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New DoFollow Rules – Thanks to Andy Beard, Spam Catcher.

The great and powerful Andy Beard has found spam lurking in our site, masquerading as real comments!

Our bad for not paying closer attention, and kudos to him and his awesome Niche Marketing blog for stopping spam in its tracks. Someone get the man a badge and a side arm!

In honor of our spommet catching captain, we’re erecting an official DoFollow Comment Policy. No more Ms. Nice girl and partners. Just because you typed it in manually doesn’t make it Not Spam.

The New Rules

Since I’m giving you a free link, one that usually means you get traffic, I set the rules. These aren’t going to affect anyone who makes sincere comments at the site and really is part of our community.

So, real commenters? As you were.

And I thank the 80% of folks who play by the rules when making manual comments. You get your DoFollow love after a certain number of posts.

Here’s how it works.

You read something you like/disagree with/have questions on/wrote about at your site/deserves a good your-mama joke/rocks/sucks you submit a reply. This isn’t hard.

Here’s fair warning to all others: if We have any reason to suspect your mesage is a spomment or spamment, you gets no love – that includes paid commenters.

If I find your case to be borderline, I will still link to people who don’t get caught in the spam filter, but we’ll give no DoFollow love. Since most drive-by commenters won’t read this, I suggest you use the DoFollow plug-in we use on your blog too, Lucia’s awesome Linky Love.

Others, I reserve the right to edit your link out of your comment – or not print it at all, under any of the following conditions.

  1. You don’t use your real name or at least a decent handle. I understand link building as much as the next bloke, but don’t be ridiculous. At least INCLUDE your first name so I can delude myself into thinking we’re actually going to bond.
  2. You leave a link other than the one in the form. Seriously it takes up too much of my time to be fishing you out of the moderation queue all the time.
  3. You leave a nonsensical or ass-kissing comment. If you’re going to praise the blog or the post, be sincere and specific. I have plenty of worshippers offline, but you have to apply in person. :)

These rules can change at any time. Free links are for Real Comments.

Rewards for Spam Catching.

If you catch a spam comment that we miss, you totally pwn that comment and we’ll give you a free permanent link somewhere.

In the meantime, we’re using Lucia’s Linky Love Plugin, which delays DoFollow love, and that gives us a chance to catch spam that occasionally still gets through.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 3:05 am and is filed under blogging, free traffic tips and tools and with tags: . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

  • tonyoptionstradingwhiz
    Speaking of which - after reading what you said - what is the best way to get back links? I was told back links are 98% of the battle for SEO. Is that true? Could that change because it's like a gimmick (as Google always seems to switch it up to keep adwords revenue high.)

    Ok i put my name with a keyword. Hope that is ok. I'm kinda new on marketing and searching engines. Any help is appreciated. My email is in the comment thingy.
  • I recently implemented dofollow on my blog comments. My criteria are similar but not quite as stringent as yours.

    For me as long as the comment adds value to my post, and the linked website is also somewhat relevant / not spam, I will allow that comment.
  • In learning to have a DoFollow, I've come across your site. Just subscribed via email and looking forward to visiting here often. And not just for the link love you understand, ahem :)
  • This is a good method to keep spammers away ... but you need to be more specific than "delays DoFollow love" because if they see it is a real limit then is possible to skip spamming :)

    Regards
  • First of all I'm glad to see other people joining to "dofollow revolution".

    Manual spamming is our big problem right now ... is hard to elude if is a spam message or not ... for example I just read above my comment: "thanks for your dofollow" posted by a "Chat"? ... Beware ... chat's starting posts ...

    Regards
  • Now I'm really confused as the last post I commented on said to be sure and "fill out your link?" All that was there was the DoFollow icon which I cliked on...and ended up here!

    I know, I know...short-bus rider and proud of it.

    Help?
  • Tinu,

    I've never read your blog before, but I wanted to learn more about 'dofollow' and 'nofollow' links, and I was directed here from Google, for good reason IMHO.

    I agree with your policy for giving link love to commenters, and is a topic that is not explored very often by bloggers. Since I began blogging in April, 2007, I've learned first-hand how frustrating comment spammers can be on blogs.

