I have a couple of blogs which I am considering making dofollow for comments. Obvious benefits are lots more comments (free content), backlinks from all those dofollow directories, and a potential boost in traffic from these. I'm worried about spam, though - especially dofollow backlinks to spammy sites in my comments. I'd rather not spend my life moderating. Anyone have any thoughts as to whether the tradeoff is worth it?
This is just my opinion and so I am probably going to go against what most others will say. I dont think it is worth anything to convert to "dofollow" comments. I think that it will attract spammers who are only interested in trying to get backlinks and not in your blog. I get 40 to 50 comments nearly every day on my "no follow" blog (not counting a few spams which akismet grabs most of). Adding the "dofollow" plugin will increase your traffic, but the extra traffic you get will not help with your earnings. In the end the decision is yours to make. I just wanted to express my views about the subject. I also feel that many (not all) DP members may try to encourage you to go this route so that they will be able to try to get themselves some backlinks.
Of course, the most popular technique for removing nofollow attributes from comment links involves one of the many fine dofollow plugins that are freely available to WordPress users.
I agree too, but if you moderate the blogs then you pick and choose which comments you post, I know you did say you didn't want to spend a lot of time moderating which I totally understand but if you want to increase traffic to your blogs then I personally would become 'do follow' it is up to you really it depends on how much increased traffic is important to you.
there are benefits of do follow blog,but spammers will be always around,you just need to be moderate your blog.
I had the same problem before with spam but after installing force preview plug-in.. spammers disappeared.. my blog is a dofollow blog as well and I am not worried about spam..
Spam should not pose a problem because nowadays there are plugins which you can use to block spams. Just turn on the comment moderation so that you can approve before allowing the comments to be displayed. Personally I feel there's more pros than cons.
Well, I went dofollow couple of weeks back but I haven't seen an increase in spam.. But it really doesn't matter to me since Askimet does a really good job in catching them. By the way, do you guys use the dofollow plugin on your blog? IMHO, I believe that it can add an unnecessary weight to your servers? I did a post on this few days back on my blog.
Going Dodollow and adding a Top Commentor Plugin specially if you are using wordpress will help you. And to fight spam comments you can use Akismet wordpress plugin
Don't be affraid of spammers. Going dofollow is a good choice, if you're looking for more traffic on your blog.
Why are some so afraid of Spammers? The Akismet plug-in works great for spammers and detects them and places then in a special area on your dashboard and then you can moderate and delete them. Plus the fact that spammers will try to spam you blog whether it's a d-follow or not. You'd be surprised how great do-follow is for building a community with other bloggers and networking. It has a great viral effect, other bloggers get exposure to your content and can link to your content, which gives you more exposure and traffic. It's a great marketing sell on related forums to get more visitors. And if you write good content they may come for the follow link and stay and subscribe for your content. Do-Follow works all around. Check out Akismet here: http://akismet.com/download/
don't do it! I did it and it's turned into a nightmare. I just get good comments, but from spam sites, not cus they're actually interested. Example, 'this photo of your dog is really good.' from 'Pet food supplies.' http://www.petfoodsupplies.com - an example!! if you do it, add a commenting policy and state that the 'name' i.e. link anchor must only be their actual name, not like 'doctor who toys for kids.' lol
I don't agree with that, either do a do-follow or not, restriction like first name only defeats the whole purpose of the do-follow, who needs their actual name in the anchor? I understand that some may come just to get a link, but that is not a big deal, it's worth that to get all the other great benefits!
I never said that I was afraid of spam. I use plugins for that and I get very little spam. What I tried to say was that if going "dofollow" does increase your traffic the traffic will not be worth anything. Yes, your stats may increase, but the extra traffic will not help your blog will it? I mean other webmasters coming to your blog to post a comment so they can their link ... how will that help your blog? I want traffic that is interested in my content. I approve 50+ comments on my blog every day, all of them posted by people who are interested. And guess what? I dont even have a spot for a url on the comment form. I removed that (ha ha spammers ), mainly because people kept putting in stuff like, "dont have one" "NA" "yahoo" google" etc. and I tired of editing it out. Here is my advice: If you want to get an increase in traffic then try putting unique and interesting content on your blog that people will want to read instead of trying tricks like social bookmarking, do follow plugins, and the like. I went to your link, had to click another link and then I had to click yet another link before I got to the plugi to check it out. Sorry, but your post looks like an advertisement and link bait to get an increase in your traffic stats,g but I suppose there is nothing wrong with that. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ajax-force-comment-preview/ I will check this one out, having visitors being able to preview their comments may be a nice feature. And what are some of these benefits?
The question is whether you think an increase in traffic is worth the trouble of moderating your blog and constantly fighting the spam?
The Akismet plugin is the weakest anti-spam plugin for wordpress.. It will take you 3 clicks to download the plugin. Most people are not like you who understand what you are doing... The general audience must be provided thorough information before downloading something.. Try to find a software at sourceforge.net and it will also take you 3 to 4 clicks to download a software... I don't see any problem with that.
when i started my blog I went do-follow to follow the bandwagon but these days I'm thinking about changing back to nofollow...
I feel if a reader takes the time to leave a comment, it is a nice way of thanking them with a dofollow link. However, since doing so, I have seen an increase in spam. I moderate all comments and it takes a few minutes but it does not bother me. Spammers will hit no matter if it do follow or no follow, I do it as a reward for good comments.