Dofollow, Nofollow, and Genuineness
Posted on 25. Dec, 2009 by Isaac Yassar in Blogging
Hi folks!
Recently, I read some articles about dofollow versus nofollow blogs. Note: for more information on the definition of dofollow and nofollow, click here.
I don’t judge which group is better. I just want to share my perspective, which is based on genuineness.
I’ve seen some people make their blogs dofollow, then some of them grow reluctant and stingy to give links to nofollow blogs. Because the ‘nofollowers’ will get dofollow links and the ‘dofollowers’ get nothing. Some also read and comment only on the same dofollow blogs.
With all do respect, I say that’s not genuine.
In my humble opinion, this debate on dofollow versus nofollow removes some essential parts of the genuineness of blogging. Why we blog in the first place? Why we read? Why we comment? Why we link?
Is it because of value or just about pagerank juice?
I believe all of us have some inner will to do those actions, our original reasons that are not influenced by the externals. I’d like to refer it as the genuine and honest reasons, which are usually noble and wise, not emotional. Something essential like value-based reasons.
When the external reasons, e.g. dofollow backlink (pagerank juice), start to take over and make us forgot our honest internal reasons, we’re not genuine any longer. We’re not our true self. We’re not as good as we should. I doubt it is wise to say something like:
“I don’t give a sh*t you deliver value or not, if you give none of my juice back to me, I ain’t gonna read you.”
My stand
Where’s my stand regarding dofollow vs nofollow? I’m neutral, I leave my WordPress just like how Matt and friends designed it in the first place. I trust them who made this great platform and give it away for free. So it is nofollow? I dunno, ask Matt 
I want to be honest with my blogging. I serve only my original reasons of reading posts and commenting. Regardless of dofollow or nofollow, if I want to read a post, I’ll read it; if I want to say something on comments, I’ll say it. I don’t discriminate any of the two.
But I am against the mindset that discriminates other decent bloggers (who deliver value) and makes rivals instead of friends for any reason. Making friends is always better for me.
My wishes
I wish that we bloggers, who act based on value, are one. Don’t let this pagerank juice stuff make us discriminate one another. Without discrimination, everyone is a friend.
I wish that some of the dofollowers who discriminate the other group never thought about dofollow stuff, and still befriend with everyone. It is the thought that makes rivals and divides because they took it wrong. They seemed like better persons in the past, because they used to have only friends, now they have fewer friends and more rivals. (note: not all of ‘dofollowers’ discriminate and make rivals, only some)
But that’s just me. How about you? Feel free to express your opinion. You don’t have to agree with me. Be yourself 
50 Responses to “Dofollow, Nofollow, and Genuineness”
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About Isaac Yassar
I am a part-time blogger who really loves blogging and WordPress.
I always want to be a better blogger and this blog is a journal for it. Read more on my about page.
Jordan Cooper
25. Dec, 2009
Isaac, you say that you’re “neutral”, yet the general tone of the post indicates that you believe dofollow blogs potentially diminish the value of comments. Wouldn’t you say then that in order to truly produce *genuine* conversation, you have to eliminate most, if not all aspects of personal benefit from the experience?
Isaac Yassar
25. Dec, 2009
Hi Jordan. Yes, I believe that the concept of dofollow blog can mislead someone to neglecting value and only focus on the pagerank juice. But not all of ‘dofollowers’ are misleaded, probably only some
Personal benefit is fine as long as it is still based on value. When value is not taken into consideration, it’s not fine IMHO.
sakthikumaran
25. Dec, 2009
Ya i accept your point, very nice tips to bloggers. keep it up. i like this post. now i clearly understand the concept of dofollow and nofollow..
Leif Andersen
25. Dec, 2009
1. You probably should put a link at the top of your post describing what dofollow and nofollow is for ignorant people such as me. (at least google exists
).
2. I completely agree. While it is great to get links back to my site, and go higher in google, it is still more important to write good article. (Although, it may be easier for me to say that as I am already the #1 in the first search I wanted to be #1 in (I got sick of none of my stuff coming up when someone searches Leif Andersen, now I do)).
Isaac Yassar
25. Dec, 2009
That’s a great idea! I’ll put a link to Google there, like “if you want to know what dofollow and nofollow, use Google” hahaha just kidding buddy. I’ll link to a nice resource there anytime soon.