    I'd like to install a plug-in like Linky Love on my blog that is hosted on Typepad. Do you know if it's compatible? The Linky Love site that you linked to above only mentions Wordpress. If it isn't, do you know of any good plug-ins that work with Typepad?

    Thanks,
    Craig

    p.s.
    What would possess someone to think their three-sentence comment on traveling to India will remain posted when the topic of the post is internet marketing strategy? I don't know.
  • Hi Again Tinu,

    I am glad to be here again :-)

    LOL thanks for sharing behind the scenes truth in SPAM world ...

    Yes spammers are notorious to post comments like that with offending sites in Links. Thanks to Open Source we have some awesome plugins to combat the spammers.

    Best,
    Mohsin
    PS. Thanks again for your response.
  • Hi again.

    LOL sorry i forgot to say THANK YOU for the post...

    maybe i forgot about this because of your anti-praise sentences in the Original Post :-)

    Wish you best and thanks again for sharing great tool,
    Mohsin
  • Hi Tinu,

    I was not aware of this comment plugin or policy before!
    I have had my blogs with nofollow policy as so much comment spam
    forced to do so....

    But plugin like this is awesome to enforce own moderate comment policies.

    I will be using it at many of my blogs soon.

    Best,
    Mohsin
  • OMG. What a tool. Seems like he wants to be blacklisted.
  • You know, Bape is a man of many words, who uses the exact same phrase on every dofollow blog he comments on.

    Subscribing to comments on many real discussions and you see this little stream of messages from the same person.
  • I tried submitting a comment earlier, but it blew off. Hope this one succeeds. I understand we accumulate links this way. Now what is your policy to our creating a signature link that gives more information about our website?
  • Well, Bape, I made this post because repeated abuse of what was Automatic DoFollow led to a situation where I switched to a plugin that removes no follow after a certain number of posts. :) Click the link below that says "DoFollow the Smart Way" for more details. Though you're right, there are people who do that.
  • Its ironic that many bloggers talk about this but then they actually use no follow.


    That's true but they may also be using Lucia's Linky Love plugin or something similar to reward frequent commentors. I thought Tinu was nofollowing everyone a few weeks ago until Andy set me straight and let me know that she was actually using Lucia's Linky Love plugin.
  • I appreciate that Julie, thank you. Come back anytime!
  • It is obvious that you all put a lot of work into this site! Thanks for the observations and comments. Keep up the good work!

    Julie
  • Hi Chino,

    Well they are Now... was talking about Before these rules came up. :) Very observant, though. And thank you for commenting.

    Tinu
  • actually, your rules is enough to detect that someone who will comment here aims to spam and not really comment.

    By letting the first name be the name on the comment, you eliminate anchor linking already.

    and most of all, number 3- you eliminate already those who do not read your post and just go fly away with a comment
  • Welcome Walter. :)

    Especially the DoFollowers need to have comment policies. I had a really loose one before and let some of the borderline stuff slide, but then it got out of control and I thought about it.

    And what I really needed was a way to reward regular commenters and be able to block people who make wack one-off comments without even reading the policy, and give people who comment in passing the chance to get juice. I don't care if someone tries to game my system as long as the comment they leave is meaningful and advances the conversation, I'm fine with giving them a free link.

    What Lucia's Linky Love allows us to do is ignore the one-off frivolous comments because they aren't going to get a dofollow link anyway. If they leave a bare minimum comment, they can get a bare minimum reward.

