogs. I can see why someone would be discouraged to join the DoFollow Revolution. Mainly those stated above, but at the same time, I can see the lure of wanting to have a DoFollow blog.

Personally, I like having DoFollow on my blogs, because I feel like I am giving back to the blogosphere. I was never really good at sending out Thank You notes, and this is my little way of saying “Thanks for visiting & contributing to my blog.” Plus, the extra work has kept me busy and more in-tune with my blog. I have become a better blogger because of DoFollow, and for that I am grateful.

Not to mention, I have learned everything I could EVER want to know about colon cleansing, weightloss, depression and any other highly spammed keyword! WooHoo!!