Link Building With Comments On Do Follow Blogs
When you leave a comment on a Do Follow blog, with the intention of building back links to your own site, the following checklist will help ensure you gain the maximum benefit from your investment of time, effort and intellect.
Ensure that your target blog:
- is Do Follow, that is, it removes the ‘nofollow’ links attribute
- has a Google Page Rank – the higher, the better
- is in the same niche market as the website you’re back linking to.
A less well known approach when you comment on a blog that includes the above attributes is to:
- comment on a specific web page that has, in its own right, acquired a Google Page Rank, because rumour has it that Google values such individual page rank more highly than the PR of the site as a whole or the site’s home page.
Don’t feel guilty about approaching comments so cold-bloodedly. Remember to bear in mind that this method of link building benefits both sides of the equation, one gains a comment and the other gains a back link.
Quid pro quo.
Layne | Reward Rebel
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90 Responses to “Link Building With Comments On Do Follow Blogs”
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I think a lot depends on the frequency of the updates and how frequently Google bot indexes that blog. If its a frequently updated blog its not a good idea to leave comments on the latest posts. Old posts with good PR is the best place to leave comments.( just my thoughts though )
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Totally agree with you that the older posts are more likely to have established PR. Thanks for mentioning it.
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Being new to blogging, I really appreciate you sharing your insights. I have to admit that the more I learn the more overwhelmed I become by all the “pieces” it takes to do well. I am learning thanks to people like you. Thanks.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 2nd, 2008 at 6:42 pm
The kind words are appreciated, Bob, and you must read the About page here, cos I totally know how mind-blowing it can be for a new blogger, when you start to realise just what you’ve taken on!
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Overall, be sure not to leave crappy spammy comments!
That said, if you are new to the blog in question, DO NOT start with older posts…savvier bloggers are hip to this and will SERIOUSLY scrutinize the content of your comment and decide if they wish to keep or delete.
Besides, due to this savvyness, you will find a lot of bloggers do one of 2 things now…
1. Turn off do-follow to posts that are X months old.
2. Turn off comments altogether to these posts.
Also, it’s good to keep in mind…individual posts take considerably longer to rank the the home age, but, just like with link strategies, don’t discount low or no PR as this will surely change eventually and age counts.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 2nd, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Firstly, thanks for the quality content of your comment, Dennis!
Secondly, I’m going to take the first line of your comment as a general bit of advice for everyone reading this. I never leave crappy spammy comments, like ‘thanks for sharing’ or ‘great pics’! I only ever comment when I have something to add to the overall information in the post, or if the content has impressed me strongly enough that I’m compelled to comment… I just do it as much as possible on sites that will also provide a benefit, but not exclusively.
Good points you’ve made that do need to be borne in mind when building back links this way. Cheers, Dennis.
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Dennis Edell Reply:
November 2nd, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Oops yea, that was a general statement.
I know it’s the most repeated but it is #1. Break that one and the other 1354 rules could matter less…the comment ain’t gettin’ through anyway. LOL
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 2nd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
There are a surprising number of commenters who would appear to be completely unaware of this!
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Robin Green Reply:
November 19th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
I understand what you mean. Now don’t get me wrong, I did do just that in the past and have since learned better. It makes it so much easier for people like me to learn these things with help from others such as yourself. Now I am aware!
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Indeed *grumble*
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:42 am
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I use this “Fast blog finder” software to find high page rank posts to leave a comment on. You can download the software for free at this website.
http://www.fastblogfinder.com/
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:42 am
Thanks, Mike, I’ll check it out.
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You can google quite a few lists of sites that have do-follow commenting, ranked according to their PR. As mentioned though, the individual page itself is more important, than the home page.
Always leave valuable comments, or
A) Your comment will most likely be labeled as spam
B) You will ruin the reputation of your brand
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Good points that deserve inclusion! Thanks.