    So don't let it worry you Too much. Just keep engaging with the people who leave real, sincere, repeat comments. :) And greet everyone who leaves even one - that's part of how you tell the real commenters from the paid bots. Even when they engage you can tell it's fake. :)
  • I use dofollow on my blog. Lately though, I've been getting a lot of "nice post" or "I agree with what the last commentator said" comments. I'm moderating comments more than ever! I've started using Lucia's Linky Love, which gives you more control over the dofollow. It's gotten so bad, I'm posting a list of rules directly above my comment form in the hope of discouraging some of the non-meaningful comments.
  • Exactly. You want people to be rewarded for their comments. But then you have to deal with people who take advantage of that kindness.
  • Those are exactly the 3 criteria I use when weeding out spam comments. I think if someone is good enough to read your post and say something about it, then they deserve their link. This is the point of the whole dofollow movement - relevant comments get a link, spam sites do not. Very simple.
  • Well i appreciate this initiative, indeed is a good way to keep people making more comments and to seem your blog is more active.
  • No clue - you'd have to ask Lucia. I'd also Google "Drupal dofollow". And check the group at Bumpzee that Andy Beard runs. I don't remember how you edit Drupal templates as I haven't used one in about two years, however, if the templates are like Google's Blogger, then you should be able to edit out DoFollow from the html without affecting the functionality if you're careful, in which case you don't need a plugin.
  • Do you know if it works with Drupal? I'm converting my main site to a drupal powered one and incorporating a blog into it. I think it uses the blogger api.
  • Well Josh, I'm happy to help. And when you have questions, feel free to comment if you're feeling too lazy to email. :) We LIKES questions.
  • Josh Spaulding
    I like you more every day Tinu ;) I've been looking for that plugin, but was too lazy to email you. About to install it right now.

    Thanks!!
  • That's why I changed comment number three to Anonymous. The plugin is called Lucia Linky Love - I don't have the link handy but you can Google it. Moderation discourages commenting because the instant gratification and sharing aspect is gone. With Akismat and Lucia Linky Love (or other DoFollow plugins) I don't have to worry about being spammed with comments. Even if they get through, the NoFollow isn't effective until a certain point, so cheaters won't get followed anyway. :)
  • Comment #3 fits your spam profile by the way. I'm curious how you enforce the policy? It is a plugin (and where can I get it for blogger) or a manual enforcement? Right now I have my blog comments set to moderation so I can approve or reject them out of hand. I had to set it that way because I was deluged by commentors with links to their own competitive blogs in my city. Even though it was no follow, it was still bad form. I like the fact that you reward frequent commentors. Reward those that are rewarding you with traffic.
  • Word! And welcome. :)
  • Dofollow bloggers are doing you a favor. Show some manners and contribute something relevant. Pay for your link, if that's all your there for.
    I have actually become a reader of several blogs that I admit I only first visited because they were dofollow. Dofollow benefits the host too, by increasing comments. However, I certainly don't blame anyone for deleting posts that serve no purpose other than to get the link.
  • lol @ sorry for the praise. :) Welcome John. Feel free to share praising thoughts. I meant insincere pretend-praise in the name of "please publish my comment". Especially since they aren't moderated.

    See you again soon I hope!
  • Nice post. I like the spam catching reward for humans. Sorry for the praise :-) I totally agree that name should be a person's name (if they want to leave some worthwhile comment without a real name - then don't include a website either.

  • Hey Josh,


    You got caught in the spam filters, I just fished your link out. I know you said you were kidding, but to answer your question, you can say SEO Consultant, Josh Spaulding, vice versa, or even just Josh - that way you're getting your keyword in there and we can still start a relationship.


    Besides, wouldn't you rather increase your chances of having a blogger write a whole post about you with a link that you don't have to share?



    Of course, that last comment was more directed at the person you followed you. :) Anyway, thanks for coming by and I'm looking forward to browsing through your site.
  • No, that's actually borderline spam. I've edited your name to Anonymous. Please click the link below the comment box and read our comment policy. Or, you know, read the post that you're commenting on.
  • Wow i just stumbled upon your site, good info here! One thing i dont like is that i have to leave my name? i just want to leave the name of my site, thats a pretty well established practice.
  • Forgot to mention, the "read more" link is broken on this post.
  • And what if I have weird parents and they named me SEO Consultant? It's not fair :P

    Seriously though, it's a good idea to get a comment policy going. I've been pondering it for months now and just haven't gotten to it, but I think I will today.

    Nice blog by the way. I've been reading Andy's blog and participating in other dofollow blogs and just came across yours. I'll try to stop by a few times a week at least.
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