Yeah, value is essential in blogging. As long as it’s not forgotten, it’s all good
MrCyberSmart
26. Dec, 2009
Isaac,
Thank you for your post and your honesty on the subject. I posted on this topic this week as well, possibly you are referring to my post as well. Let me ask you this: How long have you been blogging, and for how many hours per day? this will be my 7th year at FULL TIME blogging, and my FIRST year as a ProBlogger.
What does that mean? That means that for 6 years I blogged for little or NO money, even though I was putting in 8 to 10 hours per day, often 7 days per week. Why? Because I love blogging. I never got into blogging thinking I would make money. Many new bloggers today have only this intention.
My point is, the days of “free love” are long gone. When I first became a part of the new media, everyone shared links and stuff like that. But, we all soon figured out that blogging was hard work, and a business.
I take my blogging very seriously. Where, and why I spend my time is critically important. No link juice, no traffic, no comment… Too many places to comment that are hooked up to spend time on blogs with no CommentLuv, DoFollow, or something to share the Luv.
To many this sounds dry and cold. To me it’s all a part of the business. Thanks again for the post and be sure to spread the the CommentLuv and DoFollow your TopCommentators! Merry X
Isaac Yassar
26. Dec, 2009
Hi MyCyberSmart, thanks for your insightful comment. I appreciate it.
This year is my second year of blogging, usually about 8 hours per day. Same like you, I blog just to follow my passion. Those ads are just for fun.
Wow, 7 years is just like Darren Rowse of ProBlogger. He’s my favorite. I guess I’m his follower in some cases. He’s a true pro, and a nofollower
Yeah, the internet is not a utopia. What’s working there might not what’s really good. In the end, we got to do what we got to do to reach our goals. Different goals requires different acts.
Thanks for your suggestions, I am thinking about it
MrCyberSmart
26. Dec, 2009
Sure, if you are just blogging for fun- and nothing wrong at all with that- then many things are different. Still, not a bad idea to hook up some DoFollow CommentLuv for us other folks. “-)
Isaac Yassar
26. Dec, 2009
Top commentators plugin sounds good. But from what I’ve seen, CommentLuv seems cluttering. Link to homepage / blogpage also already have newest post, and plus some older ones. I dunno, I like cleanness and efficiency
Blogging Tips
26. Dec, 2009
Yes, I too look at the content irrespective of the attributes.
Isaac Yassar
26. Dec, 2009
Yeah, content is always the king. Or at least that’s how it should be
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
26. Dec, 2009
Hot topic at the moment this dofollow vs nofollow isn’t it. I honestly thought people put in the nofollow just to be stingy and they didn’t want to give their precious linkjuice away, sort of like trying to stay above their competitors, then I found out that wordpress has links in comments set as no-follow by default.
My question – if you have a DOFOLLOW blog are you essentially losing your OWN ‘juice’ or is more ‘juice’ just being created from thin air? If you are losing your OWN juice (ie your page rank could go down or something by having a dofollow blog) then I can understand why people would have nofollow on.
Otherwise I can’t see any reason why not to have a dofollow blog. I’ve heard that it’s bad for your site if you have bad links on dofollow so you’ll need to monitor what links are going out but that’s a small price to pay to give some people this link juice which everyone seems to love!
To me a links a link. Sure I’d like to get a bigger pagerank than 0 I have right now because it seems to hold a dollar value but it’s not my no1 concern by any means.
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
Isaac Yassar
26. Dec, 2009
Yup, it’s a hot topic now, especially on BlogEngage
Dofollow concept is good as long as we don’t discriminate the ‘nofollowers’. I’d probably make my own blog dofollow in future, who knows?
It is good if we have the intention to give juice to people. It makes us a better person. But it’s not very nice if we become a person who always ask for the same gift just because we give. We want to give doesn’t mean other people must give back to us. They have freedom in this matter, we got to respect that.
Give juice and ask for nothing in return, that’s the best. But not easy of course. I am also still thinking about it
Jordan Cooper
26. Dec, 2009
I have no problem giving link juice whatsoever (and frankly don’t care about PageRank in that regard) but the reason why I’m in the “nofollow” crowd is all due to the mentality of commenters themselves. It would be naive to think that people don’t take it into account when deciding on leaving a comment.