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Dennis Edell Reply:
November 3rd, 2008 at 6:57 pm
A lot of those lists are old. Be sure to double check each blog you land on to be sure they are still do-follow.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Cheers, Dennis.
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I think that it is important to mention that yes, it is important to comment on a page with a higher page rank, but if the homepage has a high page rank and the page you are commenting on hasn’t been ranked yet, that is still okay. You can consider it more of an investment. As time goes on, that page will go up in page rank, and the closer it is to the homepage the better, as the pagerank will rarely ever go higher than a site’s homepage rank.
Great post!
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 3rd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
When blogging and commenting, future investment is an important consideration - possibly overlooked by people new to blogging. Thanks for input.
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I really wish I understood all of this!
I have a Page Rank of 3 and a pretty good following of readers…but I only make pennies a day with google adsense…every once in awhile, I will make $1 or $2, but that is rare. I did that ad filtering thing, too, at least 3 times, whenever I remember to do it…so it’s just frustrating.
Nice to meet you, found you on Entrecard.
Bella
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 3rd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Unless your site receives enough traffic to generate a good percentage of click throughs, the income from Adsense isn’t worth having their ugly ads at all!
I’m currently changing all my Adsense ad blocks to Adsense links, as they seem to do better, especialy when they’re positioned discreetly within or between posts. Best of luck to you with your site.
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benwaynet Reply:
November 4th, 2008 at 1:43 am
RR, totally agree with you about adsense not being worth it for low traffic sites. I’ve moved onto using Text-link-ads.com.
I’m making some good money with them each month.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 4th, 2008 at 5:20 am
Thanks, I’ve just revisited Text Link Ads after signing up RR about a year ago, so hearing about your success with them is music to my ears!
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Dennis Edell Reply:
November 4th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Unless it’s a niche or niche within a niche site where traffic is expected to be somewhat low…then it’s just set and forget passive adsense income…for the most part.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Sure, that’s true for a tightly-targeted niche site, where visitors have gone there on a very specific mission, but Adsense isn’t really appropriate for the majority of ‘broad interest’ blogs.
i leave comments to posts regardless whether they are dofollow or nofollow. If it is dofollow, we’ll good. I’ll visit and comment again, but it really depends on the content.
There was even a blog post somewhere suggesting that when commenting on dofollow blogs, use the keywords that you are optimizing as anchor text, not your name. The commenter’s name is only placed at the end of the comment.
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Sandy Reply:
December 1st, 2008 at 11:33 pm
I leave comments too on do not follows as well as do follows. I think that there are still people that appreciate what knowledge we all have to share.
I have heard about commenting and using keywords and not your name but I have never tried that myself.
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Wow! Imagine my surprise to see you talking about Do Follow but my SEO Quake isn’t showing your links as no-follow.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 2:46 am
That’s horrific!! I have the DoFollow plugin installed and activated, but shall now investigate - and I’ll have to double-check my other sites, too. God, it never stops with blogs, does it?
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Kathy @ Virtual Impax Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
You fixed it!!
I know - I’ve had it turn off when I updated my blogs too!
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 6th, 2008 at 5:27 am
What a mess…. I decided to delete the copy of dofollow from RR and reinstall a fresh download. But I then experienced difficulties maintaining the internet connection, but have finally installed and activated new copy.
I no longer trust it to be OK, so if you read this, please feel free to let me know whether or not I’m giving link love!
BTW many thanks for turning me onto SEO Quake, what an excellent tool - much obliged for your input, do drop by again.
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Dennis Edell Reply:
November 6th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
It seems to be ok now.
RewardRebel Reply:
November 7th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Thanks, D.
RewardRebel Reply:
November 6th, 2008 at 5:59 am
I’m becoming a total SEO Quake addict! Although what it’s showing me about some things is freaking me out! I thought RR had a sitemap and according to the Google sitemap plugin, it does, but according to SEO Quake, it doesn’t!
