Well, that’s Google propaganda actually, and part of the problem. By accepting the “nofollow” as a standard, you grant Google permission to act according to that propaganda. Truth is, it seems Google knows very well how to value comment links these days. A better question is… if no one “nofollowed” links, then what would Google do? I bet it would be better for all of us than the nofollow status quo.

The downside is…. spammers try and drop links in meaningless comments. Handle that with moderation or a good plug in like WP_Spamfree http://www.hybrid6.com/webgeek/plugins/wp-spamfree

To disable nofollow in your version of WordPress, use the following plugin: http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/wordpress-15-plugin-strip-nofollow-tag-from-comment-urls/

The drawbacks: you have to monitor your blog comments closely. If someone posts a comment with a link to a website that is not reputable, it could devalue your site.

The benefits: people like myself will feel comfortable posting tidbits like this on your blog because they know they’ll get a bit of credit for it!

- James

Thanks!

Many people still don’t notice that you are blocking their links from counting in Google, because nofollow is invisible. But once you choose to do that (as you have) you not only take away some of the benefit that comes from commenting, but you show that you are actively and knowingly TAKING from your participants without giving back.

Yes, it’s tough to “dofollow”, but it’s not unmanageable. I think it is especially important to allow attribution links… if I comment meaningfully, why not credit me with my own link? Hiding your choice to restrict that credit leaves a bad taste…

In fact, a good amount of traffic to my site comes from surfers clicking on my link from blog comments. So that’s worth something!

In all seriousness, the web is an AMAZING tool that does in fact lead to business. I started feelancing 5 years ago. I joined a pretty big web development forum to get help on a .net application I was building (worked for the army at the time) and I saw all of these people talking about working for themselves using these skills. I always knew I wanted to work for myself and have my own company, entrepreneurship is in my blood, I just thought I would be flying private jets for people and on the side running a skydiving school with my husband in Monterey . That was a turning point for me. I loved developing as I really enjoy solving problems and just seeing that other people were doing it and were successful at it intrigued me and gave me the hope that I could do it as well. a year and a half ago, I took my freelance full time and left the corporate world.

I haven’t gotten gigs because I have commented on people’s sites, but I have had work come because I blog myself. It’s a wonderful world we live in right now where opportunities are abundant. You just need to grab them and hold on for the ride!

Once the funding (knock on wood) comes in then we can afford to hire some other help (so I don’t have to do as much software testing) and I can spend a bit more time in the blogosphere.

Welcome to our blog! I think you have it right. The issue is one of top of mind awareness. Any method that brings your firm or your name up in relationship with a potential solution to a problem is an important part of getting the gig.

Why not hire an intelligent intern who can stalk all the larger parenting blogs and point back to your blog / product?

-S