I want to have true organic discussion on my blog and I think clouding the true intentions of a commenter by passing link juice to all just corrupts everything. If that means there’s only 3 comments instead of 10, so be it. I’ll connect with those readers on a deeper level while everyone else is posting valueless crap on a hundred other blogs. Have fun with your short-term traffic spike – I’ll be building relationships.
It’s kind of pointless to discuss this issue a lot of times because we’re all preaching to the choir. It’s just that there’s a groundswell of “wanna-be” internet rockstars who take advice literally and think “developing a brand” is all about backlinks and one-line BS comments on A-list blogs. As far as my blog is concerned, they can go elsewhere.
Isaac Yassar
26. Dec, 2009
That’s a great point buddy, I respect it.
It’s the same reason why I still leave my WP just like Matt created it. I love genuineness of organic comments.
I want to have people who genuinely want to comment here, not those who only want to get some juice for themselves. When we decide to take a step on the dofollow land, that fact might change. Both kinds will be around us and sometimes it’s hard to differentiate between the two.
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
26. Dec, 2009
Yeah definitely. I’m very big on the ‘do something nice and don’t expect anything in return’. Jordan wrote an awesome piece on reciprocation on his blog and I have a blog post coming up about the whole feeling of having to reciprocate just because someone did something for me. The motion of doing something nice is noted but I’m not automatically going to do something nice back like RT an article unless I like the article or it’s quality or I think my readers will enjoy it.
As for the juice – did you know if you lose your own page rank ‘juice’ if you have a dofollow blog?
From my previous comment:
My question – if you have a DOFOLLOW blog are you essentially losing your OWN ‘juice’ or is more ‘juice’ just being created from thin air? If you are losing your OWN juice (ie your page rank could go down or something by having a dofollow blog) then I can understand why people would have nofollow on.
Isaac Yassar
26. Dec, 2009
As far as I know, if we link to ‘bad’ sites we can get penalty in term of pagerank. This ‘bad’ of course is based on Google’s opinion. For example, the people we dofollow-ly link now might be decent. But when they make some ‘mistakes’ in future, they can be ‘bad’. And we can be penalized for linking to the ‘bad’.
So being dofollow brings a potency of getting reduced pagerank
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
26. Dec, 2009
Ah ok, I see. Thanks for clearing that up Isaac.
So there is some risk involved in being a dofollow page. You need to monitor all links that you link to. Would love to know more about what google thinks is ‘bad’ might have to do some research. I wonder if bad is having a site that has 0 pagerank or if the ‘bad’ is… well something else.
Isaac Yassar
26. Dec, 2009
As far as I know: any paid attempt to flow pagerank and linking to attack sites. The attempt can be via paid review or ads. My old blogspot lost its PR 4 because of paid reviews
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
26. Dec, 2009
Interesting that google frowns upon paid ads. Most blog out there advertises private ads don’t they?
Keith
27. Dec, 2009
I believe it doesn’t matter the PR of the site you link to, and in case you didn’t know Google WANTS you to link out, if you keep the user/reader in the forefront of your mind, them clicking through to a link that may help them find more information helps the overall usability of the internet. Linking out is just as important as getting backlinks in my opinion….
Bad to me would be “spammy” or porn sites…
Isaac Yassar
27. Dec, 2009
Nice points buddy. Yeah, every internet crap is bad: attack sites, spammy sites, illegal download sites, plagiarizing sites, etc. But I’m not sure about porn sites because most of them are legit. I mean, why would Google be against something legit? They already have that Safe-Search.
Isaac Yassar
26. Dec, 2009
Yeah, they got to nofollow the links or otherwise it can be considered as paid attempt to flow pagerank. If Google finds them flowing pagerank via paid attempt, it won’t be good
dfian
26. Dec, 2009
whether the team from google so hated by the program paid review? why is that?
Isaac Yassar
27. Dec, 2009
Google want pagerank to be a mean to rank value and they think paid review with dofollow links ruin it. The flow of pagerank juice via paid review is based on money, not value. So they are against it buddy.