It’s a headache, but it’s obviously better to find out when things are glitching. I just wish I knew how to put them right! I feel yet another learning curve coming on…
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Thanks…these are great tips! I’m pretty new at the blogging thing, so it’s good to know.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 7:25 am
We try!
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I recently switched to nofollow comments after several legit comments. So far results has been worth it. Sure is a lot better than having a rating system like SezWho or Intense Debate.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 6th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Sorry to appear dense, but I don’t want to make any assumptions…. do you mean “…switched to dofollow…”?
Don’t think much of SezWho, do you? Heh, heh. I gave ‘em a shot when they cosied up with Entrecard, but uninstalled soon after, I think it’s tacky and totally ineffective as a method of ranking, but each to their own.
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You are exactly right and I ran across the benefits of comments by accident. The Hawg loves leaving comments — I didn’t realize why my Alexa ranking was skyrocketing until I figured just how much those back links help a site.
And, I do agree with what has already been said here — spammy comments suck.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 9th, 2008 at 2:44 am
Of course, the natural commenter is blessed with a vault of opinion to plant across the blogosphere! Thanks for dropping a seedling here!
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I think the best trick is to just comment on blogs you like and not do it as some kind of ritualistic promotion tool. There are no guarantees that a blog that is high PR or dofollow today will be the same tomorrow and vice versa. Sometimes commenting on newer blogs with up and coming articles and a good seo at the helm is a premium way to boost backlinks.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 9th, 2008 at 2:42 am
Well, I guess it depends on your reason for blogging, whether it’s purely for pleasure or as one aspect of a bigger picture. If it’s part of a business plan, one needs to optimise the benefits from one’s investments of initiative, time, effort and money.
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great information for novices like me,in the field of blogging.GIVE SOME MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO INCREASE TRAFFIC
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 12th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
You’re dealing with some very specific topics on your site, try leaving valid comments on sites within the Health niche - Entrecard is a good place to start, and of course it’s also valuable in its own right to help improve Alexa Rank. It’s tedious dropping cards, but it has massive benefits for a new site.
You could focus your commenting on sites that:
- use DoFollow
- use CommentLuv
- display a link in sidebar for recent and/or top commenters.
Keyword research is your tool for attracting search engine traffic, and social networks are good for making your presence online known.
Have you tried Yahoo Answers? There may be someone just itching (geddit?) to know the cure for trich!
There you go, a mini post just for you! Wishing you the best of luck and lots of success with your health site and future endeavours online.
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Dennis Edell Reply:
November 13th, 2008 at 1:27 am
That was just bad…bad I say.
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I try to comment regularly, but rarely do I look at a site as dofollow or nofollow. I guess it would make sense to prioritize sites in that manner to make sure you leave comments that will benefit both sides.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 12th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
People often seem to view this approach as being calculating and manipulative, but it isn’t. It’s simply being efficient.
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Hey everyone. I want to ask you GURUS a question. Now, I’m new at link building and blogging, but I don’t leave spammy type. It wastes my time and I like to read what people are venting about.
Ok, here is the question. I was following a do-follow list few sites had in their site. But somebody told me not to post at the sites. I asked why? The person told me that they might place me as spam. I told the person that it’s ok and the “hosts” are approving my comments.
I want to ask you gurus if there is something wrong with posting legit comments on dofollow sites?
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 19th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
I think you’re winding me up!
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Dennis Edell Reply:
November 20th, 2008 at 12:58 am
Jamie - No, nothing at all wrong with it. No offense but it sounds like this person is/was a comment spammer that got caught.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 20th, 2008 at 4:14 am
No offence taken, D, as that was what I figured myself, but I was feeling kinda prickly, ya know?!
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Dennis Edell Reply:
November 20th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
That’s good! However my comment was directed towards Jamie who said it. LOL
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 21st, 2008 at 3:07 am
Oh, pooh!
Jamie Reply:
November 21st, 2008 at 3:22 pm
That’s what I assumed myself. I didn’t want to say anything because I’m new at this, so I just figured I would ask the experts. Thanks for the feedback everyone.