Jim Hardin
26. Dec, 2009
Hey Isaac, Definately a hot topic and for me a bit confusing. Honestly the reason I started blogging was in hopes to make a bit of money. Now not to become a millionare over night or anything, but to hopefully bring some additional income in hopes that someday that my wife could be the stay at home mom that she wants to be. Now over time my mind has changed. I really have to say I totally enjoy creating posts and getting comments from readers of my blog. Its not all about the money at all. If it comes great, but if it doesn’t than thats ok too. I really enjoy the interatction between me and my readers even as few as their are
Not too long ago I was reading about do follow and nofollow and I was a bit confused. Someone suggested to me to do the dofollow and I honestly thought it was a good idea. I thought I was helping people out and really thats all I want to do. I mean I don’t want people to just come to my blog and make a comment just because I am a dofollow blog, but I thought I was helping them out by being a dofollow blog. Now I am not sure.
Honestly I am not the kind of blogger that goes out searching for dofollow blogs. I don’t really even know how do to it. I just go to blogs that I enjoy reading whether they are do follow or not. If it is a post that is interesting, (like yours always are), then I read and comment for no other reason really but because I think that it is fun. Like I said at the beginning at first this blogging thing was to make money, but now it has turned into something I truly love doing.
Thanks for making this post. I am going to look into it further and then decide. I want to help people not hurt them. I want you to stay a reader to my blog. I don’t want to loose you because I am a dofollow blog. I want people to come to my blog because they enjoy reading it not just because I am a dofollow blog.
Thanks for making me think! Thats what it is all about!
Jim
Jim Hardin
26. Dec, 2009
I ment to say to that its not all about the money. If it comes great, but if it doesn’t thats ok too. I just really enjoy blogging
Isaac Yassar
26. Dec, 2009
You’re welcome Jim. And don’t forget, you have plenty of time to think about it. No need to rush in choosing the decision. And I think you have found your passion in blogging, that’s great. All successful bloggers have strong passion in their hearts. It’s only a matter of time before you reach your success in blogging
David | ilcantone.com
27. Dec, 2009
My blog is DoFollow but I’m not experiencing an important increase of comments. I’ve seen more spam comments. I’m considering if it is really worth the cost.
Do you think that dofollow can be counterproductive? I mean, with the rank of my post on google.
What do you think Isaac.
Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous year buddy. It’s been a pleasure to share with you this blogging experience in 2009
Take care.
Isaac Yassar
27. Dec, 2009
Hi David. I think dofollow can be productive and counterproductive, depending on the point of view. It’s just like everything, has good and bad sides. Nofollow is the same. There’s the good, there’s the bad.
I think we got to choose what’s best for us, our situation, and our goals. Different blogger might need different option.
Keith
27. Dec, 2009
First let me say that I started blogging to promote a business I had, and it worked beyond my wildest dreams.
Second, this is my first time have a “do-follow” blog (there really isn’t such a term it is slang for having removed from a link). So far, the results are amazing, yes I have to weed through a little more spam, but the quality of interaction in my blog that is only a week old is amazing. Granted, I am blogging about a popular topic now and didn’t used to, but the “do-follow” community of bloggers have legitimate passion and respect for others. The real point of a blog is to interact through comments, otherwise we would just write articles and shut off comments. Personally, if by my giving a little link juice to commentators entices them to keep coming back, then not only does it help them (links) but it helps my readers (more information on the topic) and it helps me in multiple ways (keeps me excited about having traffic/comments, I actually learn from the comments by getting more ideas for other posts, debates over topics, and even being corrected about a reference I may have made).
So to me, giving away the link juice is about being unselfish and thinking more about the readers and not whether or not it will hurt my rankings. After all, we should be writing for humans, not bots right?
Isaac Yassar
27. Dec, 2009
Thanks for your insightful comment Keith.
Yeah, in blogging, we got to do what we got to do. Because what’s working for other people might not work for us. In the end we have to make our own decision based on our own personality, situation, and goals.
BestofBlogger
27. Dec, 2009
MrCyber Smart, i am really suprised that you have really great experinces at that blog word. But i did not understand why you did not get money? So, in my opinion, you did something wrong. I read Blog Profits – Blueprint book of Yaro Starak and all of my blog thoughts, ?f you did not read this book, i recommend to read to all bloggers.
Do follow or not or whatever, all of these are SEO tactics, but not urgently important. I think we should focus on our blog topic and we should try to create unique content every day. If you focus on money or something else, you will get 14 years blog experiences, and you will not still get money.
I recommend Yaro Starak, read his book.
MrCyberSmart
27. Dec, 2009
Well, I must be doing something correct now because I’m making good money. How about you? Yes I know of Yaro Starak.