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Dennis Edell Reply:
November 21st, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Good choice, especially if it isn’t a friend. If it is a friend, you may want to kinda ask what comments they may be leaving.
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Thanks so much for posting on this topic. My mom always said to work smarter.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 19th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
It was my Nan who used to say it to me!
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Hi. I learned so much from your post. Before, all I knew was that I should leave quality comments on the blogs that I visit. Now there’s so much more into commenting than meets the eye.
I might have missed it somewhere here, but may I know how do you remove the NoFollow links from the comment section? Do you use a plugin for that? I’m using Wordpress by the way.
Thanks.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 19th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Good point! Take a look at Reward Rebel’s Plug-Ins Page and it’s the third item on the list. You may find other plugins that’ll be useful, too (tho the page does need updating).
The plugin ‘Comment Luv’ is another good way to reward your comment(at)ors…. I’m just trying to figure out what’s gone wrong with it on RR, cos it did work wonderfully.
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Dennis Edell Reply:
November 20th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Layne - I recently switched to Lucias Linky Love do follow plugin.
If you’d like to know why.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 20th, 2008 at 4:17 am
I’ve considered LL but can’t bear having any more things to config, tweak, uninstall and reinstall, retweak, ya get mah drift?
I’m having CommentLuv probs at the moment, and haven’t the faintest notion what’s wrong. I’m going through bit of an enthusiasm and motivation drought at the moment! Sorry if I’m being super negative, I’m sure it’ll pass… eventually.
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Dennis Edell Reply:
November 20th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
LOL
CL is now ver. 2.5.4, which are you? Upgrade if it’s old…their going DEAD soon.
RewardRebel Reply:
November 21st, 2008 at 3:07 am
Will check it out, thanks Dennis.
PinoyCopywriter Reply:
November 21st, 2008 at 9:43 am
Thanks for the plugin list! I already bookmarked it ‘coz I’m planning to do some tweaking on my blog this coming weekend.
Great resource.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 21st, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Thanks for stopping by again to let me know.
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the first thing that i consider when I want to comment on another blog is, if the niche is related. Then, I look for post of interest that I can learn from. If I know something about the post topic, I will then comment.
I don’t actively seek out do-follow blogs, because a no-follow blog will still get you traffic. So, I stay focused on my niche and what I can learn and contribute.
I have the Comment LUV plugin and my blog is a do-follow after you meet the set number of comments required. I haven’t seen much increase of comments now traffic.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 19th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Sometimes these things take a while before you perceive the benefits, but I’m inclined to think there’s a lot to be said for treating others as you’d have them treat you… karma, ya know? Best of luck in your path.
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I have discovered way to combine the do follow and no follow tags.
At my site, Faith and Facts, I have the do follow tag on the author and his website. So, anyone leaving a comment with their blog or website gets a link.
However, the no follow tag remains on links in the body of the comment. This helps reduce spam.
So far I think it is a good solution.
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 23rd, 2008 at 6:50 am
Me too! It’s a good balance.
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Codrut Turcanu @ Article Writing Software Reply:
November 27th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
and how exactly do you keep no follow in the comment body?
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RewardRebel Reply:
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:50 pm
It’s a default setting, I believe.
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I had no idea that the niche was important! So google gives more weight to links that have similar content as the one it is linking to?
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 25th, 2008 at 5:21 am
It’s very important. If your site is in the dog training niche, Google et al will rank a llink from another dog training site as more important and relevant than a link from a cookery site. Glad the post has shone some light on the subject for you.
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Hi! This is just to let you know that I’ve passed on 3 awards to you at http://realgreekrecipes.blogspot.com
I really appreciate you visiting my blogs consistently and I also love your blogs. I wish you all the best in Crete.
You’ll find this comment on your other 2 blogs as well.
Cheers!
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RewardRebel Reply:
November 27th, 2008 at 3:18 am
Thanks so much, Symposio, I really appreciate your support too.
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Gettin’ close to a month with no new posts, you ok?
Also, what happened to commentluv?
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RewardRebel Reply:
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Am I OK? Deep question, dude… I’m still breathing, guess that’s something.
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It’s great to see a fellow blogger who understands the need for enabling do-follow.
Btw, did you have it from the beginning and how did you handle spam commenting?
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RewardRebel Reply:
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Akismet takes care of a great deal of SPAM. I have always enabled comment moderation, so nothing gets through unless I’ve seen it, but I would like to automate the commenting set up…. as and when time allows me to get stuck in!
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I have do follow enabled on my blog—i have seen a couple of extra spam comments since then, but my page rank is still 0….what do i need to do to get that up?
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RewardRebel Reply:
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Your posts need to contain tightly targeted keywords relevant to your blog’s topic or niche market. The better your keywords and keyword phrases are matched to the keywords of enquiries typed into the search engine, the higher placed your site will be in the Search Engine Results Pages [SERPs].
However, this will be the case only if this traffic isn’t all bounced, which is the downside of Entrecard traffic. It’s highly effective to improve a site’s Alexa ranking, but it also drastically raises the bounce rate, and I have serious concerns about the long term impact of this on a site’s Google PR.
My best PR so far is on my blog Crete Delights which has a PR3, due I believe to the narrowly targeted keywords… Crete, Crete this, Crete that, Crete the other!
Good luck with your blog and its page rank aspirations.
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[...] Rebel’s last post Link Building With Comments On DoFollow Blogs raised some points that I’d like to address now. After all, you need to know how to [...]
I came across you thru Entrecard and I love your site. I had no idea about the whole DoFollow links and I have fixed my site. Thanks!
Cher´s last blog post..Win a 30 ct. box of Personalized Fruit Roll Ups!!!! (Ends Jan. 9th)
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Hello, I have the tool that highlights with purple the dofollow links and with pink the no dofollow links, what is the difference between one and the other? sometimes I find DoFollow blogs but when I use this tool then the link has the pink color, so what I want to know is if I can leave a comment in that kind of blogs?
Thank you very much
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RewardRebel Reply:
April 30th, 2009 at 3:15 am
Why not use the Firefox Add-on SEO Quake? In the options you can choose to have NoFollow links appear with a line through them. That way, there’s never any doubt, and it’s an invaluable tool that I wouldn’t be without.
Thanks for stopping by.
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Dennis Edell Reply:
April 30th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Actually if you’re ONLY interested in checking do or no follow and don’t need an entire tool bar, i was recently informed of the NoDoFollow Firefoz add-on. Operated on and off with one click from your tools menu, I think it’s the best one out there.
It gives the follow status of every link on the page including comments. - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5687
Dennis Edell´s last blog post..100 Marketers Give 100 Strategies - Recommended!
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Dennis Edell Reply:
April 30th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Some bloggers (like me) use the Lucia’s Linky Love do follow plugin. This particular plugin allows the admin to set a predetermined number of comments per commenter before they all turn do follow….this fools “drive by” spammers who only leave 1 crappy comment and move on.
Dennis Edell´s last blog post..100 Marketers Give 100 Strategies - Recommended!
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RewardRebel Reply:
May 1st, 2009 at 6:57 am
Hi D, I’ve considered Lucia’s Linky Love and may well adopt it myself as part of RR’s Spring Clean!
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Tony Reply:
May 4th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Thank you Dennis! So maybe most of bloggers may use Lucia’ Linky.
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Your frankness is refreshing. I still think it pays to try to only comment if you think you are adding some value. I’m still trying to weigh this up but I think that if you have something of value there are enough niche forums, related blogs, directories and web 2.0 opportunities out there to build a strong presence. If there aren’t, do you really have something strong enough to generate sustainable business? Just a thought. Malcolm Evans.
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