BestofBlogger
27. Dec, 2009
May you share your experiences and blog success?
I am new in blog world. I just write since 3 monts.
i have 3 years joomla experiences. Yes i got money with my joomla site. We were team,4 friends. Anyway, now i am alone and i begin my wordpress journey. 
MrCyberSmart
27. Dec, 2009
That’s what I do on my Cyber Smart blog. Happy to answer any questions. Stop over and say hey anytime! “-)
http://www.cybersmartwebmarketing.com/
As soon as I finish the e-book that I am writing, and my A to Z Blogging for Business video tutorial, I’ll have time to read the Yaro book. I get his updates in my inbox and watch his videos sometimes. Never thought about buying his book. Thanks for the tip! “-)
BestofBlogger
27. Dec, 2009
I will be waiting your book. Thank you..
EarningStep
27. Dec, 2009
i believe reader will looking for a blog with do follow rule , but true royal reader will looking for a great content and ignore any rule on the blog
Isaac Yassar
27. Dec, 2009
Good point my friend. Then it is back to us whether we want just the ‘reader’ or the ‘true loyal reader’. It needs different strategy to get them, I suppose.
BestofBlogger
27. Dec, 2009
That is why i am looking your earningsteps
David | ilcantone.com
28. Dec, 2009
Isaac, my blog is no longer DoFollow. I’ve changed it just right now. I want to compare the results. Besides, I’ve read that Google can penalize DoFollow blogs. I don’t know if it is true or not, but lately I’m having problems with some of my posts which google is not indexing properly.
Isaac Yassar
28. Dec, 2009
Nice step buddy, with that experiment you can find out which one is the best for you. Don’t forget to write a post about your experience after the change. I’m looking forward to read it
Dana @ Blogging Update
28. Dec, 2009
That’s exactly the reasons why many people say dofollow tend to attract spam. Yeah — it is because people will comment for sake of link not because of the article.
Isaac Yassar
28. Dec, 2009
So true Dana, nice one. Short but straight to the point. I like it
Shane
30. Dec, 2009
The whole point of Nofollow is to discourage spam in the first place, right? I haven’t experimented with setting comments in my blog to Dofollow, but some of them are already being bombarded with incredible amounts of spam, so I wonder if it would really make a big difference.
Having said that, if your blog focuses on content more than anything else, the readers won’t care if your comment-links are dofollow or not. They’ll read because they like the contents and comment because they want to participate.
Isaac Yassar
31. Dec, 2009
Hi Shane, very good points. I agree with you. The best way to blog is by using content-is-king approach. No tricks, just pure quality. That will bring a great experience of blogging for sure
James
31. Dec, 2009
As a photographer, I’m just one of a million, even if some of my work is good (I’m an amateur). If throwing a do-follow plug-in inspires a few more comments, then I’m all for it. Trouble is, I’m having a hard time STILL driving traffic. Ah, well, I’ll keep shooting, and we’ll see what happens.
Isaac Yassar
31. Dec, 2009
Hi James. It’s OK, I am sure plenty of people is like you. So you are not alone. If I were you, I’ll get some photography buddies. They can support your blog well. That’s how I kick-start this blog.
Check out my post about blogging buddies for more details on what I meant
Mathdelane
03. Jan, 2010
This post seemed to have gotten my attention but tell you what? If a genuine blogger “as he thinks he is” would not be scouring over the internet to find “dofollow” blogs to comment on if he really is after the conversation.
I hate to say that some, not to mention names, are simply passers by, and to that it is to my dismay that dofollow blogs are being dragged when in fact those who benefit simply never came back.
I’m glad that I’m a conditional “dofollow” but I certainly despise those who dragged them for their benefit yet backfires them when they no longer need it.
PR doesn’t necessarily bring-in traffic.
Isaac Yassar
03. Jan, 2010
That’s why Matt and friends make WP comments section nofollow, my friend.
If everyone keeps the comments section as default, none would have to wonder if a commenter is genuinely commenting or only sucking some PR juice. None would need to wonder if a PR juice sucker will come back again as a favor back or just suck the juice once, enjoy it, and then forget it.
In my humble opinion, such wondering thought is not very productive. The time and energy are better spent for something more productive and positive, like building valuable content, establish online presence, etc. But that’s just me